Saturday 8th November - Billlericay Breakfast meet

The plan for today was to take the Zetec Cortina to the meet and give it a run out. However, pulling away from my house we were met with a horrible scraping noise that was obviously something catching while it was rotating. 
Not having time to investigate, we switched over to the Green Cortina and went in that instead. Due to our poor experience and waiting so long for our breakfast at the Cosy Cup Cafe at the last breakfast meet, we decided to stop at the 'My Place Cafe' on the way down there. This was a much better experience and the food was spot on.
We arrived at the meet which already had a quite a number of cars there. Good friends Gavin and Keith were there and John and Rachel arrived soon after.
There were some quite unusual cars there including a Bond Bug. I haven't seen one of these for ages and I'd forgotten how 'quirky' they are. 

It was a lovely morning and very mild for November and it was very pleasant looking around the cars. We had to leave around 11.30 though as we had other plans. It had been a lovely morning out though and well worth going. 

Tuesday 21st October - Disappointing service from Atspeed.

 In January 2024, my Green Cortina had a rolling road session at Atspeed. They did a fantastic job and the car was running really well. 

Since then however, I have had my 'breathing' issue in which I have had to alter the pipework as the breather hose from the engine was going to the remote brake servo instead of the inlet manifold which isn't correct. The pipe from the engine breather needs to go to the inlet manifold in order to suck the gasses out of the engine. If it doesn't do this, then you will get crankcase compression and the engine oil will spray out of the dipstick tube.

Needless to say, changing this then altered the characteristics of the breathing through the inlet manifold and my engine is now running lean and not getting enough fuel.
 I explained all of this when I took the car in to Atspeed and asked them to look at the fuel jetting and give it a dynotune. 
I dropped the car off on Monday afternoon and I received a phone call on Tuesday morning asking me why I had brought it back. So I then explained again, and was told that my breather pipe was on wrong and that it should go to the remote brake servo. I told then that that's how it was before and it caused crank case compression and sprayed oil out of the dipstick tube, so I asked him not to alter the breathing and just alter the carburettor jets instead. He didn't seem happy with that though.
When I collected the car, I got my wallet out and went to pay and was told it was free of charge. I asked if he was sure, and again was told that it was free. I then drove the car home and found out why it was free. It was free because they hadn't done anything to it!

I then rang them the following morning and asked why nothing had been done and was told 'Well you think its right, I think it's wrong, so I didn't do it'. I repeated that it isn't wrong and again explained the situation. He then said again that the breather from the engine should go to the remote brake servo, but I then pointed out that these cars never had a remote brake servo when new, so where would the breather have gone then? 
He still wouldn't accept that the breather was correct and carried on telling me that he didn't do my car because it wasn't correct. I was more annoyed that he didn't even have the decency to tell me that he hadn't done it when I collected it. What kind of customer service is that? 
I booked the car in with him to cure the lean running and alter the jets in the carburettor, I didn't book it in with him to look at the breathing.
I really don't understand his mentality as his refusal to do it has lost him around £400. (That's the approximate price of a dynotune.) What a way to run a business! 

It's a shame because I've used Atspeed many times before and recommended them to numerous people, but after this experience I'll never use then again and wont be recommending them to anyone. 
Since this ordeal, I've spoked to other people about them and found that they've had issues with them as well, so it appears they've already got a poor reputation.

I've also since spoken to Redline Racing at Laindon and will be booking the car in with them. They did a good job on my Zetec Cortina, but I didn't book the Green Cortina in with them as I didn't think they were a Weber carburettor specialist, but it turns out they are, so that will be my preference in future. 

Sunday 19th October - Battlesbridge Breakfast meet.

This was to be the last Battlesbridge meet for this year, so needless to say, quite a few people came. We had also been promised rain from 11am onwards, so a lot of people got there early with a view to leaving when the rain arrived.  

I brought the Zetec Cortina to this meet just to keep it in use and also to run the new tyres in a bit. It looked good with it's different wheels and I was tempted to put the for sale signs in it, but decided to leave it until next spring. (Nothing is really selling at present-I think this hopeless Labour Government has got everyone too scared to spend money in case they want it!) 

