Ford Lotus Cortina Group 5

Wherever the small British sports car manufacturer Lotus appears, there is usually music in it. Music in the form of plenty of power and well-tuned suspensions to experience a lot of driving pleasure on the racetrack. So it is the sort of music every car enthusiast loves. In the 1960s Ford requested a sporty version of their new Cortina sedan at Lotus and the team under the direction of founder Colin Chapman gladly followed this request and debuted the Ford Lotus Cortina in 1963. This became one of the most successful touring racecars of all times. One of the reasons for the success was the newly developed light metal cylinder head with two overhead camshafts by Harry Mundy for the well-known Kent four-cylinder engine from Ford. Thus, the performance climbed to 106 hp in the required street version for homologation, while in racing trim even more power was available. The production took place in the Lotus factory in Cheshunt, whereby Ford delivered the body shells of the Cortina and Lotus was responsible for all further changes, technical components and completion of the vehicles. In comparison to normal Cortina models, the Lotus variants got doors and hoods made from aluminium instead of steel.

Not only various private drivers, but also the factory itself used the Ford Lotus Cortina in motorsport. In 1966, three vehicles were created according to Group 5 regulations for the British Saloon Car Championship, a forerunner of today’s BTCC (British Touring Car Championship). In contrast to today, touring cars back then had to be officially registered for the road, so they had to meet in addition to race regulations also those of the registration authorities. One of the three works cars received the British licenseplate ‘PHK 614D’ and ran from March 1966 on race tracks. First, none other than Jim Clark drove it in a rain race at Oulton Park. During the year, Peter Arundell and Jacky Ickx followed him behind the steering wheel.

In June 1966 the car received an engine upgrade from carburetors to a fuel injection system at BRM. This kept the car competitive, which was underpinned by good rankings by drivers like Sir John Whitmore, Peter Arundell and Graham Hill. With a class victory in addition to the second place overall, the car finished its works career at the Race of Champions in Brands Hatch in 1967, but was used in the remaining season 1967 and in 1968 by the private team A G Dean Racing Ltd. At the end of 1968, the Lotus Cortina was sold to private racing driver Peter Parnell from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), who used it for races in his home country. Then the vehicle belonged to the collector Dave Hannaford in Zambia and finally to two other owners in South Africa, before it was brought back to Great Britain in 1997 by the former race mechanic of Jim Clark, Cedric Selzar. He did some TLC to mechanical parts, but retained the original substance as much as possible.

Now this Ford Lotus Cortina Group 5 with a probably unique racing history is on offer at the very first Silverstone Auction event during the Autosport International in Birmingham at January 12, 2019. The experts expect a hammer price of between 180,000 and 200,000 GBP.

Images: Silverstone Auctions, Red Marlin