TinaInTheForest

2 speed was standard on the Lotus Cortina, but I've recently seen old adverts for the Mk2 in the USA where the cars are described as having 2 speed.

I was hopeful that the Aubergine 2 door was still around, tucked away awaiting restoration, but if it was rough at the end of the 90s, maybe not. The only other survivor that I know of for sure is also Blue Mink, and being made in July 1970, is probably the last one made. We've de-coded the oblong body tags now, which are definitive in terms of the cars being 2 door RHD 1600Es, and the two survivors have identical body tags, except for the sequence number. I learned a lot about 2 door 1600Es on here around 10 years ago, and I'd love to know what happened to the re-shelled Black RHD car...the one that was re-shelled into a Tawney LHD 2 door, and re-painted Fern Green, the original colour of the black car.

There are a few on my website at the bottom of the 2 door 1600E topic.... http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/?page_id=3704 I have about 1500 photos of it so far as it was when it was in Zimbabwe, when it arrived here, as it was being stripped down and now, of it's restoration. It's been in the bodyshop for 4 months now, and the repairs / fabrication on the shell have just been completed. It's kept all it's outer panels other than outer sills, front valance and bonnet! Unfortunately, the bonnet had flipped open at some time, bending it side to side and front to back. The guy doing the work is a magician, but even he recommended a better bonnet be found!

Just spotted this topic. I bought a 2 door 1600E from Zimbabwe last year, and it has an identical layout to that above from Mk2SAV. I understand it's called an 'Export Specification RHD' layout, used for cars with dual circuit braking and a servo, and that required a tower to extend it all forward to clear the carburettor. That in turn meant that the battery tray had to move to the left side, and that pushed the washer hooks away, and instead, the cars had a washer bottle, as per the Lotus Cortina. The indent in the inner wing is a giveaway for it being one of these! I believe that many 1600Es that went to Ireland, Malta and Cyprus had this spec engine bay, and when 1600Es were ordered specially for other markets that didn't make them there such as Australia, NZ and South Africa (and Zimbabwe!). Here's my engine bay when it was in Africa...a bit dusty, but littel rust as it turned out (a stroke of luck!)

No Hans, I'd love to see it. I've now found a right hand drive 2 door 1600E to keep the left hand drive car company! Not anywhere near as good condition as it was found in Zimbabwe, laid up on bricks for many years. But it's all stripped out now waiting to go to the bodyshop to be made beautiful again!! There's only one other known survivor, so I have to do the best job I can.

This is what I have for the Mk2 Lotus Cortina. Most of the changes were due to changes to the underlying base Ford model, rather than to the Lotus bits. The Lotus was based on the GT platform, and therefore most of the write-up is applicable to the GT. I will be adding left hand drive and market changes in due course. http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/?page_id=24 Mark

He put a load of photos up here showing what a good job he was making of it, but it looked horrible! Waste of a nice lhd 2 door 1600E really.

Hans, where did you find those items? They are superb, and must be very rare. Strange that they should 'nominate' a 2 door 1600E to celebrate the millionth export Cortina, the most rare of all Cortinas! Good to see your interest in Jochen's still evident as well. Dave, looks like standard suspension on the Maltese car, but still looks very good.

Looks good! Sitting a bit high for an 'E' but all Mk2 cars seem to be enhanced with a black grille and those spots!

Very interested Hans. They is so little information about these cars that every little helps! And I thought that Lotus Cortinas were rare!!

Thanks for the kind words Hans, but there is no effort as I'm enjoying every minute of putting it together. I started building the site over 7 years ago, thinking I'd have it finished within 5 years. Now, I still have more to go on the site than I have put on there already, but I may have it mainly completed in another 5 years! I had resisted joining Facebook for years, but joined up this time last year as I saw a number of 'groups' growing and getting really interesting. Each of the clubs has a group, and there are groups for saloon car racing from the 60s, rallying from the 60s, a couple of additional groups for Lotus Cortinas...etc. etc. My workload for the site really took off as I got in contact with many new folks. Some worked for Ford back in the day, some for Lotus (2 on the Lotus Cortina race cars), quite a few on race Lotus Cortinas in Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand...even Africa! I didn't want to join Facebook as I wasn't interested in what people had for their dinner, or what their dog dug up yesterday. I've found out that not many folks are, but there are many, from 50 to 90 years old, with a passion for old Cortinas, and they love talking about the cars! So my completing in 5 years is probably very optimistic now.

I think that’s CML238H. I have a photo of an Aubergine RHD 2 door 1600E with that registration, and the details seem to line up with the info on DVLA (Purple, 2004 tax due and April ’70 first reg). CML627H was discussed on here in some detail many moons ago. It was a black car, original colour Fern Green, and it was scrapped. A member on here (not a very popular one!) called ‘LuckyBlack’ bought the ID, and a LHD 2 door 1600E in Saluki Bronze. The mention of his name gets some folks excited!! It was converted to right hand drive (poorly) and given the ID of the car that had been broken, CML627H. There were loads of photos on here showing the ‘birth’ of the new car! It never got put back on the road, although it’s still registered as ‘SORN’ on DVLA. Magnus, if you have any details of lhd cars known in Scandinavia could you let me know, or point the owners at my 1600E 2 door bit on the Lotus Cortina website? I’m sure there’s still a lot to learn about these cars.

Colin, there has been a bit chat recently that there may have been a couple more rhd cars made than first thought, as someone spotted 3 or 4 of them lined up in the Ford car park in 1969 / 70. It could have been the 'CML' set, but that is a Middlesex registration number, and apparently the cars at Ford had a Chelmsford number, which makes sense. One has recently turned up in Zimbabwe as well, so when Ford said that 'a handful' of RHD cars had been made, it may well have been 8 or 10 cars rather than the 4 or 5 known about and discussed on here a few years back. Not many survivors though. If you're able to buy it give me a bell and I'll talk through all the bits to look out for, and what the chassis plate should have on it.

That would be great Colin. My bet is that it's CML238H, an Aubergine car last on the road in 2004. There were 3 other CML cars, CML627H having been scrapped, with CML30H and CML620H having gone from DVLA records altogether.

I've had a couple of them, and bought a little stunner earlier this year. All original panels, never been welded, lot of original paint and a near perfect original interior. It had been owned by a French family most of it's life as a holiday car in Spain, and stored there in an underground car park away from the sea...and salt air....since the 1970s. Since Photobucket went west I can't put any photos up, but I have put what I know up on my Lotus Cortina website here.... http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/?page_id=3704 I'd love to see photos of your car, and I'm collecting details of the cars to get an informal register of the 2 door 1600E cars. There seems to be very few left, with about 15 known cars in the UK and around Europe, and 1 rhd one definitely still alive in the UK. You can contact me via my website if you want to natter 2 door 1600Es...or Lotus Cortina of course! I'm on Facebook as well. with lots of photos on there of my car. Mark Kempson