Lotus Cortina

[Imbiber]

I saw a Mk 1 Lotus Cortina being driven through a local town today. My father's friend had one when I was about 15. Back then it was so cool. 120hp ?

[swill453]

My boss had a Lotus Carlton, 377 bhp, but that was in the early nineties.

Scott.

[Mike4]

I saw a Mk 1 Lotus Cortina being driven through a local town today. My father's friend had one when I was about 15. Back then it was so cool. 120hp ?

My mate had one back when I was 17, he was 18. He used to drive about in it like a total granny, terrified of it.

Soooooo disappointing when the rest of us were tearing about in our old Mini Coopers, Spitfires and MG Midgets. Looking back now though I'm reasonably sure his parents bought it and paid the running costs, which would explain why he was such a wuss about driving it. Terrified of bending it and incurring parents' wrath, I suspect.

[88V8]

I saw a Mk 1 Lotus Cortina being driven through a local town today. My father's friend had one when I was about 15. Back then it was so cool. 120hp ?

Yes, only 105/120bhp depending how one measures it, but then it only weighed 1750lb. Very unlike today's bulbous barges.

V8

[Lootman]

A bit Essex, innit?

Back in the 1970s I had a Vitesse for a while and got enough stick for that, let alone a Cortina.

[Mike4]

I saw a Mk 1 Lotus Cortina being driven through a local town today. My father's friend had one when I was about 15. Back then it was so cool. 120hp ?

Yes, only 105/120bhp depending how one measures it, but then it only weighed 1750lb. Very unlike today's bulbous barges.

V8

I suspect my Lotus Elan with the same engine weighed about half that....

[Gerry557]

When I test drove a Lotus Elan sprint, I loved the way it cornered at speed. I can't say the same of the Cortina Mk5 I had.

I did once think it's stereo had been stolen as I drove away from the supermarket. Then wondered why they had fitted an old radio instead. That's when I realised it was someone else's car.

I could not return that car to the same spot, sorry if you were the owner I tried but found my identical car a few rows back. I think any key shaped object or tennis ball opened them.

A friend had a Lotus Sunbeam. It seemed to be the thing to do a while back getting Lotus to add its name and make some alterations. I wonder what the strangest one was.

[bungeejumper]

Way back in the sixties, the teenager across the road won a Hillman Imp, in full rally trim, in a magazine competition. It looked brilliant, and he couldn't wait to take it out for a bit of a test drive. Five days later, he'd rolled it, and that was the end of that.

Sic transit gloria mundi. Pretty sic imp, too.

BJ

[DrFfybes]

I'm more impressed that he risked getting it wet or salty.

As with most fast Fords, they have become scarily collectable.

[BigB]

I'm more impressed that he risked getting it wet or salty.

As with most fast Fords, they have become scarily collectable.

I had a Mk2 Vitesse for a short while...

Never had a Capri, but would now quite fancy a 3.0S or one of the last 2.8i ones - anyone remember Jackie Stewart doing his progressive driving feature around Brands Hatch with a tennis ball in a bowl on the bonnet - didn't he use a Capri 280 (the final limited edition)?

[Mike4]

I'm more impressed that he risked getting it wet or salty.

As with most fast Fords, they have become scarily collectable.

Many years ago my wife had a rusty old convertible Escort 1600i. It just scraped through its MoT and was guaranteed to fail the next on rust so as TonyReptiles was visiting at the time looking for his first narrowboat, a plan was hatched for his mate the nocturnal graffiti artist to come and decorate it as he saw fit all over with street art.

The results were AMAZING and the car got endless attention, shouts and waves and whistles driving it about. Everyone loved it. Next year, Tony our mechanic said "let me put it through the MoT one more time, see what happens". What happened was Tony did a judicious bit of welding and the MoT bod was also determined to get it passed and between them they kept it on the road. YAY! And this was repeated for about a further 12 years, amazingly.

Anyway the point is that before it was finally declared unrepairable, the universal appreciation became peppered with abuse from people saying what a disgrace it was for us to have done that to such a rare car (which it wasn't when we did it). However instead of scrapping it, we sold it with no MoT for some insane sum like £4k. Way more than we paid for it.

[redsturgeon]

"Wish I had a grey Cortina
Whiplash aerial, racing trim.
Cortina owner, no-one meaner
Wish that I could be like him...

