Australian Lotus.

toxicbugman · Post by **toxicbugman** » Tue 1st Feb 2011 7:37 am

Tommy about july of 1965 i was with another apprentice buying driving lights for his new GTCortina at RYANS an automotive spares and accessory outlet, across the road was the Ford dealer Melford Motors which occupied a wonderful Art Deco building, as i was thinking about buying a Cortina Robert suggested we go across and have a look , to our astonishment there in the window was a Lotus Cortina, there are a number of Australian terms to discribe our reactions " creaming your jeans, or wetting your pants " are two that come to mind, to cut this story short Melfords were importing Lotus Cars through Ford Australia.In my early research in the 90 s five cars turned out to have been bougth from Melfords and remained road cars until their disappearance, thats not to say they were the only ones, and now that we have all these Privcy Laws it is difficult dig out info.

Post by **tommy** » Tue 1st Feb 2011 9:18 am

Well there's another problem then, as apparently lotus changed the way they kept records about mid 65, so there seem to be no factory records from then on.
If you have a car built before this the lotus factory archive can be contacted to find out what's in the day books on your car. My car is July 65 build and when I contacted lotus, I was told the archives did not have any records from that period.
Tommy

cortina-mk1 · Post by **cortina-mk1** » Tue 1st Feb 2011 10:55 am

i thought you could buy LC from any ford dealer here in OZ

but i wasnt around then so i dont really know for sure

robertverhey · Post by **robertverhey** » Tue 1st Feb 2011 11:31 am

Cortinas were manufactured in Sydney and Melbourne (not sure about adelaide). Lotus cortinas were never made in Oz, nor were they dealer imported. I guess there may have been some special order imports through the dealers, but it certainly wasn't offered in the catalogue!

No 2-door GTs either. Closest we came was the 4-door GT, and the (arguably more collectable) GT500, a holologation special of which approx 110 were built.

cortina gt500 · Post by **cortina gt500** » Tue 1st Feb 2011 11:46 am

In 1965 I ordered a new Lotus Cortina from the local Ford dealer in Australia at a quoted price of 1600 pounds. However, a fortnight later they advised that the price had increased to 1800 pounds, which was a little out of my reach. I bought a GT500 instead and still have it.

I have seen Lotus Cortinas imported through our Ford dealers and they carry a Ford Australia ID plate as well as the British plate.

Norm

Post by **Rick** » Tue 1st Feb 2011 12:03 pm

From the details on the register, we know of nine 1963 LCs that have been in Australia, one of which ( that we know about) has returned to the UK, cannot say if these were imported from new or have been bought at a later date, only two have a chassis number that are close to each other so may have been sent over as new, but this is just a guess. blip blip blip.

toxicbugman · Post by **toxicbugman** » Tue 1st Feb 2011 9:46 pm

Well !!!!!!! " stone the crows and suck the sav " not just one " blip "
BUT THRREEEE.

toxicbugman · Post by **toxicbugman** » Fri 18th Mar 2011 10:51 pm

Peter Meyer,
the" grape vine "

says you have the ear to all the lotus owners in NSW so is the oldest Lotus in your state and if so what year and month ??