A lovely Mk1 Cortina with a freshly rebuilt Holbay engine Run by renowned historic racer, Martin Stretton, five seasons ago Has formed part of our vendors private collection since. Will require a check over before running again FIA papers expire soon but new ones have been applied and paid for Well cared for car offered at a competitive estimateThe Lotus Cortina's serendipitous arrival resulted directly from Ford's decision to step up their motorsport involvement in the early 1960s. Their Head of UK Public Relations, Walter Hayes, spoke to Colin Chapman, asking him to come up with a competitive saloon, using their mainstream Cortina as a base that could be produced in sufficient numbers to satisfy the mandatory 'Group 2' homologation requirements, and with which the Blue Oval could beat all comers. The solution was to take Ford's bullet-proof 1500 Kent engine, fit it with a twin-cam cylinder head, pop it into a stiffened Cortina shell, sort out the suspension and brakes and paint a green stripe down the side. The cars would be built by Lotus at its plant in Cheshunt and marketed through their dealer network as the Ford Cortina Lotus. Once fully developed, the Lotus Cortina's (as they quickly became known) absolutely shone on track driven by household names including Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, Jackie Ickx, Roger Clark and many, many more.This particular Cortina has been owned by our vendor, who is a well-known and respected historic racer, for the past few years and was run, around five seasons ago, by the renowned historic race car preparer, Martin Stretton Racing, to the highest of standards. Having sat in our vendor's collection for the past few years, the FIA papers will run out at the end of the year but new papers have been applied and paid for and, pleasingly the Holbay engine has just been fully rebuilt. There are two spare Minilite-style wheels with tyres that will accompany the car.The car is eligible for a variety of prestige events such as the U2TC (in which the buyer of this car will get a free entry into the next race courtesy of our sponsor deal with Motor Racing Legends), Masters Pre-66 Touring Cars, and HSCC Historic Touring Cars. This lovely example, after the usual pre-race checks, could be gracing the track again and presents a fantastic opportunity to be in the thick of it on some of the most competitive and well-supported grids in historic motorsport and all at a very approachable cost.