World’s only mk1 Lotus Cortina convertible? The rarest garage find Ford
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- Опубліковано 3 бер 2022
- World’s only mk1 Lotus Cortina convertible? The rarest garage find Ford. It is believed that this is the only true Lotus Cortina mk1 that was factory convertible converted by the Crayford coachbuilders from new. It is a 1963 model, which was the first year of Lo-Tina production.
This Crayford had already been pulled out of its long time garage hibernation during Britain's Pandemic lock-down, but due to rarity value (and the fact it was left by Andy exactly as it emerged) we felt the opportunity was too special to pass up on.
Jonny could understand why people paid to cut roofs off cars, but a Lotus Cortina? Really? A car with aluminium lightweight panels and agile Chapman tweaked suspension, with weight added in order to stop the roofless car folding like a newspaper. It made no sense. Colin Chapman would have had a heart attack. But yet here it is, having been hidden away after what sounded like a pub landlord drink-drive incident.
To read more about Andy Morrell’s Lotus Cortina collection and to get a bonus feature centring around oddball Lotus collaborations, head over and join our Patreon gang: / thelatebrakeshow
Production numbers:
Cortina Lotus Mk1 years produced 1963 - 1966 Cars produced 3301
Cortina Lotus Mk2 years produced 1967 - 1970 Cars produced 4032
Tech spec:
Year 1963
Model. Consul Cortina Lotus Special Equipment Crayford Convertible
Capacity. 1558cc
Power. 105bhp (in standard spec)
Performance. 0-60 =11 sec
Top Speed. 108mph
Suspension. Rear Colin Chapman design ‘A’ Bracket locating on axle and underbody
Body. Aluminium Doors, Bonnet and Boot
Gearbox. High Ratio with Aluminium bellhousing, remote gear-change mechanism and tail-shaft achieving 45mph in 1st gear. Special (one-off?) gearbox with Laycock De Normanville overdrive
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Filmed by Edited by: Phil Vaughn Pritchard www.philvfilms.com/
Thumbnail by: Matt Tarrant www.matttarrantdesign.com
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Jonny Smith
Creative content maker, car presenter & car pervert for hire since '98
Website: www.carpervert.com
Instagram: / jonnycarpervert
Twitter: / carpervert
CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
#garagefindford #barnfind #mk1lotuscortina #thelatebrakeshow #4k - Авто та транспорт
Cracking episode. Andy is just your typical enthusiast. He loves his cars, that comes across so well. This is the advantage of creating programming on UA-cam. There's no commissioning editor to deal with, there are no production executives to spoil the vision because it might be off-brand (thinking Discovery here and Fifth Gear as I've done some work on it) and the end product is natural, neither forced nor manufactured. If there are any niggles for me, it's the editing (sorry, can't get round what I do for a living!) but apart from that, five stars Jonny my friend.
Op
@@richardlewis2187 ?
Out of interest, what suggestions would you make for the editing as someone who does it for a living?
@@PhilUKNet TBH, not a lot. It depends on who Jonny has with him on camera. On the whole pretty good job being done (because JS knows what he's doing) but sometimes it looks like there isn't enough cutaway material so we see too much in-vision sync from the interview in my opinion. Plus, with UA-cam it's on demand so you can make it as long as like but the danger of that is that you can take your eye off the ball when the content starts to flag or when it goes off topic slightly. A lot of the time, a 30 min. piece could very easily be cut down to 25 or 20 minutes. Re. this episode, there could have been more shots in it of the cars themselves, but that could have been down to accessibility or time constraints.
Definitely lol check coil output, new cap points and leads and it will be off running no problem............... or should be lol
The owner was indeed a publican who was the owner of the Brickmakers Arms in Maidstone.
After it was damaged, he refused to drive it again, or consider selling it. His name was Mick Glover.
And what was it that he ran into?
There needs to be a part 2 for this one.
Totally agree, would be great to see a few episodes that shows the ongoing restoration.
Absolutely..... thoroughly enjoyed this and would love to see the rebiuld too👍🇬🇧
A truly amazing video 🙏🏻
Yes !!!
