February 26, 2008, 1:53 pm
Serious Cash for a Cortina
By Richard S. Chang
Tags: auction, Colin Chapman, Cortina, Ford, Jim Clark, Lotus
Jim Clark and a Lotus Cortina in a race-winning pose in 1965. Last December, this car sold for more than $280,000 at auction. (Ford Media Archive)Did I slight the Ford Cortina last week? Quizás. But the Cortina wasn’t much to look at, especially in the 1970s. It was a simple econocar built by Ford in England:
• four-cylinder engine
• lightweight
• bare bones construction
In the minds of the racing-crazy British, those features also meant the Cortina would be a great base for a touring car. In the 1960s, Ford tapped Colin Chapman, owner of Lotus, to spruce up the Cortina to race specs.
According to Sports Car Market:
By the early ’60s, Colin Chapman and Lotus were well established as a premier English producer of sports and racing cars, and were developing a twin-cam cylinder head for Ford’s Kent engine block (to replace the expensive and unreliable Coventry Climax engine). When Ford decided to create a performance variant of the Cortina, Chapman was the logical person to call. Chapman loved the idea, not least because his company could use the production line business (30 cars a week), and he set about designing the changes that would convert a clunky sedan into a sporting proposition. Obviously, the twin-cam engine went in, along with the close-ratio Lotus Elan transmission. Aluminum door, boot and bonnet skins replaced steel units, the front suspension was dropped and stiffened, and then Chapman took on the rear suspension. Not content with simple leaf springs on the live axle, he created a complicated coil spring system with an alloy differential carrier to save weight. The whole rear suspension looked very elegant; we’ll talk later about how well it worked.
The end product was an impressive piece of kit in 1963, very “slammed” and aggressive-looking in its English white with a green blaze livery — the only way they came.
Fewer than 3,000 Lotus Cortinas (or Lotus Type 28) were built. The Lotus factory racecars were driven by Graham Hill and Jim Clark (both won two Formula One titles) and Jacky Ickx, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans six times.
(Brief digression: Last weekend, I saw “Grand Prix,” the movie with James Garner, Yves Montand and Eva Marie Saint. I had no idea it also starred Graham Hill. Quite a few Formula One racing legends make appearances, but Hill seems to be in every scene. Even when it’s a close up on the other lead actors, there’s Hill again, standing in the buffet line in the background.)
(Another digression: Is it possible to make a racing drama that doesn’t begin with a crash, or memory of a crash?)
The Lotus Cortina that’s profiled in Sports Car Market was campaigned in the mid-1960s. In 1965 alone, it was driven by Jim Clark and British touring car champions Jack Sears and Sir John Whitmore. But it’s Clark’s name that gives the car its value. Back in the day, racecar drivers used to jump from cockpit to cockpit, Formula One one day and Can-Am the next. Everyone talks about Mario Andretti’s ability to excel in any format. But Jim Clark was every bit his equal. Clark raced Formula One, IndyCar, Nascar, endurance and even rally. He died in a Formula Two race in 1968.
The great Jackie Stewart wrote in “Faster!” — his memoir of the 1970 Formula One season — that Clark was “basically a shy and nervous man with stubs for fingernails, yet absolutely confident in a racing car, cool in the most horrendous situations.” Chris Amon, a former driver for Ferrari, said after Clark’s fatal crash, “If this can happen to Jimmy, what chance do the rest of us have?”
Last December, 40 years after Clark’s death, the Cortina he drove in 1965 sold for $281,808 at the Bonhams Olympia Auction — twice the published estimate.
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1.February 26th,
2008
7:14 pm Indy yes, but are you sure Jim Clark drove NASCAR? That would be news to me.
— Posted by Glenn Smith
2.February 26th,
2008
7:27 pm Thanks Richard for a great post about a great car. I as mentioned in your post about the BBC production “Life on Mars,” I tried to convince my father to buy a used Lotus Cortina back in the mid 70s.
From what I can remember (I was a car crazy seven or eight years old…) - it wasn’t hacked up at all, and was parked in a little used car lot in South Los Angeles right around the corner from my mom’s house. God only knows what happened to it. Maybe it’s sitting in a garage somewhere around Normandie and Century? Wouldn’t that be neat!
— Posted by Michael in LA
3.February 26th,
2008
7:57 pm The Nascar seems to have been with a Holman and Moody Ford Galaxie in 1965
— Posted by Terry Dinnell
4.February 26th,
2008
8:09 pm Jim Clark ran one NASCAR race in 1967 for the Holman-Moody team. Rockingham - he started 24th and finished 30th with a blown engine after 144 of 500 laps.
— Posted by Mark Hagopian
5.February 29th,
2008
5:27 pm I know of two in San Diego: a red with white stripe (owned by a friend), and a white with green stripe owned by a neighbor). I’m certain there are plenty more in Southern California. Could one of these have been the L.A. car?
— Posted by Joaquin Rivera
6.March 1st,
2008
11:13 am I grew up in northern England in the 60’s and remember seeing Jim Clark racing the Lotus Cortina at the Oulton Park race track. He and the other Cortina raced against Mini Copper S’s, Jaguars and Ford Galaxy’s. An amazing mix of cars that were all quite close in lap times over the tight circuit.
— Posted by Tim Robinson
7.March 5th,
2008
3:50 pm Tim,
There is a good article on the AmFo invasion of British racing with the Galaxies in 64 in an issue of Classic Fords from a few months ago. It’s the issue with the gold/brown Capri on the cover. Well worth a read for any EnFo fan.
— Posted by Christian Edstrom
N.Y. Times Jim Clark Cortina sells for over $280,000
That car was an icon driven by a legend, the price did catch everyone by surprise! Jack Sears and Sir John Whitmore are still very active over here. In fact Jack Sears was at Brands Hatch yesterday at the first British Touring Car Championship round of the year. He did win the first championship in 1958 in an Austin Westminster and I think again in 1963 driving a Cortina GT and a Galaxie. In fact he still owns the Galaxie. I have met him on a number of occasions and he is very much a gentleman. Sir John Whitmore is still very quick and races at the Goodwood Revival meeting. He has raced a 100E Anglia, Mk2 Zodiac and a Mustang in recent years, plus Cobras. He is also a nice guy and I have Minichamps models of two of his Lotus Cortinas which he has signed for me.
Paul
Paul