The rain that was promised didn't materialise, so we stayed there until lunchtime. All in all it was a good day and nice to finish the season on a high. 

Saturday 18th October - Billericay Breakfast meet.

 With the classic car season almost drawing to a close I decided to get a few more meets in. The cosy cup cafe at Billericay is the location for a breakfast meet and is a nice friendly place to go. 

I decided to take my Green Cortina to this one as I hadn't been out in it for a while. It's not running quite right, but it's booked in for a dynotune soon, so hopefully that will resolve that. 

It was a good meet, although I don't think I'll be eating there again. The food is great, but the service is appalling. it took 40 minutes from joining the queue to receiving our food. That's 40 minutes I'd rather spend outside looking at cars and talking to friends. 

It was still a good meet though and there was some nice cars to look at. The location is also hard standing, so hopefully it will carry on throughout the winter. 

Friday 17th October - A change of wheels.

 After the exhaustion of the 2000 mile Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Run, I took a short holiday down to Cornwall. It felt a bit weird driving down to Bude in Cornwall on the Saturday only having been there six days before, but it was a much needed rest and very enjoyable. 

I was back home by Thursday, so on Friday I decided to change the wheels on the Zetec Cortina. I had been wondering if it was the black wheels that was putting off potential buyers and a friend had emailed me a link to ebay that showed a brand new set of four JBW wheels for £100, which I promptly bought. 
However, when the wheels arrived one of them was the wrong PCD and therefore wouldn't fit. Also, there was only one hubcap sent when there should have been four. When I rang JBW to point out their error, they then found that they didn't have another wheel to send me. The original advert was for a set of 4 x 13 inch by 6 inch wide wheels. Because it was the end of the line, they didn't have another 6 inch wide wheel in stock. After a lengthy discussion they agreed to take the incorrect wheel and another 6 inch wide wheel back and send me two 5.5 inch wide wheels instead. (Plus the missing three hubcaps) 

With the the 5.5 inch wheels now in my possession, I fitted the new tyres and got to work putting them on the car. I must admit, I'm happy with the look and hopefully, it will gain more interest when I put it up for sale. 

Saturday & Sunday 4th & 5th October - Club Triumph reliability rally 2025

 Although I no longer own any Triumph cars, I had, last year, already booked up to do the Club Triumph RBRR with a good friend of mine, Richard Warr. Due to me no longer owning a Triumph, it was agreed to enter in Richard's Mk1 saloon. 
In recent months our other friend, Colin Wake had joined us due to his co-driver letting him down and dropping out.
As a ritual, we all normally meet for a carvery in Knebworth before the 6pm start time. Unfortunately, our usual haunt was closed due to refurbishment, so we had to find somewhere else to eat. Fortunately for me, that was in Baldock where I'd also had to drop off my lotus Cortina gearbox and differential at Herts & Beds Transmissions. 

After a good meal in the pub, we set off for the start at Knebworth House. It had been raining since I'd got up that morning and warnings of 'Storm Amy' doing her best to wreck the northern part of Britain were being broadcast regularly. 

After a few hours of coffee drinking and catching up with old friends, our start time was upon us and we headed out onto the wet and windy A1 to head north. 
The rain was still coming down heavily but we made good time and before long we were at the first control at Wetherby Services in Yorkshire. A quick Latte and a top up of fuel and we were on our way again. 
Around half midnight we were at the English/Scottish border. The wind was now very strong and none of us were looking forward to going even further north to see what storm Amy was up to in the highlands. 

Our next stop was Kinross services and the wind and rain was still battering us mercilessly. Another quick coffee here and I jumped into the driver seat and completed the long and boring restricted 60 mph  drive up the pitch black A9 towards Inverness. 
There was lots of evidence that Storm Amy had travelled this route before us as told by the amount of trees that were no longer vertical. 
We took on more fuel at the next control at Skiach services and then pressed on for breakfast at John O Groats. 

After a very slow breakfast, we were on our way again and now heading south. We stuck to the proposed route, but then encountered the A82 (The road that runs alongside Loch Ness) being closed between Invergarry and Spean Bridge due to power cables being brought down by the storm. We found a diversion that took us underneath Loch Ness and brought us out at Spean Bridge and down towards Fort William. This diversion had lost us time, so we decided to head over Glencoe to grab some time back. This would have been ok if Glencoe was open, but that was closed as well. So, we had no other choice but to drive down towards Oban and then cut back across towards Glasgow. (Which is a long way round!)

