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The stiffening braces meant the spare wheel had to be moved from the standard
cortina's wheel well and was bolted to the left side of the boot floor. The battery
was also put in the boot behind the right wheelarch, both of these changes made
big improvements to overall weight distribution.
Another improvement the Lotus Cortina gained was the new braking system (9.5in
front discs) which was built by brake specialist Girling, this system also was fitted
to Cortina GT's but without a servo which was fitted in the Lotus Cortina engine
bay. Firstly the engine's were built by J.A Prestwich of Tottenham and then Villiers
of Wolverhampton this was done until 1966 when Lotus moved to Hethel in
Norwich where they had there own engine building facilities
The Lotus Cortina used a 8.0in diaphragm-spring clutch whereas Ford fitted coil-
spring clutch's to the rest of the range. The rest of the gearbox was identical to the
Elan. This led to a few problems because the ultra-close gear ratio's were perfect
for the race track or open road, but the clutch was given a hard time in traffic, so
the ratios were later changed. The early cars were very popular and earned some
rave reviews, one magazine described the car as a tin-top version of a lotus 7. It
was THE car for many enthusiast's who before had to settle for a Cortina GT or a
Mini-Cooper S and it also amazed a lot of the public who were used to
overweight 'sports cars' like the Austin-Healey 3000. The launch was not perfect
however, the car was too specialist for some ford dealership's who did not understand
the car, there are a few stories of incorrect parts being fitted at services.
There were a few teething problems reported by the first batch of owners, (most
of these problems show how quick the car was developed) some of the engines
were down on power, the gear ratios were to close and the worst problem was the
diff housing coming away from the casing. This problem was mainly caused by the
high loads put on the axle because of the A bracket it was a integral part of the
rear suspension. This was made even worse by the fact any oil lost from the axle
worked its way on to the bush's of the A bracket. There were 4 main updates
made to the mk1 Lotus during it's production to solve some of these problems.
The first change was a swap to a two-piece prop shaft and the lighter alloy
transmission casing were changed for standard Ford items this also included
swapping the ultra close ratio gears for Cortina GT gear ratios, the main difference
was 1st,2nd and reverse were much higher ratio's. It was also around this time in
1964 that standard panels were used rather than the light alloy ones. You could
however specify all the alloy items and ultra-close ratios when buying new, and
many people went for these options. The 2nd main change came in late 1964 when
the entire Cortina range had a facelift which included a full width front grille and
aeroflow outlets in the rear quarters because the Lotus Cortina's also gained Ford's
new ventilation system which also included a update to the interior.
The 3rd and probably most important change came mid 1965 when the lotus rear
suspension was changed for the leaf springs and radius arms of the Cortina GT.
This replaced all the stiffening tubing as well. The last update also came in 1965
when the rear drums were swapped for self adjusting items and also the famous
2000E gearbox ratio's were used. These lowered 1st and reverse about halfway
between the Cortina GT ratios and the ultra close ratio box.
All these changes made the car's less specialized but far more reliable and all the
special parts were still available for competition as well as to members of the public.
The Lotus Cortina had by this time earned a awesome competition reputation. It
was also being made in left hand drive when production finished around late 1966
and the Mk2 took over.
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