LCR Forum

I assumed as it was presented like a show car attention would have been paid to the detail , but on reflexion it has been costomised to the owners taste. as for the other anomalys , if you are a Lotus Cortina owner " the devil is in the detail ".

He displays the car but doesn't present is "like a show car". Its a nice car and he has made it as he wants it to be.
I agree with you about detail. Its my want as well. So you can criticise my cars at the MK1 nationals next year.

Peter Meyer wrote:He displays the car but doesn't present is "like a show car". Its a nice car and he has made it as he wants it to be.
I agree with you about detail. Its my want as well. So you can criticise my cars at the MK1 nationals next year.

Did it ever occur to you i would be a Offical Judge at the Cortina Nationals
area of classification ; Detail.

I will have to lodge an official protest and check your credentials...hehe

Hi guys, sorry I havent been on in a while.

Like Peter said, I originaly posted to background the car & try & locate any previous owners & get some more history about the car.

Because I've been slack Ive got a few replies to some posts that may answer some questions.

toxicbugman wrote:So this was the Lotus at the Vic Small Ford Day , had rather large plates welded over were the chassis number would have been plus some strange parts for a Lotus.

This was the car at Small Ford Sunday. The reason for the large plates as I understand was because of the rough roads that the car traveled on on its little adventure down-under, these were put onto give it strength on the strut towers. They were put on around 1972 by the previous owner.

Peter Meyer wrote:More detail?
He doesn't use the brake booster and it is not on the car and it has a set of air horns I think but other than that.....and air horns are fairly out there..... but other than that I think its pretty good. What else do you see as strange?

Correct the brake booster is'nt being used because it tends to lock the wheels up under heavy braking. Ive driven the car as is & it still pulls up ok without it. Ive also herd that a few racing cortina's don't use them either.

As for the air horns, they were put in as part of an alarm system put in during the 80's when it was a daily driver used as transport to & from work everyday.

toxicbugman wrote:I assumed as it was presented like a show car attention would have been paid to the detail , but on reflexion it has been costomised to the owners taste. as for the other anomalys , if you are a Lotus Cortina owner " the devil is in the detail ".

As for the detail, alot of the previous modifications have been left on the car during its most recent restoration. The car could have been reverted back to original but alot of the period modifications have been left as a reminder of the cars history.

Some of them are :-

-The holes in the chassis rail where the sump guard was fitted for the trip.

-The singed Wires from when the car had an engine bay fire & ran of the road in Turkey.

The Lotus Badge on the back to cover a hole where switch for an alarm system.

I think all of these things reflect the cars colourful history. Which is the reason why they have been left.

I hope this answers a few questions.

We would also love to hear from anyone who knows anything else about this cars history to fill in any blank spots.

Apparently when the car left for its trip it was reported by an Essex newspaper & there was a pic of it with the bull-bar fitted & roof rack with a Union Jack on the front of it. If anyone by chance has a copy in their scrapbook or know where to look to hopefully get a copy it would be greatly appreciated

Here is a copy of the A Frame I made for the car with a timeline of the cars known history.



Also here is a map of the route taken in 1972 as far as we know, there are some differences to the actual London - Sydney marathon as there was a war between India & Pakistan so the car had to be shipped instead of driving between the two countries.

Hi, this might help somebody with the history of the car.

Its a great idea to have a sunroof for Afganistan ! but the truth is it was fitted before the idea of driving to Australia. The sun roof was fitted by a firm in Leyton, east London. The holes in the chassis was for a fitted sump guard, the car did catch fire in the engine compartment, 20miles west of Erzurum, Turkey, but the car was never left with locals. The hole in the back boot panel was for a alarm key switch and the buckled wheel is a mystery ? over12,500 mls and not one puncture or problem with the 4 plus two spare wheels and tyres.The news paper that reported the trip was the Ilford Recorder in Essex. Hope this helps

Thanks embee427.

Great to hear some more information about the car & to clear up some inacuracies the beleived true. I suppose its been a case of chinese whispers & guessing over the years.

The badge on sunroof says "connell bros leyton "& when it was recently dissmantled for restoration there was a date scratched in the back of the badge which we assume was the install date.

It was assumed the holes were for a bullbar as when the car was bought it came with a bullbar but wasnt fitted.

As for the buckled wheel it was included in the sale & was assumed that it was done on the trip. Dont know where it came from or how it got buckled.

Just a small note which Neale has neglected. It seems that embee427 is actually the original owner of this car anf the person who drove it to Australia! What a fantastic story and great kick for this forum.
The car is a marvel and as the history is now coming together, even better!

I've only just scanned this thread but it was noticeable how quickly the car's provenance was questioned but that is probably what forums like this are all about. I hope you'll excuse some opinion from a recently joined member.

Those who compete will know that a total replica ia acceptable for national/international historic competition provided it is built to original specification. The FIA issue Historic Technical Passports (HTP) to such cars and there are national equivalents issued by the MSA. A car does not need a continuous history to qualify.