…. 3 & 4
That ending 😂
Completely agree with the comments about having a follow up show (maybe a ‘BF revisited’) with some of the original find and the finished, or even just running car….!
Fantastic barn find. Mk1 Lotus Cortina’s are worth a fortune, but to have a one off convertible version must be priceless. Especially once it’s restored and back to looking like new once again.
I had a E reg Mk1 Lotus Cortina in 77, B4 that I had the Mk2 lotus C and also A Ford Cortina 1600E. These were the cars we were driving then. But in 78 I bought a Mack 1 Mustang and kept that a few years.
Wow, Paddy knows his stuff. What a great episode.
Only 64 Special Equipment cars left the factory making 115bhp, with mods to camshaft, valves & exhaust among the upgrades. A leather rimmed steering wheel on the SE was only fitted from ‘64 so this makes it even rarer. Good find!
Love the mechanical rev limiter in the rotor arm to stop you revving the bottom end out, shows they really thought about pretty much everything
pretty much normal back then, even the lowly cologne V6 ford used that style :)
They had a similar rotor arm on the 2.8 Rolls-Royce 4 cylinder military engine only set at 3,500 rpm.
That’s a bloody impressive garage!! Makes me feel like I need to move house so I can get a garage that big.
*move job, more like.
It’s money ya need to buy the Bigger property
Always love a barn find episode, the enthusiasm is always off the scale for both the owner of the car and Jonny.
The wheel in the boot, oh my god that took one hell of a knock haha. Kind of reminds me when driving a hire car and hitting what I thought was a small puddle. Turned out to be an enormous pot hole and I shattered the alloy wheel 😂 put the spare on and hid the shattered alloy at home. Took back to hire place and never asked why it had a spare instead of an alloy. First time in 12 years I've confessed this. I'm absolved 😂
Thank you to all involved in this episode. Looking forward to the next barn find! Maybe if someone knows of a classic tractor. That would be the perfect coming together of tractor and barn. 😊
Andy pulling out more and more new old stock parts made me feel like I was watching a movie. As the old script writing adage says: "Is this the most interesting point in the character's life, and if not, why aren't you showing us that?" It felt like the seasoned bank robber pulling in all the favours he could to pull one last job - the grand finale.
What a special vehicle. It is everything I could ever want in a classic car, and I never even knew it existed. A georgeous early saloon, built to race with even more weight shaven off but specced as a quick grand tourer, with a period convertible modification. As time goes on, the racing qualities fall behind, but thanks to the power it can keep up with modern traffic really well, while being luxurious in its own spartan way.
Prettiest of all the Cortinas the Mk1, and that when restored back in white on the wide steels with chrome hubcaps will look an absolute peach! What a find...
This brought tears of joy to my eyes. Thanks Jonny and Andy.
This would be a great project to follow. More like this please Johnny
Part 2 please . what a nice bloke with a passion for a single make of car.Awesome garage layout
That was wonderful. Really enjoyed it. I wish we could go back to the days of points and distributors. Golden years, glad I lived through them.
My first car with an engine management system was a Lancia HF Turbo it was great and drove beautifully but I had no idea how to work on it. Now I realise it was the beginning of the end...
I've had a couple of MK1 Cortinas and what they definitely needed was more power and a big drop in body rigidity, that thing will be hilarious fun to drive
Another excellent episode. Thanks to Andy, Simon and of course Jonny and team.
Was great fun to be involved in helping set up. Jonny even posed with my Cosworth for photos :-)
Bloody hell Jonny you’re spoiling us this week. Two great videos in as many days. The perfect antidote to a day at work. Thank you.
👊🏻
Loved this one. Especially with the laycocks overdrive. My grandad worked at laycocks on those overdrives. Never heard of anyone speak of them but him. Love the channel 👍
11:45 Where I live I remember seeing many Lotus Cortinas Mk1 and Mk2 for fast road use, rather than being bought as a race car. After that came the fast Escorts like the Mexico, RS1600 and RS2000 - again mostly being initially used on the road.
