Story1

The start of the Lotus Cortina story begins around 1961, when the best of Ford

and Lotus got together.

Colin Chapman had been looking to build his own engines for Lotus for quite

some time (mainly because the Coventry Climax unit was so expensive). Colin

Chapman's chance came when he commissioned Harry Mundy (close friend,

designer of the Coventry Climax engine and technical editor for The Autocar) to

design a twin-cam version of the Ford Kent engine. Most of the development of

the engine was done on the 997cc and 1,340cc bottom end, but in 1962 Ford

released the 116E five bearing 1,499cc engine and work centered on this. It is

worth noting at this point what a important part Keith Duckworth,from Cosworth

had to play in tuning of the engine.

The engine's 1st appearance was in 1962 at Nurburging in a Lotus 23 driven by

the legend, Jim Clark. Almost as soon as the engine was used in production cars

(Elan) it was recalled and replaced with a larger capacity unit (82.55 bore to give

1,558cc). This was done to get the car closer to the 1.6 capacity class in

motorsport.

Whilst the engine was being developed Walter Hayes (Ford) was on a major

motorsport drive and asked Colin Chapman if he would fit the engine to a 1,000

Ford saloons for Group 2 homologation. Colin Chapman quickly accepted,

although it must of been very busy in the Cheshunt plant what with

the Elan about to be launched. The speed at which things started moving is

incredible by todays standards the Type 28 or Lotus-Cortina or Cortina-Lotus

(as Ford liked to call it!!) was born. Ford supplied the 2-door Cortina bodyshells

and took care of all the marketing and selling of the cars, whilst Lotus did all the
mechanical and cosmetic changes.

The major changes involved installing the 1,558cc (105bhp) motor, together with

the same close ratio gearbox as the Elan. The rear suspension was drastically

altered and lightweight alloy panels were used for doors, bonnet and boot. Also

lightweight casing were fitted to gearbox and diff. All the Lotus factory cars were

white with a green stripe (although Ford built some for racing in red). The cars

also received front quarter bumpers and round Lotus badges were fitted to rear

wings and to the right side of the radiator panel (from the drivers posititon).

Interior mods were limited to a center console designed for the new gear lever

position, different seats and the later style dash featuring tachometer, speedo, oil

pressure, water temp and fuel level. Rather special though was the good looking

wood rimmed steering wheel.

The suspension changes to the car were quite extensive, the car received shorter

struts up front, forged track control arms and 5.5J by 13 steel wheel rims. The

rear was even more radical with vertical coil spring/dampers replacing the leaf

springs and two trailing arms with a A- bracket (which connected to the diff

housing and brackets near the trailing arm pivots) sorting out axle location. To

support this set up further braces were put behind the rear seat and from the rear

wheelarch down to chassis in the boot.