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!