My brother had a Mk1 that was painted in the Lotus racing trim but unfortunately had a standard engine.
My best friend had a Mk2 1600E, that was a nice motor.
My first company car was a Mk4 Cortina, built in Koln, it was a great car, never missed a beat in 80,000 miles. Fun round roundabouts in the wet though.

John

[Watis]

"Wish I had a grey Cortina
Whiplash aerial, racing trim.
Cortina owner, no-one meaner
Wish that I could be like him...

My brother had a Mk1 that was painted in the Lotus racing trim but unfortunately had a standard engine.
My best friend had a Mk2 1600E, that was a nice motor.
My first company car was a Mk4 Cortina, built in Koln, it was a great car, never missed a beat in 80,000 miles. Fun round roundabouts in the wet though.

John

Although I'm probably not your brother, I too had a standard Mk1 Cortina that had been painted to look like a Lotus Cortina by a previous owner. I wonder if it was the same vehicle?

At least twice I was aware that it had caught the attention of the police in their car. The first time it got a hard stare until they realised it wasn't the genuine article. On the second occasion a police car kept pace with me in a service road parallel to the main road for a while. That was at night, so it probably took longer to suss that it wasn't a genuine Lotus Cortina.

Happy days!

Watis

[redsturgeon]

"Wish I had a grey Cortina
Whiplash aerial, racing trim.
Cortina owner, no-one meaner
Wish that I could be like him...

My brother had a Mk1 that was painted in the Lotus racing trim but unfortunately had a standard engine.
My best friend had a Mk2 1600E, that was a nice motor.
My first company car was a Mk4 Cortina, built in Koln, it was a great car, never missed a beat in 80,000 miles. Fun round roundabouts in the wet though.

John

Although I'm probably not your brother, I too had a standard Mk1 Cortina that had been painted to look like a Lotus Cortina by a previous owner. I wonder if it was the same vehicle?

At least twice I was aware that it had caught the attention of the police in their car. The first time it got a hard stare until they realised it wasn't the genuine article. On the second occasion a police car kept pace with me in a service road parallel to the main road for a while. That was at night, so it probably took longer to suss that it wasn't a genuine Lotus Cortina.

Happy days!

Watis

I sold it on his behalf in Birmingham in 1978

[Watis]

Although I'm probably not your brother, I too had a standard Mk1 Cortina that had been painted to look like a Lotus Cortina by a previous owner. I wonder if it was the same vehicle?

At least twice I was aware that it had caught the attention of the police in their car. The first time it got a hard stare until they realised it wasn't the genuine article. On the second occasion a police car kept pace with me in a service road parallel to the main road for a while. That was at night, so it probably took longer to suss that it wasn't a genuine Lotus Cortina.

Happy days!

Watis

I sold it on his behalf in Birmingham in 1978

I owned mine between 1975 and 1977.

Watis

[redsturgeon]

A sheep in wolf's clothing.

[Mike4]

A sheep in wolf's clothing.

Whereas I used to call my first car (an Austin A35), a sheep in sheep's clothing!

[quelquod]

My first Ford was a Mk III Zephyr 6 after a few Austin and Hillman bangers. A bit of a barge looking back but nippy and I used to fairly rocket around in it on the empty roads of the day. Come 1971 and I bought a Triumph TR6 - nothing special by today’s turbo everythings but great in its day - wish I had it still! Something that sticks in my mind from back then was how well they both cut through snowfalls even with their RWD on their narrowish crossplys. Not like todays models which seem to get stuck in anything over an inch of the white stuff.

[airbus330]

One went to auction with Hampson last week. Estimate 34-36000. Apparently reached 27k. General feeling was that the price was disappointing.

[DrFfybes]

One went to auction with Hampson last week. Estimate 34-36000. Apparently reached 27k. General feeling was that the price was disappointing.

These are very popular in entry level Classic racing, but I guess even the people with that sort of money might be thinking twice about spending £40k on a weekend hobby or school fees.

One thing that is happening is the cycling of "classics". The early stuff - pre war and pre 1950s is becoming less popular except for the best examples, the people with the skills and inclination to maintain and run them is dropping.

But things come in cycles, the 50-somethings of today with their kids moved out don't want grandad's Morse jag as a midlife crisis, they want their cool neigbours' Bodie and Doyle Capri or RS escort.

But prices do seem to have 'corrected' for run of the mill stuff, look at Brightwells results from last month https://www.brightwells.com/timed-sale/5369 where there were some surprisingly low prices - the Focus ST500 and BMW M3 leap out as being well under what they are in the classifieds, and some of those MGs and midgets are a virtual giveaway.

Paul