This Ford Cortina is worth £200k

Legendary saloon up for auction in January

If £200,000 sounds like quite a lot of money for a middling ’60s family saloon that sold by the hundreds of thousands, that’s because it is.

So why is a 1966 Cortina estimated to fetch that much when it goes under the hammer in January 2019 at Silverstone Auctions’ Autosport International Sale?

Because it’s no ordinary Cortina, that’s why. It’s a Lotus Cortina – a track-bred, limited-run model built to go racing in the 1960s. Oh, and it was driven by a fleet of legendary drivers in period – including Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Jacky Ickx.

Here’s its story.

Famous racing names

Hear the names Jim Clark and Graham Hill and, chances are, you’ll picture a pair of legendary drivers wrestling with the fearsome Formula 1 cars of the 1960s.

Both icons in their own right – with two World Championship titles apiece – you might be surprised to learn that they went saloon car racing. Not as junior drivers, but as Formula 1 World Champions. 

Casual competitors

While you're unlikely to catch Lewis Hamilton fielding a Ford Fiesta on a spare Sunday, back in the ’60s drivers used their free weekends to do what they did best: racing. 

If you were to rock up at a rainy former airfield in the UK, there was a good chance you could spot the current Formula 1 World Champion having a crack at the British Saloon Car Championship. Which is exactly what Clark and Hill did – in Lotus Cortinas.

Saloon made speedy

Not familiar with the fabled machine? A born-and-bred racer, it came about when Ford’s PR man Walter Hayes approached Lotus founder Colin Chapman for some help preparing the marque’s latest track challenger.

Chapman had been tuning Ford engines for his own racing cars and Hayes asked if he could drop a few of the honed motors into the firm’s new family saloon, the Cortina.

Winning combo

In a partnership that suited both parties, Ford supplied the bodies and sold the cars, while Lotus handled the crafting, honing and tweaking.

The result? In 1963, the world was introduced to the Consul Cortina Developed by Lotus – soon shortened to the Lotus Cortina. 

Popular from the off

Just 1000 had to be built to qualify the upgraded Cortina for Group 2 competition, but some 3300 MkI examples would eventually be built – and a great many of them went racing.

Despite inconsistencies in specification, build quality concerns and confusion from dealers, the first-generation Lotus Cortina proved a runaway success, receiving rave reviews and proving dominant in competition.

Touring car de force

With the car qualified for competition, by 1963 the Cortina could soon be seen on circuits in the UK, across Europe and in the USA – beating almost all of its competitors, including previously dominant 3.8-litre racers.

Championship wins inevitably followed: Jim Clark claimed the British Saloon Car Championship in ’64 driving a Cortina, while Sir John Whitmore took the European honours the following year. All in all, a pretty special motor.

One of three

What of the car going under the hammer with Silverstone Auctions? In 1966, racing regulations changed, opening the British Saloon Car Championship to Group 5 Special Touring Cars – which meant better suspension and more powerful engines.

The Cortina up for auction is one of just three built by Lotus to the new specification.

Clark at the Park

Finished in March 1966, it was promptly put to work with Jim Clark – by then a two-time Formula 1 World Champion – who drove it at British track Oulton Park (though bad weather meant running was limited).

Just a week later, it competed at Snetterton – with another Formula 1 driver, Peter Arundell, taking it to a second-in-class finish in the Archie Scott Brown Memorial Trophy.

Ticking off the big names

Over the next month, the Cortina would be fielded at both Goodwood and Silverstone, with Arundell and yet another Formula legend, Jacky Ickx, behind the wheel – both scoring further second-in-class finishes for the plucky saloon.

Injection of pace

Come May of 1966, the Cortina was on spare-car duty at Crystal Palace, before racing outfit BRM fitted it with fuel injection in June.

That upgrade clearly worked: another well-known racer, Sir John Whitmore, steered the Cortina at Brands Hatch in July ’66 and, as England were winning the World Cup, he won his class.

Arundell back again

Brands Hatch would also be the venue for the Guards International meeting in August of 1966, where Peter Arundell again sat at the helm of the Lotus, taking third overall and second in class.

He’d go on to field the machine again at Oulton Park and Brands Hatch that year, scoring enough points to secure third place overall in the British Saloon Car Championship.

Another racing legend

That sounds like a pretty storied racing career, right? But it wasn’t enough for this little Lotus: the first race of 1967 saw Graham Hill piloting the Team Lotus machine to a first-in-class finish in the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch – just a year before the legendary driver would take his second Formula 1 World Championship title.

Still going strong

That would be its last outing for Team Lotus – but not its last race. PHK 614D would go on to compete with Brian Robinson for A G Dean Racing over the next two years, finishing a not too shabby third place overall in the 1968 season.

Out to Africa

Even that wasn’t the end: after the ’68 season, the Cortina was sold to one Peter Parnell, who apparently drove it in a three-hour event in Rhodesia, of all places, before selling it to a David Hannaford – who moved, with the Lotus, to Zambia.

From there, it ended up in South Africa, where it would remain until 1997.

Back with the mechanic

At that point, the Cortina came full circle: it was purchased by Cedric Selzar – Jim Clark’s race mechanic – who brought it back to the UK for a thorough but sympathetic restoration.

Bought from Selzar by the current owner, this most storied of Cortinas remains in outstanding condition today, complete with its original shell and period upgrades to the engine and suspension.

Ready to race

Perhaps more importantly, it’s in race-ready condition – which means the lucky bidder can not only share a saddle with the likes of Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Jacky Ickx, but they can also attempt to recreate their on-track efforts in the sporty saloon.

Potential record breaker

Naturally, such a celebrated competition car commands an appropriately legendary price tag. The guide price? Somewhere between £180,000 and £200,000.

If it hits that upper estimate, it’ll be the most expensive Cortina ever sold – eclipsing the current record of £191,900, set by another Jim Clark Cortina at the Goodwood Festival of Speed sale earlier this year.

New year, new wheels

Want to know what it’ll go for – or even put in a bid yourself? Best get down to Silverstone Auctions’ Autosport International Sale at the NEC in Birmingham, set for 12 January 2019.

After all, it’d be quite the way to start the new year.