By the time we got to the next control we were two hours behind and most of the other cars had left. There was also no food and coffee left, so we got going as soon as possible and hoped that we could make some time up. 
I took the driver's seat and did some 'spirited' driving and got us down to Tebay services (The next control) in under two hours. We were in for more disappointment here as the services were closing at 10.30pm and could only do us a cup of tea and a pie! Not impressed!
Richard and Colin shared the next stint of driving down to Wales while I caught up on some sleep in the back seat. 

Gledrid services was the next stop and they were also closed except for fuel. No toilets, or shop! We were suffering from lack of caffeine at this point, so we headed straight for the next stop at Monmouth Services. Fortunately, this was open and we were able to get some coffee inside us at last. 
I took the next stint down the pitch black M5 towards Exeter and then the A30 towards the next control at Oakhampton in Devon. 

We reached the control and found that it wasn't yet open, so we had done really well in catching up our lost time. With our roadbook signed and returned we set out for Lands End and I grabbed some more sleep in the back seat. 
Breakfast at Lands End was a nice un-rushed affair and provided us with a decent break away from the car. The next few stops would all be taking us in a homeward direction and after the torrential rain and gale force winds we had suffered all weekend, it wasn't a bad thing. 

By the time we were pulling into the next control at Bude castle, the rain had finally, finally stopped. A welcome cup of coffee was on the agenda and then we were off again to Gurston Down hill start which was the next control. 
The queue for coffee here was a tad excessive, so we brewed our own with Richards cooker. All too soon it was time to hit the road again and my turn to be in the driver seat. 
Popham airfield was our next and penultimate control and it was only 37 miles away, so only took just over an hour. We skipped coffee at this control as the satnav was predicting an arrival at Knebworth at 19.15, but we still had the M3 & M25 to battle with yet. 
Richard took the driver seat for the last leg so that he would be driving when we arrived at Knebworth. (It's an unwritten rule that if it's your car, then you leave the start in it and drive into the finish in it)

After a little bit of traffic we arrived at the finish at the predicted satnav time of 19.15. Richard and I were staying in a hotel, but Colin was going straight home, so we said our goodbyes and then Richard and I headed for the Premier Inn in Stevenage. 

Despite the awful conditions, (Hence the lack of photos!) we still managed to have a good weekend. The car never missed a beat and performed really well. Even the windscreen wipers coped with everything storm Amy threw at it. 

All in all, it really was a good weekend, but it would be really nice to have a dry one. I've been doing this event since 2010 and the only dry one we've had was in 2016! 

Saturday 27th September - Differential removal.

 Following on from removing the gearbox and propshaft the night before, I now had to remove the differential. 
This has to start with removing the drive shafts first which didn't take long, although upon removing the driver side one, the keeper plate fell out as it was in two pieces. (See below)

My first thoughts were that it had broken, but on closer inspection it appears to have been cut. I've no idea why someone would have done that, especially seeing as the passenger side one was intact. Very odd! 

Anyway, I carried on removing the diff as I need to take this and the gearbox to my transmission man in a few weeks. 
After removing the diff I counted the teeth on the crown wheel and pinion and found that the ratio was 3:9. The diff ratio in these cars should be 4:9, but that will be too 'screamy' for my purposes, so I'll probably have mine built to 3:54. 
The diff appears to be in good condition and the oil that I drained from it was a nice rich green colour. The oil that I removed from the gearbox was a very clean gold colour too, so hopefully they wont require too much work. 

Friday 26th September - Gearbox removal!

 In an attempt to get at more of the underneath of the car so I can clean and paint it, I decided to remove the gearbox. The gearbox will have to be inspected and checked over at some point anyway, so it made sense to take it out. 

It was all fairly straightforward with the only real awkward bit being the remote gear selector. This gearbox is the same that was fitted into the Lotus Elan so the gear stick would have come out in a different place in that car. 
I also removed the propshaft and centre bearing whilst I was at it and then called it a day. 

