Lotus Cortina Police Cars

[Keith Halstead]

I have been researching the history of my car GBP 1C and have just stumbled on the car with the chassis number following mine, namely GBP 5C – this was also amongst the first batch to be delivered to the Sussex Police in 1965.

The current owner bought the car in 1969 & used it for 12 years before laying it up for a future restoration – unfortunately the storage wasn’t always in ideal conditions, so it has suffered a bit as you can see from the pics.

Restoration should begin soon following a house move giving access to a larger garage.

I also learned that the police only used these cars until 1967 & not 1968 as previously thought, plus they never had alloy boot, bonnet & doors.

So now I know the whereabouts of GBP 1C, 3C, 5C & 9C – only a few to go.

 

[martin k]

i wonder if you have ever found out during your investigations, about mk2 l/cs used by the police?

 

[Steve 155C]

In the March issue its got a small feature of on a guy who has one of the 4 door MK11's.

I'd like to see some pictures of these in full kit. Can anyone shed any light on the 4 doors?

 

[Lashman]

Good work Keith, It'll be great to see another GBP car out and about.
Cheers
Louis
P.S Looking forward to Andy G getting stuck into his mk2 LC police car... :roll:

 

[Keith Halstead]

i wonder if you have ever found out during your investigations, about mk2 l/cs used by the police?

I did have some discussion with a chap on the Isle of Wight who has one of the two door Mk2 cars - I sent him a photocopy of my parts list supplement for the police special cars plus there is a 4 door Lotus Mk2 which is currently being restored by someone in the Mk2 owners club who I have regular dealings with.

 

[Keith Halstead]

In the March issue its got a small feature of on a guy who has one of the 4 door MK11's.

I'd like to see some pictures of these in full kit. Can anyone shed any light on the 4 doors?

Steve - March issue of what?

I do have some pics of Mk2 cars in full kit which I obtained from the police Vehicle owners club. I'll see if I can scan them and include in this post tomorrow.

 

[Mark Cramond]

i wonder if you have ever found out during your investigations, about mk2 l/cs used by the police?

I did have some discussion with a chap on the Isle of Wight who has one of the two door Mk2 cars - I sent him a photocopy of my parts list supplement for the police special cars plus there is a 4 door Lotus Mk2 which is currently being restored by someone in the Mk2 owners club who I have regular dealings with.

Four Door MKII Lotus Cortina? I would assume that this was a special build for the Police. Was it built by Ford/Lotus or would it have been built by someone else?

 

[Rob]

Keith,
Does the 4 door car belong to the guy I sold my old Mk2 Lotus to last year as he said he was restoring one? Nice fella. I keep on bumping into him at shows.

 

[Keith Halstead]

I'm not sure of the bloke's name who has the Mk2 as I was show a picture by John Chapman of the MK2 Owners Club - it was a special Ford build I think he said. There was a lot of doubt around at first as to it's provenance, but was backed up as genuine by the club.

 

[Keith Halstead]

Best pic I have of GBP5C is this one I'm afraid :-

 

[Keith Halstead]

I had a conversation with another one of the retired police drivers of GBP 1C yesterday & he gave me some more useful background info :-

- The cars were used as mules by Lotus to provide durability details on parts
- The car regularly went round the race circuit & Graham Hill, Denis Hulme & Bruce Maclaren all drove it round Goodwood at a meeting
- The ally doors were replaced by steel by police
- The A frame was removed as it was always failing
- Recaro fitted a seat for a trial
- The seat belts were made by Wingard (factory opposite the nick)

 

[tommy]

Keith were these police cars originally fitted with alloy panels? :? I thought the alloy parts were deleted before the airflow cars were in production. I know my airflow A frame is an all steel car. Seems odd to special order them with alloy panels and then take them back off again.
Tommy

 

[Keith Halstead]

This is what I am told by the ex-drivers, but I have no way of knowing personally.

Two drivers have stated this in their accounts of what they remember.

 

[Bertil]

Early facelift cars had alloy panels, my has a door in alloy and the boot in steel. Bonnet and the other door is changed so I don´t know about them, but the alloy door and the bootlid is from factory. What I have heard is that Lotus used up what they got in stock and that early facelift cars could very well have a mix of alloy and steel. My car confirms this to be true.

Has anybody heard of pre facelift cars with steel parts? I have not.

 

[Michael Winstock]

It is fairly common knowledge that after the official abandonment of aluminium panels in July 1964, cars were produced for a while with a mixture of steel and aluminium panels, presumably to use up stocks of the latter.
It was also possible to have aluminium panels as optional extras after July 1964 although how long this option was available is not recorded.
On a point of detail, the aeroflow ventilation system (with all the other changes commonly referred to as the facelift) was not introduced until October 1964 so the aluminium/steel panel change date did not coincide with this.

 

[tommy]

If my memory of the chassis numbers in quarter bumper is correct, these police cars are June 65 built cars so are almost a year after the alloy phase out. Bearing that in mind, any alloy bits should by then have been special order as a standard Lotus Cortina was all steel by then, as is my July 65 built car.
Tommy
P.S. I think there must be a bit of train spotter in all of us to be interested in all these little details. :roll:

 

[Keith Halstead]

In one account by a police driver he complained that at speed, the door window frames used to flex open and you could see daylight - presumably the same went for the wind & rain. Steel ones would not have had this issue I guess.

This can also be seen on the DVD of the race car at Goodwood (St Mary's trophy) when the car was at full tilt, the window frame was flapping about.

 

[tommy]

Window frame is still steel even on an alloy skin door Keith. My Talbot Sunbeam suffers from the same thing and it gets gradually worse above about 80 mph.
Tommy

 

[Keith Halstead]

Oh well, there goes that theory - funnily enough I had another email today & he has conferred with another driver & they agree they were ally after all.... extract below :-

" I have been able to establish that our Lotuses did not in fact have steel doors fitted. An approach was made to D.Rowe & Sons, the Ford dealer in The Hornet at Chichester but when the weight of the two doors was compared, it was instantly decided to stick with the aluminium ones and hope they didn't fall off!"

 

[Bertil]

On a point of detail, the aeroflow ventilation system (with all the other changes commonly referred to as the facelift) was not introduced until October 1964 so the aluminium/steel panel change date did not coincide with this.

Sorry but I must say you are wrong here. My car is built sept -64 Z74D424xxxL and that is an airflow car. The first airflow stated in the FIA classification for the facelift says the first Lotus Cortina facelift is numbered Z74D424397E and that is an august code on that car. That car is in Sweden to.