Saturday morning here in NZ and this is an absolute treat. Thankyou
I am a huge Jim Clark/Lotus Cortina fan. I love this and the other episode ever so much. My brother in law had a Lotus Cortina MKI, which started as a GT, but gradually it was converted into a L.C. As he was a Ford employee he has access to several important parts. He is a member of the Dutch British Ford Car Club, and through their sister club in England he was able to get the paperwork from a real Lotus Cortina which was totally wrecked. I have driven that car twice, it was a concours winner at the Britsh Racing day at the Zandvoort circuit several years ago.
Great video Jonny! I'm way too young to know much about these cars but they are beautiful.
Also I can't help but love that paint job on it!
Very fitting that this gem has landed with Andy (another cracking vid Jonny)
Car Caves meets Barn Finds? Either way, another awesome episode! Awesome content Jonny Smith 👍
Thanks, great to watch something positive in these strange times. Look forward to seeing more of this one!
Thanx Jonny, for bringing back fond memories of my 3 Cortinas, (a '66 Mark One GT and 2 Mark Two's, one a wagon)
Here in the U.S. cortinas were very rare in the 80's, and parts had to be shipped over from
England...but I still loved them, and would buy one in a heartbeat if I could today!!
So enjoyable to watch . Thanks
Very interesting video ! Thanks for creating this. A real rare classic
Any time I see a Lotus cortina, it tackes me back to the Cristal Palace racing track when Jimmy Clark gave us all an afternoon to be remembered for years on end. Thanks for the memories.
Love these videos and the information is invaluable. Cheers lads
i had a 1965 GT cortina - and a 1967 -240 i put a 3.5 rover v8 - then a escort 1970 rs 1600 - but now a GT forester turbo subaru - love 4 cyl cars = great video i would love to own this one you have = WOW , white with factory mags - black interior and black roof ! = THANK YOU !
Thanks for featuring Andy's collection there Jonny. I love all mk's and models of Cortinas. I'm in Canada and only know of a few in the country other than my collection
Nice to see these, especially the rare ones!
Nice one Jonny, I think we all need a part 2 of you guys getting it started :-)
Watched the other one so just had to watch this, would liked to have seen it pulled from the barn but hey ho, great collection, in the old days I knew nearly all the part numbers from older cars, sitting here and watching haves me remenising the old days in the parts shop 🤭
Why ooh why does this instantly make me feel happier....lovely
Thoroughly enjoyed this and would love to see the rebiuld too👍🇬🇧
Love this episode as well as all your others!
Thank goodness this car ended up in the right hands 😀
The blokes had it donkeys years and done nothing
How’s that the right hands 🤣
Once again and awesome find and video. You must drop back when it’s been done and back on the road.
This is phenomenal tv. Top work!!
I love these barn find episodes ... Amazing to see that there are still cars out in the wild that are waiting to be discovered. Will you be revisiting any of these sometime in the future to show what had happened to them since the initial "find"?
Hi there, thank you for watching. I have decided to write a detailed blog on Barnfind follow ups, which I will put out for our Patreon subscribers (just for extra value in exchange for them supporting our channel). I may film one or two though.
Absolutely love this channel absolute god send thank you
Great videos guys. Thanks for sharing ✌🏻
The look from all angles but particularly the back, beautiful car 👍
I love the yellow aha Bright cars are all that for me, but that's not important as I'm just happy to see that someone will be keeping such a unique car alive! Another great video!
Can you please come back to this when Andy has got it running,driving and looking fantastic again? Great episode👍👍👍👍
Yes Mike, we can with pleasure.
Blooming heck. Unicorns do exist then. What an amazing find. I'm very, very jealous.
What an absolute gem of a find - hopefully a full nut and bolt restoration for her! Reminiscing - at 8:29 probably most motorists under 30 years old won't know what that knob with the chequer pattern on it is for!
What is for? Lol I'm 38 and didn't realise how little I new about the lotus cortina especially considering that it's probably my favourite car of all time
@@mick0846 Choke.
Please please go back to follow this amazing project. Fantastically rare classic if ever there was one and add that O/D box. Waaw. The most interesting find ever imo.. Andy you're a feckin legend. Can I come to have a look?