Tuesday 23rd September - Front axle removal

 My mission today was to remove the front axle along with the track control arms and anti-roll bar. This wasn't too bad a job although every single rubber bush was knackered and will need replacing. It wasn't really surprising as all of these bushes are 60 years old now and rubber perishes easily at that age. 

With the bushes removed I then turned my attention to the front axle and gave it a good scrubbing. It was painted in red oxide rather than black, so I wonder if it was replaced at some point in it's past. 

Friday 19th September - Top plates

 Another job that needs doing on the Lotus Cortina is the top plates. A previous owner, instead of doing them properly had just fitted protective plates over the top. 
I'd originally thought that they were riveted on, but closer inspection revealed that they were bolted on with Alan key bolts. 
after a bit of struggle, I managed to undo all of the bolts and remove the plates. The top plates underneath were not in great shape and look like they've already been replaced in the past previously. 
Another job out of the way, but I just need to find someone who can weld in the replacements now. 

Tuesday 16th September - Degreasing and cleaning

Restoring cars always has its horrible jobs and I started on one of these recently. With the car on its side, I made a start on cleaning up the underneath. This wont be a five minute job and I will be breaking off occasionally to do other jobs so things don't get too monotonous. 
I found a really good degreaser and gave the floor a good coating before attacking it with a hard brush to see what dirt and grease would come off and what wouldn't. 
I was very pleased with the results as a good cleaning showed that the floor pans were all original and no replacing or welding would be required. Some of the cross members are a bit battered and dented no doubt due to its rallying history, but nothing too severe. 

It was interesting to find that these cars were never rust proofed or protected when they were built and had to get by with just normal paint. With this in mind, I'm surprised so many of them have survived! 

Sunday 7th September - A new toy to make life easy!

After my recent exploits underneath the Cortina and getting covered in crap, I had decided to look into 'car tilters' or 'rotisseries'. The bottom side of the car is actually in very good order and still retains its original floor pans. 
However, it also has a lot of flakey paint and grease which will need a good wire brushing and de-greasing. I really don't fancy laying underneath the car and doing this job, so I decided to look for something to make life easier. 
Two days after making this decision, I found a rotisserie on ebay. Even better, it was already set up for a Mk1 Cortina. I contacted the seller and we came to an agreeable price and I collected it on my way home. 

So today, I had a bit of free time and decided to set it up. The  seller had made some printouts for me, so it was easy enough to follow and put together. It's absolutely ideal and my initial fears about space were unfounded. 

This really will make life easy and speed things up somewhat. Spinning the car on its side will allow me to get at all of the floor and also remove the front suspension and clean and re-bush that too. I was very lucky to find this marvellous piece of equipment and the beauty of it is, I can always sell it once I've finished with it. 😊

 

Sunday 31st August - Fuel tank removal (One of them anyway!)

I had a spare hour or so today, so I decided to quickly remove the fuel tank on the Lotus Cortina. It didn't actually take long as most of the 'lip' that connects it to the boot floor had rotted and was missing anyway! I think I undid a total of about four bolts and it came out! 
As you can see from the pics below, it was in very poor condition indeed and is only fit for scrap. 

Whilst underneath the car I noticed that the some kind of 'shield' was fitted to protect the tank. It's almost like a sump guard, only for a petrol tank. Bearing in mind that this used to be a rally car, I think years and years of wet mud had been getting stuck in between the shield and the tank causing it to rot out. (See tank shield below)

The other odd thing was that when I went to disconnect the fuel lines from the tank prior to removal, I found that there were no fuel lines attached any way! 

What my car does have though is an additional fuel tank in between the rear wheel arches. It's actually a Cortina Mk1 estate tank. 
Now, when Fords were having these cars 'homogolated', whatever extras were fitted to the 'works' rally and race cars, had to be offered for sale to Ford customers as well. So it looks like whoever owned this car from new, requested the additional fuel tank. (I'm not surprised, the standard Mk1 tank only holds 8 gallons!)
I have a picture of one of the tanks from a works car in a book and the tank and the mounting bracket are identical. (Although the filler neck is in a different place. (See below)

This is a fantastic period addition and I've already been offered good money for it. However, its part of the cars history and will be staying put. I wouldn't mind betting that there are very few cars left with this set up, if any at all! 

