Description:

This Lotus Cortina, chassis number BA74FY59220, was produced by Ford England at their Dagenham plant in 1965. As one of the first aero flow cars, 59220 was built with the leaf spring rear suspension layout as a Lotus Cortina Mk1.

The previous owner, Les Goble, is a pro driver that raced it 5 times at Goodwood in the St. Mary’s race, twice with Sir Stirling Moss and once with Jackie Oliver, and came second in the inaugural race in 1998.

Whilst in the current ownership, 59220 has been raced in U2TC, Masters, HTCC and CSCC. There have been a couple of podiums in that period!

The current owner has run the car successfully for the last 3 years with CCK Historic and is a reluctant seller primarily due to health issues that have precluded a regular race schedule. He has spent a considerable sum on the car since acquisition in developing it as a competitive car in its class and against other Lotus Cortinas in the various series.

There are invoicing records and time sheets from many tests, and all the races that 59133 has competed in recently, plus test data from the current VBOX HD, from a variety of the major circuits in the UK.

As it sits today, 59133 is presented with a new Lotus Twin-cam engine built by Neil Brown Engineering, the manufacturer of many of the front running Cortina engines, accompanied by a spare engine rebuilt by Neil Brown Engineering, both of which have less than 3 hours of run time. It has 2014 FIA HTPs and a spares package. Safety equipment is all valid and in date, and also comes with a spare seat and seatbelts for passengers – very useful for driver training.

As a genuine Lotus Cortina Mk1 restored to FIA specification, 59220 is a fantastic route into historic touring car racing. Whether it be in U2TC, Masters Pre-66 Touring Cars, HSCC Touring Cars, CSCC or one of the other many series in which it can be raced, 59220 is a hugely enjoyable, confidence inspiring Lotus Cortina which has been shown to be a competitive car in the major series whilst driven by Nigel Greensall, a recognised professional driver with significant success in historic racing and latterly with the current owner in his maiden class victory in the Classic K race in the CSCC series at Brands Hatch in June 2018.

Now with the new Neil Brown Engineering engine and light weight roll cage, the potential for many more wins in the right hands is significant.