Awesome find and great video
Hi Jonny . Just to let you know that the aluminium panels only refer to the outer skins . The "special equipment " refers to the engine being tuned from 105 bhp to 115 bhp . And the Lotus with the RED cam covers that you featured last night normally meant the engine had received attention from B.R.M . .... The information you put up l think refered to the mk 2 crayford . The unique feature of Jim Clarks Lotus was that it was a one off that had the Lotus Elan rear suspension installed . Thanks Jonny.
Because the very early cortina mk 1 were an A frame at the back which I think broke quite often on there rally mk1 lotus cortina in Africa so they up graded the back end as it was to week. Mate just sold his lotus cortina mk1 just 3 years ago to a man that had one of the first transit van in England spent £18,000 having it all restored to tow trailer with the lotus cortina on it to go to goodwood and classic car race days. First time he took it up goodwood he could t drive it as he didn’t have his competition licence so instructor took him round in it and the engine let go but he had it rebuilt and it’s now having a full strip and rebuild and will be up for sale at some point coming soon
WOW ! what more can one say, great vid 👍
What a Gem of a Lotus Cortina, I even didn´t knew that it existed! Here in Portugal, I never saw one of these, only "normals" 65 or 66´s Lotus Cortina´s, always white with the green side stripes and rarely in racing, only collectors pieces!
Jonny, you’re spoiling us. This unicorn is a beauty, please can you do a follow up when it’s running / restored?
Cool car. I hope we get to see more of this one. How about an episode catching up with some of the past barn finds?
Love this fella. Great video.
Part 2 please!! Follow up. What a great car!! 👏
Glad to see you did not need a hard hat this time.
My bet would be the coil, totally agree re the condenser, but, who knows with Lucas, "the Prince of darkness"?
Infective Enthusiasm are the key words for all productions, Thanks Jonny.
Love how Jonny gets so excited about a new old stock rotor arm 😂
Like me you can't still buy them now there two a penny
I would love to see you produce a Part 2 video. Seeing the other cars covered, I want to see them uncovered. What a feast for my eyes.
That was fantastic I would love to hear it running one day really interesting video
Regards
Haley
Isn't this just great car entertainment, thanks to all involved
Loved the MK1 since I built it in the Airfix kit bagged version , My Dad wrote one off in the 60's , but its always been a fav having had the Mk2 , 3 an 4s in later Life..
You have done it again Jonny epic find😎
What a very interesting vehicle brilliant video really enjoyable 👍👍
I can remember as a very young lad seeing Jim Clark rounding the Brands Hatch original "Bottom Bend" and "Bottom Straight" leading into clearways dangling the passenger wheel many inches in the air. and I seam to recall Graham Hill also in a Lotus Cortina chasing Jim.
Gutting that it didn't start. Loved the video. Invested in the journey of this car now. Would be good to follow it's progress
Chris Harris left a big gap in my you tube, worth watching if you like cars, list.
Thanks for filling it mate. Really enjoy your approach,
I could watch your show alldays and onions 😂
Superb Jonny, Please do a follow up if the history comes to light
That really is my dream garage and such a great building
He has an incredible collection of cortina’s
Great episode, cool car
This is automotive archeology- same as finding a very old, unknown site that has never been touched. Incredibly exciting - I used to not pay any attention to this corner of automotive culture but as I get older I'm starting to realize how exhilarating it must be to find cars like this. Jonny is continuously upping the bar with this kind of content - well done - WHAT'S NEXT?🤪
I'm so pleased seeing this I love Cortinas between my brother , dad, and myself we had them all. I wondered where I'd left it, I'll pick it up tomorrow lol. A stunning car wish it was mine :) can I live in your garage please?
What a lucky guy love those lotus cortina’s.not many in Australia unfortunately
Great stuff 👏
Great video. Reminds me of my 1973 ford Capri Crayford. MYF 620L. Sunburst red 1.6XL. Sold it in 1985 for £1,500! Probably worth £10,000 today!
😭
Greetings from Scotland! Yeah, anyone who has ever renewed a set of ignition points on these cars will know just what a $h1t job it is! As a mechanic in a Ford main dealers, when one of these came in for a full service it was a race to be somewhere else, doing anything else! BUT after the service when it was road test time - that more than made up for the hassle! I always had a love/hate relationship with these and the Escort twin cams! When carbs were replaced with injection systems and distributors were replaced with full electronic engine management systems, all those problems went with them! But there is still nothing like the sound of a twin cam lotus engine at full throttle on a night rally! All I have to do is close my eyes and I can hear that guttural sound like it was happening right now!
