Here in the USA, the factory race cars that got the big headlines back in the 1960s were mostly the drag-package cars. Relatively stripped down and bolstered with equipment to aid in straight-line acceleration, they were the pieces to have for the demanding performance driver. Over in Europe, the racing favored the road course rather than the drag strip. Seeing an opportunity to sell some cars and boost their performance image, Ford teamed with Lotus to produce one of the hottest little cars of the 1960s: the Lotus Cortina.
The program started when Ford approached Lotus after hearing that it was working on a twin-cam version of the venerable Kent four-banger. That engine was a stalwart powerplant for Ford in its small European cars, and had the good architecture to benefit from a better breathing cylinder head and other performance upgrades. Ford came to Lotus and wanted to have enough of the hotter engines installed into the Cortinas to qualify them for competition in FIA Group Two competition.
That would put them in the same class as the big road-racing Galaxies and Mustangs later on in their life. Shockingly, the little Cortina, was up to the task of hunting both of them down by the time that the later, more refined versions were released.
The arrangement was simple between Lotus and Ford. Ford shipped bare bodies to Lotus and had complete control of the sales and marketing, while Lotus did the rest, which included installing the motors, modifying the suspension, and doing some exterior upgrades. The exterior upgrades were nearly imperceptible to the untrained eye and included lightweight doors, trunk lid, and hood. The rearend centersection was swapped for one made of aluminum instead of iron. The same went for the transmission, as the Elan piece was in an aluminum case, saving a bunch of weight from the Ford factory lump.
The motor installed was a 105hp, DOHC version of the Kent ‘banger and the transmission was from a Lotus Elan. The Elan transmission was super close ratio, actually too much so. Drivers complained that in street driving the car was not a lot of fun.
As you’d expect in a road racer type of car, the suspension got loads of upgrades. A strut change happened up front and the wheels were upgraded to 13-inch steel units, but the big changes were set for the rear. Lotus pulled out the leaf springs and replaced them with coils and also used a large A-shaped bracket to locate the rearend. The outer portions of the A picked up the old trailing-arm slots.
All these upgrades to the street version were meant to directly translate into the racing version that Ford could use to “win on Sunday and sell on Monday.” To their delight, the cars worked as well, and in some cases even better, than they could have imagined. In their first-ever race back in 1963, the two factory Cortinas finished in positions three and four, trailing only the mighty Ford Galaxies which were packing nearly three times the horsepower of the little Cortinas. Who they did beat were the Jaguars, and that was big news. For this little Cortina to wipe the floor with Britian’s premier brand was a sleeper story of epic proportions and suddenly everyone wanted a Lotus Cortina.
In 1964 the little cars hit their stride. Legendary racer Jim Clark won the British Saloon Car Championship by a big margin, Jackie Stewart ran on here in the USA and cleaned up a few races as well as another teams dominated long and short length races all over Europe, Africa, and the USA.
It was a dominating year again in 1965 because of a change back to leaf springs in place of the coils and A-bracket arrangement. The reliability factor rose, and with it, so did the win totals. Races and championships on multiple continents were being won and locked up at an amazing idea.
For 1966 the engine got fuel injection, a dry sump, and some other newly legalized modifications, and all of a sudden that little mustard seed of an engine was a fire breather, making over 180 hp. It had enough suds to hang with the Mustangs. The car did not manage a championship that season but still won more than 10 events. The cars also had success in rally racing at about the same time and won their share of hardware.
These little killers were based directly on factory stuff and parts and absolutely jackhammered the competition during their heyday back in the early to mid 1960s. Pretty cool.