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

I bought a '71 Mexico in 2008 that had Ziebart treatment from new. That was the stuff used before Waxoil came along. It had been sprayed everywhere, including everything under the bonnet. After 2 weeks, a few gallons of petrol and a lot of headaches, the original car was revealed underneath. Absolutely no rust, and the stuff had even preserved the looms and stickers like new. I wouldn't go that far nowadays, as you probably won't drive it on salted roads. But it is worth spraying some on every joint / overlap of panels, even if they are painted, in case there is a little unpainted bit that you can't see. You can wipe it all off afterwards leaving no sign, but it will creep into any unsealed joint. I have since restored the car back to new condition, and no bodywork was required, after 45 years, 90k miles and 14 years of all-year driving. The rust prevention stuff really does work! Mark

I'll bet it's one of these from the press pack.... http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/?page_id=36

I've been doing a lot of work on Mk2 'originality' lately, for the Lotus, but of course, most of it applies to all Mk2 cars. Have a look here.... http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/?page_id=32 and some stunning cars here.... http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/?page_id=2537 Any thoughts / changes / corrections just let me know. Interesting to see that the Mk2 is the most popular Mk on here according to the current poll. It is my favorite for sure, and I just found a photo of my Dad's old 1600E with me having just put 'L' plates on it...in 1971 !! I learnt to drive in a 1600E, passed my test in a 1600E and always had a Mk2 Lotus Cortina. I guess that means I like them. Mark

I think they should be hidden when driving along as well.....what a load of nonsense! Mark

Check all the earth points carefully, especially if you painted the engine! My Escort Twincam came with an aftermarket (expensive) pre-engaged starter that sounded like a chain saw going through metal when it was operating. The car runs 11.5 : 1 CR. I put a standard starter motor back on which sounded right but was very slow. I then cleaned up all the earth points, scraping paint off the engine block and chassis rails to get a good connection. I also ran an earth cable from one of the starter mounting bolts to the chassis rail, and with a new (standard) battery, the car starts easily now. Mark

Garm, try these guys in Australia for weather seals etc. I've only seen good reports about their products... http://www.scottsoldautorubber.com.au/Ford%20Cortina%20MKI%201963-7.htm For trim panels, Aldridge is probably the best place to visit.... http://www.aldridge.co.uk/index.cfm Mark

Here's a nice writeup on the Willment vs a Lotus Cortina with the specs of the car. The Willment would give the Lotus a good run! Mark

That didn't ring true with me either Dave, but when I looked it up in the parts book (Sec 14, p 48, part no. 16079) there is is. For the Lotus only, until June '67, two 'Company Name' badges. I must confess that I'd never seen a Cortina with those badges on both wings. The only thing I can think of is that the Lotus badge was on both rear wings, so some Ford marketing bloke got a bit shirty and said that the Ford badge should also be on both (front) wings! They had never seen a Mk1 Lotus Cortina in the Dagenham factory with it's Lotus badges on, so maybe this just didn't look right going down the GT line with the name Lotus more prominent than Ford. Mark

I was sent an outstanding presentation a while back which I've just put up on the website. It was created by the Special Projects group in Dagenham early on in 1963, and describes the purpose of the Lotus Cortina, and the solutions implemented to turn a 2 door 1200 standard car into something that could win races in the production car race series of the day. The Special Projects group shadowed the Lotus Team who were responsible for designing the car, but of course Ford had make many of the special components needed for the car, and had to put their name on it at the end of the day. The team gave the presentation to a Ford engineering conference in Dearborn, USA in spring of 1963. It is the most detailed analysis of the car I've ever seen, going into suspension and bodyshell designs and changes, stress and bending analysis, as well as the more obvious engine, brakes and general performance. It blew me away when I saw it! Note that they talk about the 'GT' and the 'Special', where 'GT' means the standard road Lotus Cortina, and the 'Special' is the full blown race version of the Lotus Cortina. http://www.lotuscortinainfo.com/?page_id=2704 Mark

Thanks Hans, we are getting there. It's all thanks to the many Lotus Cortina enthusiasts out there who have collectively a pretty complete knowledge of the cars, and are happy to share it. Pulling it all together in one place just makes it all a bit more useful and understandable, and the more that goes up there, the more interest is developed and the more information gets uncovered. Keith, I only know of two more of those Lotus badges...Jeff Fenton has one and I have the other! I do remember you saying that you found a small hoard of them, so that may well be all there is. I've just put an amazing presentation on the site given in spring 1963 by the Ford 'Special Projects' group in Dagenham to a Ford engineering conference in Dearborn, USA, describing what the Mk1 lotus Cortina is all about is considerable detail. I'll put it up as a separate topic so it doesn't get lost in this one..,...Mk1 boys are going to love it! Mark