A 5 liter Coyote powered Mustang at full throttle will give you a real thrill!
@@kickit59 I dare say it would! Send me one and I'll test drive it for a bit, then I'll let you know the thrill level......... 😂😂 Just kidding! In over 50 years I've driven most exotic cars but not a Mustang for a long time!
@@peterhowells7309 I have a Parnelli Jones Mustang and a friend of mine has a 2015 Gt and both of them run pretty well! They definitely create a smile!
@@kickit59 Nice! I currently have a 2016 BMW 740d with a twin scroll turbo which has oodles of torque and very surprising for a big limo! It's enough to make me smile widely! I bought it to do a trip around Europe. Scotland, England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, into Russia at St. Petersburg for a concert of a young incredible 18yo singer called Diana Ankudinova then back into Finland. BUT all hell broke loose and that ain't gonna happen anytime soon now! Check out Diana though - she will shock you! 😲 Have a good weekend!
@@alanpatterson2759 It was called "Elstons of Brecon" in S.Wales. I was born there and only moved to Scotland 49 years ago.
This w/shop is not far from our travelers camp where I live ,I thought I recognized the gentleman looking forward to the next episode .
Really enjoyed this. Shame you couldn't get it going while you were there.
Brilliant episode
Jonny what about a series of "Where are they now, Barn find" videos, showing restored examples?
Andy, last time I saw you fiddling around under a bonnet it was on the side of the motorway! Great find mate. Can't wait to see how this progresses. Cheers, Steve B.
You would certainly have to be an enthusiast to see the beauty in that convertible.
I remember seeing this car around 1983 at Chris Neil Sportscars, a Lotus dealer in Northwich, Cheshire, I am pretty sure it was white then, It was parked up for some work, they allowed me to look round it, they then had a showroom with many classic Lotus cars, some for sale, some on display
There was more than one lotus cortina crayford mk1, Classic ford featured a white one years ago that was immaculate compared to this and I’ve seen different age Crawford lotus’s in old car magazines for sale so there yer go
Great video definitely need a follow up on this to see if she started
Lovely car 🚗🚙🚘👍👍👍👍👍
30 seconds in - just on opening the door. Make friends with this man 😁
That car, the convertible, has exactly the same indicator and horn arm as both my Mark 1 Ford GT, the 3rd one made, and my Mark 1Lotus Cortina had. I found them much more useful than later types.
Wha a shame it didn’t fire up never knew they made convertible in the lotus brilliant barn find well done guys love to see this finished and running 👍🏽👍🏽
Awesome chap's 👌🏻
I love the color though! :D
What a stack of cortina’s he has lucky guy love those little cards not many in Australia unfortunately
Defin part 2 on this, takes me back to when i was a kid and my father had a ordinary cortina, and my then next door neighbour had a 1800e cortina, and then when i started driving in 1989 after a couple of years i had a mk2 escort which one friday night i blew a piston out of the block, luckily for me my brother had a mk2 with no tax or mot, so i bought the complete rolling shell off of him for £35 pound and flogged the rolling shell minus the engine for £15, i can remember after my father left after delivering the car i walked across the road with the donor mk2 engine in a wheelbarrow on the saturday afternoon, by mid morning sunday after much swearing and scuffed knuckles lining up the gearbox/engine starter motor gasket i had a newly running car, sweet £20 and a 13mm/15mm and i think a 10mm spanners and sockets, them were the days :) :) PART 2 johnny, PART 2 did i say PART 2 ?? :) :)
Excellent find
Love these Jonny, there my favourite. I find myself diagnosing the problems with you, willing it to start, to be fair most are successful and the satisfaction on everyone's face is great to see.
You have to put the BFF on the merch store, perhaps it could come already dusty with bits of twig stuck in it and perhaps an oil stain on one of the elbows, just a thought.??
Ha, I am looking into putting an officially endorsed BFF into production!
@@TheLateBrakeShow Complete with fake oil stains? 😁