DVLA and many others, including some fastidious owners simply do not understand the vagaries of keeping old cars on the road. We can all look after museum pieces, and they have their place but I'd rather use my cars. DVLA are concerned with continuous historyand the like and they rely on input from reputable cars clubs like this one when considering claims on original numbers or period numbers.

In my view, what is important is the integrity of the car's history. All cars are susceptible to slowly becoming ugly, inefficient and perhaps even dangerous. What about the slowly rotting shell? What about the pressed steel suspension components? What about the seat belt mounting plates, quietly rotting away? And it’s not just the steel components. What about the worn-out shock absorbers, sagging springs and ‘bushed’ bushes? What about the dodgy electrical components tired of a poor earth and years of use and neglect? All of these things, if we do not keep on top of them, conspire to make our lovely sports car a sad wreck and a poor example of the fine beast which left the factory all those years ago.

It seems to me that we have two choices. We either repair or change these components as and when necessary or we allow the car to deteriorate to the point where it is good only for a complete rebuild, the breakers yard and/or for sale as parts. As far as I am concerned the latter choice is unacceptable and one which must be avoided. So, on the grounds that the preferred option is always to keep the car in good condition, it is now a question of what we replace those parts with. The genuine factory component must be the preferred choice. If so, we may be able to claim that we have kept the car ‘original’. It’s a small step, however, from the factory fitted mild steel exhaust to the stainless competition variety – is this still an original car? How far can we go before we have a modified car? Does it matter if we paint the car a different colour, particularly if that colour was not an option from the factory? The endless list of factory options is a part of the problem. Who can say what is an original car? And why should ‘natural development’ detract from the car’s provenance? Racing cars are a good illustration. Peter Warr (I was lucky enough to have dinner with him a few years ago) told me that during his many years running Team Lotus that he considers it extremely unlikely that any Lotus F1 car ever competed in the same configuration twice. One thing is for sure: if, say, a Lotus 72 came onto the market, its provenance, and bear in mind here that it may not have a single component left over from the original build, would be decided not on its configuration at the time of sale but on its racing history. So what about road cars?

Natural development is just as much the right of a road car as it is a racing car. It is the owner’s choice at the time which decides the route taken. Not everyone may approve of his choice but whatever he did or does the change is now part of that car’s history. A change of exhaust may not be seen as a significant change to the car but re-sheling with a 'copy' shell certainly will be. The question is, does it matter? Well, of course it does, but why?

Well, first of all it’s important to the owner because it was his choice for his car. Secondly it will matter to any prospective purchaser of the car for he will want to know exactly what it is he is buying. It is not a question of whether changing a car’s configuration is right or wrong it is more a question of whether the result is good or bad. It is a matter of history, and history matters.

No doubt there are many of you who would never buy anything other than an ‘original’ car with only the correct parts (and good luck for I don't think you'll find one!). And no doubt there are many of you who would much rather have a recent replica or some other exciting development of the theme. Whatever your views, be proud of your car and its history. Only do things to it which are good and either maintain its originality or improve it in some way. Most importantly keep good records for knowing ‘what’ a car is can be much more enjoyable if you know ‘how’ it got to be like it.

Let’s keep them on the road, keep them good and keep detailed records. With a full history, everything can be ‘original’ and for all the right reasons even if it is different to the car which rolled out of the factory. If you don’t need to hide or cheat on provenance then the car is a good one.

When cheating on the provenance of car is used to make money then THAT is totally wrong and must be stamped out.

Continuous History is what matters.

This car has a great history and it is apparently well documented. We should praise it for what it is especially as we know how it got there.

you make a good point about the race cars that have been modified. For example if you had an ex works race car that was converted from a road car, would you keep it in race spec or revert it back to road spec because its more authentic.

Im sure you all have had the "experts" come up & make claims that the cars is a replica because something on the car is not exactly how they belive it came out of the factory.

At the end of the day the only person that has to be satisfied with the car is the owner.

I know that for example with this car we have enough proof that its the real deal & also hearing from previous owners not only backs it up, but also fills us in with the cars interesting history.

Its also great that resources like this forum are here to help people share information about these cars.

Mike S - that's a very well constructed response and you have made some excellent points there.

it comes down to honesty when buying a car and that is where the problems may start.price ranges differ wildly from original compared to replica. the tired looking early mk2 lc on e-bay is a perfect example of a car that will probably be re-shelled,but now the reg is shown it can be logged and that brought up if it get's offered in the future .of course sometimes memorys fade and reg numbers get mixed up,people might question a cars authenticity wrongly,but that is the time to raise them, before someone buys an expensive re-shell or what ever you like to call it.
i know of a car,not cortina, recently bought that turned out not to be what it was sold as.a lot of people knew this but never mentioned it when the car was up for sale,only for the new owner to find out later!! better to question before the cash gets spent.

This is a copy of the bill of unladen


This is the car being loaded onto the SS Australasia in Singapore

Wow, thanks for sharing. Its great that you still have that stuff.

Its great seeing the old photos. Just seeing how differently things were done. Now days I doubt you would even be able to get close to the car while they are loading it.

Are there any funny/interesting stories worthy of a mention from the trip.