Saturday 30th August. Work begins!

 Pushing the Lotus Cortina off of the trailer and into the garage the previous Sunday hadn't been difficult, but hadn't exactly been easy either. It was evident that some of the brakes were partly stuck on and my visit to the garage this morning had revealed that two of the tyres had gone soft as well. 
So, I jacked the car up, got it on axle stands and removed the wheels. The wheels are all genuine Lotus '881A' steels, so that's good. Not so good is that they have fifty year old Dunlop 175x13 tyres on, so they will be removed at a later date when I have the wheels refurbished.

I then removed the front brake callipers and was happy to find that theses were the correct 'P16' and 'front facing' type as well. I also checked the struts while I was at it and was pleased to find that these are the correct 39cm struts as opposed to standard 41cm Cortina struts. (A lot of Lotus Cortina's were robbed of their 'sporty and upgraded bits' back in the day, so I wanted to check if anything was missing)

I then moved onto the rear brakes and found that these were a bit more challenging. None of the brake pipes to the wheel cylinders wanted to come undone, so it was a case of cutting the brake pipes to release the fluid and then using a hammer to knock the brake drums off. Once again, I found that the rear drums and shoes were the correct type for the car. 

While I was underneath the car and already very dirty, I decided to remove the exhaust. This needed a bit of brute force in the form of hammers and an angle grinder and promptly disintegrated while I was attacking it. In fact, it left so much rust on the floor, that when I picked up my spanners, their silhouette remained! 

Sunday 24th August. I finally take possession of my dream car!

 When I was a small boy, we had next door neighbours named John and Margaret. John loved his fast cars and one car in particular always had me rushing to look out of the front window when I heard it coming up the street. (Which also led me to being told off by my Mum for messing up her curtains!)
I loved the sound of it and I loved the look of it. I've loved them all my life, but never thought I'd ever be able to afford one.
They have always been way out of my price range and the only way that I would ever be able to own one was if a restoration project was to come up for sale. The trouble is, they are so desirable, that when they do come up for sale, they get snapped up straight away.
This time though, I'd had been lucky. I was told of a car in Harwich and made arrangements to go and look at it the same day that I heard about it. A deal was done and finally, finally, I had my dream car!

The object of my desire? A Lotus Cortina Mk1. A very special car indeed. The first 'Fast Ford' and one of only 3,306 Mk1's ever built. A famous car that was responsible the demise of the Mk2 Jaguar in saloon car racing (The Jags couldn't keep up with the Lotus!) and also becoming infamous as one was owned by master criminal Bruce Reynolds and used on reconnaissance prior to the Great Train Robbery. (In case he needed to make a quick getaway!)

So Sunday morning I drove up to good friend Colin Wake's place north of Colchester where we jumped into his Land Rover Discovery, hooked up his trailer and made the short journey to Harwich to collect the Lotus Cortina. 

We loaded the twin cam engine first as it was out of the car, and then loaded the car backwards onto the trailer as most of the weight was in the boot. (Cylinder head, radiator, starter motor etc.)

The car has been used for rallying in its past, hence the black bonnet, wing tops and doors. However, it's also been off the road since 1977 which will present me with quite a challenge in getting it mobile again. Being built in 1966, it's only actually spent 11 years on the road, although it's still close on 60 years old, so there's a lot that will need replacing. (Plus, I suspect those 11 years were quite gruelling!)

We had a good drive from Harwich to my place where upon arrival, we had to move my other cars out of the way, so that we could get this one in the garage. 

With this done and after some lunch and a cup of tea, we then loaded my four door Cortina onto the trailer as due to my lack of space, this is now going to live at Colin's for a little while. 

Now as much as I love Cortina's, four is just too many. Parts for a Lotus Cortina can also be ridiculously expensive, so I've made the decision to sell the Zetec Cortina and the Nissan powered Cortina to free up space and also provide some funds to restore the Lotus. 

It was a brilliant day though and I now finally have my dream car. I'm over the moon! 😊

Saturday 23rd August. An MOT pass.

