When I was a small boy, we had next door neighbours named John and Margaret. John loved his fast cars and one car in particular always had me rushing to look out of the front window when I heard it coming up the street. (Which also led me to being told off by my Mum for messing up her curtains!)
I loved the sound of it and I loved the look of it. I've loved them all my life, but never thought I'd ever be able to afford one.
They have always been way out of my price range and the only way that I would ever be able to own one was if a restoration project was to come up for sale. The trouble is, they are so desirable, that when they do come up for sale, they get snapped up straight away.
This time though, I'd had been lucky. I was told of a car in Harwich and made arrangements to go and look at it the same day that I heard about it. A deal was done and finally, finally, I had my dream car!

The object of my desire? A Lotus Cortina Mk1. A very special car indeed. The first 'Fast Ford' and one of only 3,306 Mk1's ever built. A famous car that was responsible the demise of the Mk2 Jaguar in saloon car racing (The Jags couldn't keep up with the Lotus!) and also becoming infamous as one was owned by master criminal Bruce Reynolds and used on reconnaissance prior to the Great Train Robbery. (In case he needed to make a quick getaway!)

So Sunday morning I drove up to good friend Colin Wake's place north of Colchester where we jumped into his Land Rover Discovery, hooked up his trailer and made the short journey to Harwich to collect the Lotus Cortina. 

We loaded the twin cam engine first as it was out of the car, and then loaded the car backwards onto the trailer as most of the weight was in the boot. (Cylinder head, radiator, starter motor etc.)

The car has been used for rallying in its past, hence the black bonnet, wing tops and doors. However, it's also been off the road since 1977 which will present me with quite a challenge in getting it mobile again. Being built in 1966, it's only actually spent 11 years on the road, although it's still close on 60 years old, so there's a lot that will need replacing. (Plus, I suspect those 11 years were quite gruelling!)

We had a good drive from Harwich to my place where upon arrival, we had to move my other cars out of the way, so that we could get this one in the garage. 

With this done and after some lunch and a cup of tea, we then loaded my four door Cortina onto the trailer as due to my lack of space, this is now going to live at Colin's for a little while. 

Now as much as I love Cortina's, four is just too many. Parts for a Lotus Cortina can also be ridiculously expensive, so I've made the decision to sell the Zetec Cortina and the Nissan powered Cortina to free up space and also provide some funds to restore the Lotus. 
It was a brilliant day though and I now finally have my dream car. I'm over the moon! 😊

 This morning saw a very early start as I had an MOT booked at 07.40. I booked it early as I wanted to get out and get back before the bank holiday weekend traffic built up. I had had also had a little bit of an over heating problem while test driving it previously, so that was another reason for not wanting to get caught in traffic. (The electric fan wasn't cutting in, so I'd used the manual override)
However, I'd given the radiator a real good flushing out since then and I had no such problems whilst driving to the MOT station. 

The MOT went well and a clean bill of health was pronounced with no advisories. I celebrated by taking the rest of the day off. 😉

Having retired from the Goodwood Stages in December 2023 in DVY, it’s been a long and slow road to return. On that event, we’d lost fifth gear, blown the engine and had a small oil fire; and they were only the headlines. We’d hoped to be out in DVY in March 2024 on the North West Stages, but that didn’t happen for reasons outside of our control, and we got her engine back in August 2024. We entered the Rixy stages in December 2024 but with moving home and some family events, we had to withdraw, and it took us some time to find something we wanted to do. We settled on the Mewla over the Bank Holiday weekend in August, as it’s not too far from home, pace notes are always fun and why not?!

I’ve never co-driven over Epynt so I ordered the notes whilst Gavin spent lots of time getting DVY ready. Aside from the obvious bits, she needed a new plumbed in fire extinguisher, and there were some other improvements we’d identified (as well as putting her through an MOT). The Mewla is 55 stage miles in a total route of 120 miles, including 6 miles of new closed road stage mileage and the opportunity to do a one pass recce on the Saturday.

After a good recce on Saturday, we went to noise and scrutineering before returning to our accommodation for the night. SS1 and SS2 went ok, with the exception of Gavin finding the handbrake didn’t lock the rear as expected so we went up a bank on a hairpin – yes, it was captured on camera! However come SS3, it was immediately apparent from where I was sitting that Gavin was feeling happier and was pushing on more. The closed road parts of the stages before getting onto the ranges were interesting, as was the linking of various bits of stage to create more variation as the day went on.

We kept getting quicker as the day went on and improved on our seeding, and DVY didn’t miss a beat; she needed some fuel, but aside from that and tyre pressures / torquing nuts she wasn’t touched all day. Gavin has worked very hard on prepping her over many months, which got more intense in the last few weeks, so I’m pleased for him (and us!) to have a finish in the bag. Servicing with friends / fellow Tavern members is good, the sun shone and we had an enjoyable date out.

Now we need to plan some more events…

Videos:

External footage from various stages, thanks to Pescara Productions

Onboard, SS3

Onboard, SS4

Onboard, SS5

Onboard, SS6

Onboard, SS7

Photos: my own, Race & Rally Photos, JMS Photography