1966 Ford Lotus Cortina

This car is at Lodge Corner competing in the HSCC/HRSR Historic Racing Saloon Championship Race at the Historic Sports Car Club's race meeting at Oulton Park in June 2001.

It's Les Goble's 1966 Ford Lotus Cortina with a 4-cylinder inline 1,598cc twin cam version of the Ford Kent engine. 3,306 examples of the MkI car were built, a large proportion of them being white with a dark green stripe like the car pictured.

Lotus Cortina

I took this photograph at Foulstons chicane at Oulton Park during the CSCC Pre '65 Saloon Car Challenge Race at the Jaguar Drivers' Club's Cheshire Cats' Trophy Meeting in April 1987.

There were ten Lotus Cortinas in this race, together with four Ford Cortina GTs and I'm having some difficulty trying to identify the cars shown here. The second car is that of Colin Woodcock and the fourth car Simon Sayward's,but I don't know who was driving the car between those two. The car in the lead appears to be Chris Boon's, which the programme of the event shows as the only red Lotus Cortina in the race. Colin Chapman's collaboration with Ford started in 1961 when he commissioned Harry Mundy to design a twin-cam version of the Ford Kent engine. It first appeared in a Lotus 23 in 1962 and was used in the Lotus Elan which was introduced that year. Ford then approached Colin Chapman to suggest that Lotus should fit this engine to 1,000 examples of the Ford Cortina so that they could homologated for Group 2 racing. Between 1963 and 1966 3,306 examples of the Mark 1 Lotus Cortina were produced.

Ford Lotus Cortina

These two cars competed in the HSCC/HRSR Julius Thurgood Historic Racing Saloons race at the Historic Sports Car Club's Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2003.

On the left is the 1965 Ford Lotus Cortina of Kerry Michael, and on the right the 1964 model of Chris Sanders, though the car's more commonly known as just a Lotus Cortina. Both cars have the 1,596cc version of the Ford Kent engine that was redesigned for Colin Chapman as a twin-cam unit by Harry Mundy. Chris Sanders' car was offered for auction in 2017 by Silverstone Auctions and always raced with the 'LUV 12' number plates, although it was never registered as such (it's really 256 TYC). Presumably the owner thought 'love one too' sounded more appealing.

Lotus Cortina

The Jaguar Drivers' Club Cheshire Cats' Trophy Meeting at Oulton Park in April 1987 included as one of the events The CSCC Pre '65 Saloon Car Challenge Race. The field included no less than ten Lotus Cortinas and here are photographs of two of them.

This is Ron Cosgrove's car pictured in the paddock

Here's Colin Woodcock's car exiting Foulstons chicane and accelerating towards Hill Top.

Jaguar Mk1 & Mk2

Here are some photographs taken at the Jaguar Drivers' Club event at Oulton Park in April 1987 billed as the 6th Cheshire Cats Trophy Meeting. They all feature the Jaguar Mk1 or Mk2 saloon of the mid 1950s to late 1960s.

This is the Mk2 of Laurence Bailey

Race 2 was the CSCC Pre '65 Saloon Car Challenge Race and this is Andrew Moore in a Jaguar Mk1 between two Lotus Cortinas at the Foulstons chicane.

Race 4 was the JDC Pre '68 Saloon Car Challenge Race and here is a group of Jaguar Mk1 and Mk2s at the Foulstons chicane.

Another pair of Mk2s in race 4 at the Foulstons chicane, I think this is Tony Williams in the red and silver car leading Rob Newall in the red one.

Another photograph from race 4 with what looks like Tony Williams and Rob Newall again at Foulstons, and you can see here the entire loop of the circuit from Island Bend through Shell Oils Corner to Foulstons. Foulstons is now called Britten's and Shell Oils Corner was originally called Esso Bend.

Race 4 again, Tony Williams this time at Hill Top on the way to Knickerbrook - at that time still without a chicane.