Ohio Lotus Cortina circa 1970

[Chuck Byram]

I owned a mk 1 Lotus Cortina in Toledo, Ohio in 1970-71. I bought it from a guy who had recently moved from the Chicago area. Someone had neatly stenciled: "Powered by Lotus" in Sherwood Green on the passenger side of the vertical part of the trunk lid. I eventually sold it to another guy named Chuck From the Columbus area if memory serves for $100.00 after throwing a rod on the Ohio Turnpike. I still have dreams about that car. I wonder what happebed to it?
Chuck

[Dave1800BDA]

hi chuck, that must of been really strange owning such a car over there, it must have been dwarfed by the size of the big yank tanks and muscle cars of the time

[Chuck Byram]

Hi Dave,
There were other small european cars around back then, so the size of the car wasn't so much of a factor. VWs, Renaults, Fiats, "plain vanilla" Cortinas and a few others weren't uncommon. The LC was a true exotic in my part of the world. I doubt that there were 100 people in that city of a half million people who even knew what it was. It's hard to be a snob when when nobody knows what you're driving.
Chuck

[Steve 155C]

Hi Chuck. If you feel the need to become a LC owner again you need to get back in the market quick. Until recently cars in the US were changing hands for cheap money (ie Between $10K and $20K) compared with the rest of the world.

The USA has now woken up to what a bargain they were and now you regularly here prices near $40K for the nice ones.

Ok - so they're not up to the $200K that some of your vintage US cars are making - the prices certainly aren't going down.

[garyeanderson]

Bob Woolner has photos of a Lotus Cortina roller on his web page that was in Cleveland, Ohio area. I believe its be sold but the photos are still there with a contact name and email. I think its out in Seattle area now.

http://www.lotus-cortina.com/photos/shell/shell.htm

[TYS]

Someone has got there work cut out trying to get that back on the road!