Would anyone like to help me think this one out....
Happy to.
I've run across a guy who has two complete British Ford Cortina's,
a '64 and a '65, with almost enough body part to build another
shell. One car runs, but with a '71 or '72 Capri motor. There
is one original builder engine with quite a few spare parts.
Everything "needs work" but it would be easy to pull together
one good car. All for only $800. Would the effort be worth it?
Maybe not for just any old Cortina, but if someone could find
one of those (much talked about in the last few days) magic
Lotus twin cam heads..... You could pull a Mr. Chapman and
build a good ol' Lotus-Cortina "homologation special"!
I recommend against it, for several reasons, some practical
and some ethical.
This is were I need help...
Where might you find one of these magic heads? Once found,
how much might it cost? Is it a true bolt on swap or was
there something more to it?
The heads are available, not cheap. They were about $1000
back when I had my Lotus-Cortina, and that price would have
bought a head that would probably have needed at least half
that much work to make it run properly.
Second, you're probably better off with the single-cam
engine, particularly if it's a 2-liter. You'll have much
better drivability, crisper throttle response, and lots
less trouble. You can still put twin Webers and a Cosworth
setup on it -- this is the engine used in Sports 2000 and
FF2000 racing. Even the 1600cc engine isn't a bad choice --
ask any Seven owner.
The Cortina has many good points. It handles fairly well,
it's very space-efficient, it's so ugly it's cute, and it
is very light for its size.
If the motor comes together OK, what about the rest of
the car? I know about the lowered suspension, wider wheels,
Lotus emblems, and the light weight body panels, but was
that it?
No. For one thing, *real* Lotus-Cortinas were built at
Cheshunt, by Lotus, and are genuine. Now sure *you* are
an ethical, upstanding citizen, but what if you sell the car
to someone less honest than yourself? What's to keep him
or her from selling the car as an authentic Lotus-Cortina
to some unsuspecting buyer? (Now, if the buyer was a
car speculator, I'd say more power to you, but there's a
good likelihood that the buyer would be a real British
Car enthusiast.)
Now, for the technical stuff: The rear suspensions were
quite different, and yes I said suspensions. Through 1966,
the Lotus-Cortina used a coil-spring suspension with two
radius rods and a centrally located A-arm. The apex of the
A was bolted to the bottom of the differential, which was
cast out of a lightweight alloy. Unfortunately, the twisting
of the car caused the differential cover to break, usually
about four laps before the end of the race. They replaced
this setup with the leaf spring rear suspension out of Ford's
own Cortina GT, a rally version which used the radius rods
and semi-elliptic rear springs. The Lotus had one more leaf
in the springs than the GT, though.
Up front, the brakes are different, the springs are different,
the steering is different, the sway bar is different, and the
shocks are different. The Lotus version also came with two
different gearboxes; the better of the two comes from the
Ford Corsair V4GT. The Corsair 'box has closer ratios and
shifts very nicely.
The lightweight body panels were used only through 1965. All
cars with the leaf springs used steel everywhere. (Note that
the aluminum panels were only used in the doors, bonnet, and
boot lid; it was not a special ally unibody like the Alfa GTA.)
The interior is also different. You can't get the original plastic
dashboards any more, so that's something you can't duplicate unless
you kill a real Lotus. There are also some minor differences in
the rear fenders. That's one way to tell a real Lotus from a
fake.
For the record, all Cortina-Lotuses made between 1963 and 1967
(which were actually 1966 models), the ones using the original
body panels, are called Mark I. The 1965 and '66 versions, with
the Corsair gearbox, radius rod suspension, and steel panels,
are called Mark I Series 2. The Mark II came out as a 1967 model
in Britain, and looked more like an Opel Kadett. It was built
at Dagenham, in the Ford factory, while the Mk Is were built
in Cheshunt, at the Lotus works. Ford's build quality is said
to be higher than Lotus', but I prefer the looks of the Mk Is.
Kirk (just trying to save some old turkey of Bcar) Buecher
Saving a British car and creating a forgery are two very
different things. The price isn't there yet, but this is
no different from taking a stock '65 Mustang fastback,
slapping on blue stripes and a Holley, and calling it a Shelby.
(Or putting a 396 into my '65 Chevelle and calling it a Z-16...
which is worth about six times what my nice, clean, original
'65 SS goes for, and which is what I thought someone was
doing when my SS was stolen.)
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