 This morning saw a very early start as I had an MOT booked at 07.40. I booked it early as I wanted to get out and get back before the bank holiday weekend traffic built up. I had had also had a little bit of an over heating problem while test driving it previously, so that was another reason for not wanting to get caught in traffic. (The electric fan wasn't cutting in, so I'd used the manual override)
However, I'd given the radiator a real good flushing out since then and I had no such problems whilst driving to the MOT station. 

The MOT went well and a clean bill of health was pronounced with no advisories. I celebrated by taking the rest of the day off. 😉

Sunday 17th August - Battlesbridge Breakfast meet.

It was another beautiful day today, so attending the Battlesbridge breakfast meet seemed like a good idea. I had had to work the day before and then had to do some work on my front driveway, so chilling out and doing very little seemed like a plan.
It was a very good turn out and I met up with good friends, Gavin, Peter, Keith, John and Rachel and even Dave Maton and his wife Kerry joined us as well. Karen and I went in the Zetec Cortina just to give it a run out. 

As usual there were some great cars there and we even found a Nissan SX200. (See below)

This has the same engine as I have in my race car, 1964 two door pre-aeroflow. (The CA18DET 16 valve, twin cam, turbo engine)
I was hoping to catch the owner so I could see if he had any dump valve, or blow off valve fitted, as I think that's what mine will need, (My car still makes the 'Turkey Gobble' noise from the turbo.) but unfortunately I didn't get to see him. 

Around lunch time, we called called it a day as we all had other things to do. It had been a great morning out though and thoroughly enjoyable. 

Saturday August 9th - Finally ready for MOT!

Dave Maton was free again this Saturday, so he paid me a visit with a view to finishing off the last little jobs on the race car. (I really should stop calling it that!) 
I spent time re-fitting and lining up the headlights, while Dave fitted the new seat belt to the passenger side B pillar. (Somebody had cut out the captive nut for some reason, so I had to weld in a new section to be able to bolt the seat belt in.)
Trying to line up the bonnet was the next job so that we could open it without it catching the scuttle panel, but we had no success with this. It appears that the bonnet hinge on the driver side is knackered and has a lot of play in it which creates excessive movement. 

 We had to give up on the bonnet hinge and instead gave the car a few runs around the block to test all was working. Unfortunately the electric fan wasn't cutting in when it should have done and the engine ended up getting a tad warm which then deposited rusty water all over my block paving through the over flow. The fan can be switched on manually though, so I will have to do this for the time being until I get time to find out why it isn't cutting in automatically. (I also need to find out why the temperature gauge isn't working!)

It does drive well though and is scarily quick! I think it's the only car I've ever owned That I'm frightened of! Despite these small issues, I've booked the MOT for Saturday 23rd August at 07.40am. I know that's early, but I don't want to get caught in the traffic with the auto electric fan not working. I also couldn't do Saturday the 16th as I'm working, so........ fingers crossed! 

Sunday August 3rd - Cortina Mk1 Owners Club National Day.

 This weekend was the Cortina Mk1 Owners club national weekend in the beautiful town on Stratford Upon Avon. Rather than get up at stupid O'clock on Sunday morning, rush up there for the day, then rush straight back, Karen and I decided to make a weekend of it and booked a hotel for the Friday and Saturday night.
I finished work on time on the Friday and we left around 16.45 to make the 150 mile journey. To our surprise, traffic was very light and the only hold up we had was a half mile queue from the M25 onto to the M40.
We had a lovely day walking around the town on Saturday, followed a by a lovely meal at a Chinese restaurant in the evening. 
Sunday morning, we were up early and arrived at the show ground (Stratford Race Course) at 9am. The Mk1 Cortina club always invite other clubs to attend and this year was no different with the Ford Anglia and Mk2 Cortina club in attendance. 

There were some lovely cars there and lots of my favourite model , the MK1 Lotus Cortina. (I still dream of owning one) It was great day and I even managed to buy some parts I was after from the auto jumble as well.
However, by about 12pm, the rain clouds were gathering and Karen and I decided to head home as we still had a long way to go and both had to go to work on Monday. It was a great weekend though and one we will probably look at repeating next year.