Ford Cortina MK1 (Works Race and Rally cars)

[zefarelly]

the first ever 'works' car was a 1200 delux . . . prepared by Jeff Uren for the Monte Carlo rally in 1962, I don't know anything else, and I think the car was pretty much scrap after the race!

[jwoch]

To clear up an old query. KPU 382C was not used by R Clark on the 66 RAC. That was his car for European events. No record of it doing any UK events. It was KPU 383C which was "later sold by Tom Walkinshaw". There is no connection between the two.

KPU 395C was sold from Boreham as an unregistered reshell of 383 and became HYG 52C in private hands.

[renodomi]

Does anyone know this car or help me to identify it. Lotus Cortina MKI 1965 chassisnumber BA74FT59431 en engine number 8K17605? The car can be seen on http://nl.autoscout24.be/Details.aspx?id=112617555.
Friendly, Dominique

[GBRM]

Originally Posted by jwoch

It was KPU 383C which was "later sold by Tom Walkinshaw". There is no connection between the two.

Has this car recently (in the last 2/3 months) changed hands?

[jwoch]

KPU 383C was last heard of in Japan. Don't know if it has changed hands since.

[jwoch]

The events which NVW 242C did were :
66 Monte, Elford/? (red)
66 Swedish, Elford/Davenport (red)
66 Alpine, Clark/Melia (white/green)
66 RAC, Clark/Porter (white/green)
66 Welsh, ?? (w/g) It was rolled on this event and was not seen again.

[simon drabble]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

Roger bought Simons half, and no, the V5 is different, I know the history of the specific car back to the late 80's/early 90's when it was a road car and used for sprinting and occaisional rallies I think, I'd have to ask the owner

Zef is correct Peter Lanfranchi (the previous owner, Tony's brother) put the number on and then took the photo's for its FIA paper's. The V5 which comes with the car has another number on it. The car has been reshelled at least twice to my knowledge but I think it is fair to describe the reg as merely part of its livery

[jonners]

KPU 386 is for sale at the Coys True Greats Auction on 05 December - lot 328

See below pasted from the virtual auction catalogue - there's a picture too but don't know how to paste it in

KPU 386C was one of a batch originally built for the Ford Motor Company competitions department at Boreham, carrying the registrations KPU 380C to KPU 397C. In those days complete cars were delivered to Boreham, where they were then dismantled prior to reassembly to suit their chosen role. Records show that KPU 386C left the factory with red paintwork and was delivered to Boreham in March 1965 and registered on the 1st June the same year. It is believed this car attended rallying legend Roger Clark's wedding as part of a fleet of works cars supplied by Henry Taylor, who was in charge of the competitions department at the time, one of a line of three red Lotus Cortinas.

KPU 386C was decommissioned in 1967 and was then used as a mule to develop automatic transmission for standard Cortina models under Ted Davis, chief engineer at Borg/Warner. Subsequently the car was owned by several members of the same family and an unbroken history of these owners is available, along with a copy of the green logbook. Also provided is a tax disc and MoT test certificate from 1979, the last year the car was on the road. KPU 386C has since been fully restored by Jeff Coates of Classic/Express Components in Keighley, Yorkshire, and is in very good condition. Finding the correct parts took several years to source, and the car is fitted with original gearbox with the correct period aluminium bell housing and tail shaft, original seats, and it also has the correct Lotus wooden gear knob and leather rim steering wheel. Seat belts are period red to match the trim. In addition, the car has two fuel tanks fitted for long-range use, as per original specification.

Works Lotus Cortinas in Monaco Red bearing the KPU works series of registration plates are very rare, and this particular car remains very original and in possibly better condition now than when it left the factory. Supplied with the car is a copy of the homologation papers for the European series in 1965, a V5 registration document, a MoT test certificate valid until November 2008 together with a portfolio detailing its restoration. This genuine works car is 'on the button' and eligible for all manner of historic race and rally events.

