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CYC 612C. An original
1965 Lotus Cortina which was converted to rallying
specification in 1991 before winning the Historic
Manx rally, and entering the Monte Carlo, and Le
Jog Lands End to John O’Groats trials numerous
times.
The car has been stripped of all components, paint,
primer, filler, sound deadening and linings. Now
we're starting a full rebuild from the bare metal
shell. A new lease of life for a 42 year old car,
updates will be found here as we move on. |
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Lotus Cortina |
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Converted back to it’s original A-Frame rear suspension,
the car will confirm to the international regulations “Appendix
K” for historic saloon cars, and will be eligible
to compete in any international historic meeting such
as the U2TC series.
The engine is being prepared to race
spec by Richard Macer of RM Sport, who provided the championship
winning
engine
in Stacy’s original MK1 VW Golf GTi.
Stacy will
be driving the Lotus, he will need to develop the suspension
set up from scratch and change his driving
style to accommodate the Dunlop CR65 cross ply tyres.
The story starts here...
The Restoration Blog
24th March 2008:
After over 6 months of waiting with
a bare shell sitting in the garage, the replacement
panels have arrived.
On the bright side Stacy has also sourced an A-Frame,
with another on order for the rear suspension, and
all the aluminium panels. So now we're all keen to
get going.
The first job is to cut out the bad panels,
refit the new, and in the process add the strengthening
where
we can. Appendix K rules allow you to seam weld and
strengthen the chassis, but not to add components or
fit a multi point roll cage to do the job instead.
As a result this take a fair amount of thought and
planning, so progress is often slow as we mull on how
best to approach certain parts.
Panel Beater extraordinaire
Steve Maidment is currently working in Stacy's garage
whenever work allows, so
everyones getting used to the sound of grinders, air
saws, hammers and plasma cutters..
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| When we said bare shell, we really
MEANT bare shell. |
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| An uncovered crossmember - Blimey, we raced
this! |
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| Steve Maidment and Will McAteer pausing
for thought |
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| Steve Maidment back to the grind(er). Well
plasma cutter actually.. |
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28th April 2008
Lots of progress this month. The drivers
side is approaching completion, with new inner and outer
rear arches in
place, new inner and outer sills, and a new floorplan
installed. Also we’ve moved onto the A-pillar
(all new), remade box sections, and a new inner wing
assembly.
The doors have both been shot blasted inside
and out, and fitted with their shiny new alloy door
skins.
Looking good, no huge dramas thus far except
for the Plasma cutter from ebay which died a death very
early
on. The shop in question have offered to upgrade it
to a “Professional” unit for another £50
as an alternative to replacement under warranty so
that’s what we’ve done. The new one should
arrive shortly.
Still waiting for some front panel repair
sections from the MK1 Cortina Owners Club which we’ve
chased, but so far the response has been “soon
is all I can say” which isn’t a fantastic
help, but beggers can’t be choosers at the moment.
Next
step is to finish the front inner wing assemblies, fit
the rear quarter panel (already offered up and
ready to go), then move round to the front..
I spied a
pair of new wings for the Cortina on e-bay which looked
good, but they eventually made £1,600
which was the sort of sum which made you work out whether
you should be in the business of panel pressing. Which
it did! If I get some spare time soon I’ll make
some more enquiries, as it stands I’ve just made
a couple of calls to see what comes back.
Roll on May!
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| Inner and Outer arches in, sills
in, floorplan in, and A-pillar in. |
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| A Pillar and Inner wing replaced |
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| Inside of the A-Pillar |
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28th May 2008
The MK1
Cortina Owners club came up trumps and delivered the
inner wing components, and the axle has been sent away
to be converted to an A-Frame pickup.
The drivers door is now on, and the whole drivers
side completed. The passenger side has been started,
with the bad metal removed and taken away. The
suspension top has been retained for posterity though -
you'll see why below.
The passenger door has also
been hung and it's starting to look like a complete car
again. What's next? The passenger rear quarter panel,
the A-frame axle brackets (being made by Express Steel's
Classic Car partner), the front wings and the front
panel repairs. The alloy boot has been skinned, and the alloy
bonnet is ready to go too.
Hopefully the car will be ready for seam welding and cage
fitment
before the end of July..
30th August 2008
Phew!
After over 200 hours of grinding, cutting, fabricating and welding, we have now finished all of the bodywork, including the homologated aluminium doorskins, bonnet and boot. The swinging panels have all been fitted and the panel gaps are now probably better than when they left the factory.
Initial basic measurements show that torsional rigidity is roughly 10 times greater than it was when we first had the car, and it has yet to be seam welded and the Appendix K weld in roll cage fitted.
We've also fitted the A-Frame, converted axle from Express Steel Panels, radius arms and also the front suspension has been bolted in to verify everything picks up where it should. For the first time in many many months, the car has been dropped onto it's wheels and rolled around, which was actually quite an emotional moment for some reason - probably linked to desperation!
The next stage is the seam welding and cage fitment, and then re-dipping to remove any rust, priming and of course paint preparation. We know that all of the suspension components seem to fit, the fuel tank and system fits nicely in the boot, and we have an extinguisher, seat and harness ready to go. Oh yes, and we have hooked up with the engine builder to establish it still exists after our delays.
With this season all but finished, and garage space and preparation time now planned to be taken up with the Mazda RX7 (Silverstone and Spa in September and October), the VW Golf (Brands Hatch in November), and the Kart in the remaining gaps, realistically the Lotus assembly is likely to be a new year project.
In the first instance the much needed garage refit (painting and tiles) has been deferred until the diry work was completed. So that will be done next.
Thoughts have passed to where we would race it though - obviously there is the Pre-66 Touring Cars of the Classic Touring Car Racing Club, and we have also noticed U2TC. These are hour long races across Europe, although they visited Oulton Park last weekend (24th August 2008) for the Gold Cup Trophy meeting. There the winners lapped the full circuit in 2m06s, which is a target - although probably an optimistic one.
http://www.historicmotorracingnews.com/3.0.html
At least there is light at the end of the tunnel,
and it doesn't appear to be an oncoming train..
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