Lotus Cortina

Ford Consul Cortina developed by Lotus Ford Cortina developed by Lotus
1963 Ford Consul Cortina developed by Lotus
Overview
Manufacturer	Ford
Production	1963–1966
Body and chassis
Class	Performance car
Body style	2-door saloon
Related	Ford Cortina Mark I
Powertrain
Engine	1557 cc straight-4 Twin ohc
Dimensions
Wheelbase	98 in (2,489 mm)
Length	168 in (4,267 mm)
Width	63 in (1,600 mm)
Height	54 in (1,372 mm)
Chronology
Successor	Lotus Carlton

Cortina Lotus Mk2
Ford Cortina Lotus Mk2 (with non-standard wheels)
Overview
Also called	Ford Cortina Twin Cam
Production	1966–1970
Body and chassis
Class	Performance car
Body style	2-door saloon
Related	Ford Cortina Mark II
Powertrain
Engine	1557 cc straight-4 Twin ohc
Dimensions
Wheelbase	249 cm (98.0 in)
Length	427 cm (168.1 in)
Width	165 cm (65.0 in)
Height	139 cm (54.7 in)

Lotus Cortina is the commonly used term for the Ford Cortina Lotus, a high-performance sports saloon, which was produced in the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1970 by Ford in collaboration with Lotus Cars. The original version, which was based on the Ford Cortina Mark 1, was promoted by Ford as the "Consul Cortina developed by Lotus", with "Consul" later being dropped from the name. The Mark 2 was based on the Ford Cortina Mark 2 and was marketed by Ford as the "Cortina Lotus".

There were 3,306 Mark I and 4,093 Mark 2 Lotus Cortinas produced.

The history of the Cortina Lotus began in 1961. Colin Chapman had been wishing to build his own engines for Lotus, mainly because the Coventry Climax unit was so expensive. Colin Chapman's chance came when he commissioned Harry Mundy (a close friend and designer of the Coventry Climax engine and technical editor for ) 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 1,499 cc engine and work centred on this. Keith Duckworth, from Cosworth, played an important part in tuning of the engine. The engine's first appearance was in 1962 at the Nürburgring in a Lotus 23 driven by Jim Clark. Almost as soon as the engine appeared in production cars (Lotus Elan), it was replaced with a larger capacity unit (82.55 mm bore to give 1,557 cc). This was in order to get the car closer to the 1.6 litre capacity class in motorsport.

Whilst the engine was being developed, Walter Hayes (Ford) asked Colin Chapman if he would fit the engine to 1,000 Ford saloons for Group 2 homologation. Chapman quickly accepted, although it must have been very busy in the Cheshunt plant, with the Elan about to be launched. The Type 28 or Lotus Cortina or Cortina Lotus (as Ford liked to call it) was duly launched. 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 1,557 cc (105 bhp (78 kW; 106 PS)) engine, 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. Lightweight casings were fitted to gearbox and differential. All the Lotus factory cars were painted white with a green stripe (although Ford built some for racing in red, and one customer had a dark blue stripe due to being superstitious about green). The cars also received front quarter bumpers and round Lotus badges were fitted to rear wings and to the right side of the radiator grille.