[tlracing]

Excellent! As my father worked on these cars at Boreham, it's always good to see one around

[a1topdog]

Can anyone confirm which , if any, of the KPU cars were originally A frame shells

[a1topdog]

Originally Posted by jwoch

KPU 395C was sold from Boreham as an unregistered reshell of 383 and became HYG 52C in private hands.

So does that mean that 383 is sharing the same chassis number as 395 / 52C ???

[overland]

Living in Boreham all my live i have many memories of the later cars being driven through the village especialy rs200s and sierras. When i helped my neighbour move in her shed i found a service rally plate from spa sofia liege she said it was her sons who worked at boreham in the 60s .I contacted him via email (he now lives in canada) and he emailed me photos of the car with the plate on it ,it was a mk1 cortina estate registration number 894D00. He said although not permitted these support cars were also modified as they used to have to get to the checkpoints asap.The photo shows the car parked in yugoslavia somewhere with a badly dented wing where he hit a dog whilst chasing to the next checkpoint. The photo was taken 1n 1963 and they were supporting 888DOO.They allowed me to keep the plate and combined with the photo makes a great piece of Boreham memrobilia.

[neilsunseekers]

does anyone have any info on 1850cc twin cams,did anyone use this engine in period ie before 1968?

[jwoch]

Originally Posted by a1topdog

So does that mean that 383 is sharing the same chassis number as 395 / 52C ???

The V5s do include the came chassis numbers. It has recently emerged that the transfer was recorded in the licencing authority records.
Photo evidence from the period shows 383 reg. number being carried by two different cars. Photos also show that physically it was 395 which became 52C.

As for the other question about A frame shells in KPU's. There has been no evidence produced to show that any of them had any A frame features. 383 certainly is not A frame, neither is 395 and I have worked on a number of other KPUs which were clearly only ever leaf spring configuration.

[morninggents]

Originally Posted by neilsunseekers

does anyone have any info on 1850cc twin cams,did anyone use this engine in period ie before 1968?

As far as I know 1850cc was never a 'works' engine capacity for twin cams, though 1840cc was a popular capacity for the BDA which came later.

Many club racers used large capacities for twin cams and '1850cc' could be achieved by using either 87mm bore with 77.62 stroke (1846cc), 90mm bore with standard 72.75 stroke (1852cc) or 85mm bore with 82mm stroke (1861cc).

The 82mm crank was popular and was being used in 1965/66 by Perdal in Newcastle on the Anglias and Cortinas they ran in club races at Croft and Rufforth. Norman Abbott also used this size crank for twincams in the Hillman Twincamifornian and his own Ford Escort with blocks that had the cylinder bores totally opened out and 90mm liners welded in. This was before Ford produced the BDG block which, to memory, was available in 87mm, 88.16mm and 90mm bores.

In answer to another post, I agree with Jwoch that none of the original KPU cars would have been 'A' frame cars. If there are any around now they are likely to be replica racers, not originals.

[Jost Wildbolz]

Why does nobody wright a historic book on the Lotus 28 cars MK1 and MK2 cars all race cars and rally cars so the interrested history is well dokumented..it would be very interresting but must be from an english man verified from Bob Dance ore Crow.......

[John Elwin]

Jost,

I have sent you a PM.

John Elwin

[Jost Wildbolz]

Dear John Elvin
I dont now how to answer You direkt but her is a link on the MK2 works cars
in my eyes they are as much interresting as the MK1's as there is much writing about the MK1 and not on the MK2 cars! Nobody know's that there where only 3 works cars and very few Rally-works cars.

here the link:

http://www.lotus-cortina.com/image.htm

Kind regrads Jost

[zombie289]

Not much is known about the KPU390 & 391C the AMR 66 cars. Were they the same spec as the Team Lotus Gp 5 cars?/ Also, didn't sir John drive the Falcon in the BSCC in 66?? So who drove the cortinas??

