Vehicle Description
The Lotus Cortina offered here is one of only two Group 5 works
cars that were built by Lotus for the 1966 British Saloon Car
Championship. Car number E14 LS was constructed in March 1966,
registered PHK614D and immediately assigned to Jim Clark for use at
Oulton Park on 2nd April, although the meeting was disrupted by
poor weather. The next outing was at Snetterton a week later where
fellow Formula 1 driver Peter Arundell took the car to a 2nd in
class and 5th overall finish in the Archie Scott Brown Memorial
Trophy. Over the course of the next month two more 2nd in class
results would be achieved at Goodwood and Silverstone with Arundell
and Jacky Ickx driving. In May the car was used as a spare car at
Crystal Palace and in June the engine was�converted to fuel
injection by BRM. The first race with the new engine was the Grand
Prix support race at Brands Hatch on 16th July where Sir John
Whitmore achieved a 1st in class victory and 4th overall finish.
The car was back at Brands Hatch in August for the Guards
International meeting and on this occasion Peter Arundell placed
3rd overall and 2nd in class. Arundell was the driver for the last
two races of the season at Oulton Park and at Brands Hatch where he
managed a class win on 30th October. The achievements of Arundell
in PHK614D were enough to secure him 3rd place in the British
Saloon Car Championship and Team Lotus finished 1st in the Lombank
Entrants Trophy.
The first race of 1967 was to be the last works event for the car
but it finished its Team Lotus career on a high with Graham Hill
delivering a 1st in class and 2nd overall result in the Race of
Champions at Brands Hatch on 12th March. This was not the end of
the car's competition career, however, and by that summer it was
back in action for A G Dean Racing Ltd driven by Brian Robinson. On
16th September Robinson finished 2nd in class at Oulton Park in the
International Gold cup and bettered this with a class victory on
October 22nd in the Guards Motor Show 200 at Brands Hatch. The car
was retained by Robinson and Dean for the 1968 season and made
eight competitive appearances achieving top-three class finishes in
seven of them and as a result Robinson finished the championship in
a very respectable third place.
At the end of the 68 season the car was sold to Peter Parnell, who
appears to have driven it in the Bulawayo 3 hour race in Rhodesia,
and then to Dave Hannaford who emigrated to Zambia, taking the car
with him. The car subsequently moved to South Africa with its next
owner, Hannaford's friend and business partner Nevile Halbergh, who
kept the car until 1983 when he sold it to Jannie Van Aswegan. It
remained in Van Aswegan's ownership for 14 years when it was
purchased by Cedric Selzar, Jim Clark's race mechanic, and
repatriated to the UK where it was sympathetically restored.
Purchased by JD Classics directly from Selzar in 2005, the car is
today presented in race ready condition and retains its original
shell and all the period race modifications to the suspension and
the engine. Given its exceptional rarity, competition successes and
association with two World Champions it offers a fantastic
opportunity to acquire one of the most significant sports touring
cars of the 1960s.
Please contact us for further details, price on application.�
In 1963 one of the great collaborations in British Motor
Manufacturing took place when Lotus Cars and Ford of Britain agreed
to build a highly developed version of Ford's latest saloon. The
name for the new car was initially termed the "Consul Cortina
Developed by Lotus" but quickly became known simply as the "Lotus
Cortina". The partnership suited both parties as Ford were keen to
strengthen their reputation with exposure to motorsport and Lotus
were keen to replace the expensive Coventry Climax engines used in
their cars with a new twin-cam engine based on the Ford Kent
design. To meet homologation requirements 1000 cars were required
and so production of the new Lotus Cortina commenced in earnest at
the Lotus Cheshunt plant with Ford providing the 2 door saloon body
shells and Lotus undertaking the necessary mechanical and cosmetic
changes.
The key mechanical differences between the Lotus Cortina and its
undeveloped cousin included an uprated 1,557 cc, 105�bhp engine, a
Lotus Elan close-ratio gearbox and highly modified suspension,
which included a thicker anti-roll bar, shorter struts and forged
track control arms at the front and coil springs and an A-bracket
arrangement at the rear, although these were found to be unreliable
and were replaced with leaf springs in 1965. To optimise weight
reduction and re-distribution, aluminium alloy was used in the
gearbox and differential casings and the battery was relocated to
the boot. In some early production cars alloy panels were also used
for doors, bonnet and boot although they were later restricted to
cars built purely to competition specification. The Lotus Cortina
also benefitted from new 9.5�inch servo-assisted Girling front disc
brakes and an 8.0�inch diaphragm-spring clutch in contrast to the
coil-spring clutches fitted to the standard Cortina range. Interior
modifications were limited to a centre console designed to
accommodate the new gear lever position, different seats and a
modified dashboard. Other exterior changes included the factory
colour scheme of white with a green stripe and the fitting of front
quarter bumpers and discreet Lotus badges.
All sales and marketing work was left to Ford but the achievements
of the cars on the race track soon provided ample public relations
material to support Ford's sales efforts.
The Lotus Cortina's first competitive outing was in September 1963
in the Gold Cup race at Oulton Park, where the Team Lotus cars
finished 3rd and 4th behind two Ford Galaxies and beat the
3.8-litre Jaguars, which had been so dominant in saloon car racing
over previous years. Over the course of 1964 and 1965, Lotus
Cortinas became a familiar sight at race tracks around the world,
often delighting fans with their characteristic three-wheeled
cornering, a consequence of soft rear suspension and a hard front
end. Notable successes in 1964 included Jim Clark's British Saloon
Car Championship and a class win for a Boreham-built car in the
Tour de France. In 1965 the A-bracket rear suspension was replaced
with a more conventional leaf spring arrangement, which
significantly improved reliability and delivered yet more success
for the marque including�Sir John Whitmore's�European Touring Car
Championship and a class win for Jack Sears in the British Saloon
Car Championship. 1966 saw the introduction of a number of new FIA
racing categories including Group 5 for Special Touring Cars, which
permitted many more modifications than those allowed in Group 1 and
Group 2 cars. When Group 5 regulations were adopted for the British
Saloon Car Championship, Team Lotus accordingly built two new cars
to compete in this category, each featuring a new wish bone front
suspension, cast magnesium road wheels and, eventually, fuel
injected BRM/Cosworth-tuned race engines which could develop
180�bhp at 7750�rpm. This improved handling and power output helped
the Cortinas stay competitive with the larger-engined Mustangs and
Galaxies and by the end of the 1966 season Team Lotus had won the
manufacturer's title with 8 class wins, many at the hands of the
great Jim Clark. In the European Touring Car Challenge, Sir John
Whitmore, driving a similar Alan Mann car, scored another four
wins, which secured him the runner-up position.
Competition History
1966
2nd April:��������
Track: ������������ Oulton Park
Driver: ����������� Jim Clark�
8th April:���������<...for more information please contact the
seller.
