The Sixties were a major time for Lotus. Success on the race track trickled all the way down to the road cars, and Colin Chapman’s company rose up the ranks from a specialist to a serious British manufacturer.
Chapman was well-known and infrequently quoted for his “Simplify, then add lightness” approach to automotive constructing. On the track, his cars were considered fast but fragile. On the road, they were revered for his or her delicate handling characteristics. Two cars that were key in supporting Lotus’s success were the Elan and Cortina. They were different cars built for distinct purposes but shared a level of commonality in parts and technology.
Seeing either of those cars outside of a historic race event is rare nowadays, but each of them together? That may be a real treat. The fantastic thing about the British Sunday morning breakfast meet is that you simply never know what you will notice. On this instance, it was two significant cars from the Lotus history books.
The Lotus Cortina
In 1962, Colin Chapman met with Walter Hayes from the Ford Motor Company to debate elevating Ford’s motorsport presence in Europe. Hayes was impressed with what Chapman was achieving with Ford Kent-based engines.
Money-strapped, Chapman was keen to assist, and an agreement was made to homologate the Type 74 Cortina 2-door saloon (Mk1) for Group 2 racing. Ford and Lotus did it by constructing a performance-oriented road automotive.
Graham Arnold, a former Lotus sales director, once said that Lotus spent the identical time designing the Elan and putting it into production as Ford did on the Mk1 Cortina’s bumpers alone. No surprise then that Lotus wasted little time converting the brand new Cortina from a compact saloon into something special. Chapman code-named the Lotus Cortina project ‘Type 28′.
Cortinas destined to develop into Lotus variants were partially assembled on the Ford plant in Dagenham before being sent to the Lotus factory in Cheshunt, where they were finished off on the second floor directly above the Elan.
Changes made to the Type 74 Cortina 2-door saloon were substantial.
The automotive received the Lotus-modified version of Ford’s 116E 1,498cc Kent engine, which was stretched to 1,557cc and equipped with a twin-cam cylinder head, twin side-draught Weber carburettors and a free-flowing exhaust system. Moreover, a Lotus Elan close-ratio gearbox was installed, the suspension was upgraded – significantly on the rear – higher brakes were added, and a light-weight aluminium bonnet, boot lid and doors fitted, as were front corner bumpers rather than an entire unit. Bar some cars that Ford raced, all Lotus Cortinas were painted white, with green stripes.
Contained in the automotive, the performance intent was reflected in different seats, a wood-rimmed sports steering wheel and a brand new gauge cluster.
The 105hp that the Mk1 Lotus Cortina produced may not seem to be much today, but that horsepower figure coupled with a sub-900kg weight in race trim saw the automotive take quite a few trophies and championships across the UK, USA, Africa and Europe before the Mk2 Lotus Cortina appeared in 1966.
The Lotus Elan
First released in 1962, the Elan was the primary of many Lotus designs to make use of a steel backbone and fibreglass body construction, achieving a scant 688kg kerb weight.
The Elan is considered one of the vital successful sports cars of all time and was the primary Lotus to have four-wheel disc brakes, rack and pinion steering, and independent suspension throughout. Lots of its components were borrowed from the Ford parts bin, of which Chapman had access to.
If the Mk1 Cortina is small by contemporary standards the Elan is tiny. It’s so small, in reality, that its 155/80R13 tyres mounted on 13×4.5-inch wheels look big.
The Elan Sprint pictured here was effectively the runout model. It took the Series 4 Elan and further modified it, culminating in 126hp from the Lotus twin-cam engine and a 0-60mph time of under 7 seconds.
Chapman all the time intended for the Elan to exist solely as a road automotive, but all of the characteristics that made it an amazing road automotive meant it had all of the makings of great race automotive, too. An estimated 97 Elans were homologated because the 26R variant. Further upgrades were made, leading to a automotive that weighed around 600kg and produced as much as 175hp, which saw it competitive against cars one class up.
Modern safety regulations, fleet emissions, and an increasing demand for crossovers and SUVs are all aspects that weigh on Lotus today, and this has resulted in some compromises being made in its current product lineup. Despite all this, Lotus still retains its strong brand identity. Although the present Lotus Emira weighs in at 1,440kg (light in comparison with its competition), the DNA can still be traced back to cars just like the Elan and Lotus Cortina.
While we must accept that point has moved on, and it’s unlikely we’ll ever see cars this light again, it just means now we have to understand them on the rare occasion they seem on a Sunday morning.
If the keys for each cars were on the table, which one would you be taking for a drive?
Chaydon Ford
Instagram: chaycore
This Article First Appeared At www.speedhunters.com