[John Turner]

It's probably worth recording that in the latest issue of Octane (dated May!), J.D Classics are selling someones collection of MK1 LCs. They are listed as:-

JTW 498C - raced by Jim Clark, Jack Sears & Sir John Whitmore
PHK 614D - BRM engine - raced by Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jacky Ickx, Piers Courage etc
BMK 723A - Bruce Reynold's Great Train Robbery car - very low mileage!
550 VAR - Jim Clark's own modified Road car

Big money for these I would imagine. I wonder if this is a recession driven sale.

[1558Lotus]

The collection belongs to JD classics, I was lucky enough to be shown round these cars last year, at a guess with current prices, £500,000 should just get you all 4.

[Jost Wildbolz]

Yes i also have seen this ad Works Lotus Cortinas for sale by DJ.
Also have made phoned.. but very high priced, but realy good historic cars.Would like to see them one day-England is so far for me.
Special the Jim Clark personel car is interresting-i think.
Never seen the ad again.
Somebody know more?
Did the cars sell?

How about again asking some english Lotus Cortina fans to write a book about the works Lotu Cortina cars MK1 and MK2....
There are so many car books about any make but no book about Lotus Cortina. I wounder......

Hope to here from many......


Jost

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by John Turner

166 RUR, driven in period by Jim Clark, Trevor Taylor, Dan Gurney, and Sir John Whitmore is now in the ownership of Chris Rea. It's featured in the January edition of Octane.

Now sold on. Contrary to a comment I read somewhere, this was simply because Chris Rea received an offer that he couldn't refuse, and I know this because I asked him about it, yesterday, at Snetterton.

[yukspeed]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Now sold on. Contrary to a comment I read somewhere, this was simply because Chris Rea received an offer that he couldn't refuse, and I know this because I asked him about it, yesterday, at Snetterton.

Hi John, a little help please, in the 70's myself and Bill Lumb, (who owned Escrick Service Station, Nr. Selby/York) worked on a Mk1 Cortina TC, KPU ++++ owned jointly by Rob Pilcher and Jim Clark, (not the JC), they did one rally a year , the Scottish Rally, we used to check gearbox over and re-weld the rear wings, which used to split on the top near boot opening. It was rumoured at the time to be ex Bengt Soderstromm!. Can you throw any light. Regards Yuk Hodgson.

[Alan Brown]

The two cars to which reference is made are “cousins” to the Mk 1. That is my justification for including them under the Mk 1 Lotus Cortina heading.

In 1964 Ford entered 3 Cortina GTs in the Liège-Sofia-Liège Rally, plus two Consul Corsair GTs as a form of mobile test bed. The Liège allowed ‘prototype’ cars; indeed in 1963 Henry Taylor finished fourth in a Cortina GT with a Lotus twin cam engine. The two Corsairs were fitted with the Lotus twin cam engine (twin Webers and about 130 bhp claimed). The Corsair used a 4.4:1 rear axle so that 100 mph comes at just under 6000 rpm.

“As the bodyshell-cum-chassis is really much like that of the Cortina, it has been possible to use the same undershields, Lotus Cortina bumpers at the front and the same wheels. The only major difference between the two cars is that the Corsair is nine inches longer on wheelbase and weighs more as a result.” (MN 27-8-64) Fibreglass boot lids and bonnets were used as a result.

Esko Keinanen and Anssi Jarvi had ETW 543B and David Seigle-Morris and Tony Nash ETW 542B. The latter car crashed (rolled) and was withdrawn to avoid upsetting the service arrangements of the main cars (the Cortinas). I believe the Finnish entry also retired.

According to the David Seigle-Morris story (http://www.world-of-cortina.co.uk/thefordyears.php and http://www.world-of-cortina.co.uk/thefordyears3.php ) he was given in 1965 a replica of the 1964 Liège car, a green one ETW 543B. May be the other real rally car repainted or the registration transferred to another Lotus Corsair.

http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...orrisSSL64.jpg