Modified
GT’s , Cortina Lotus’s and Twin Cams, were the mainstay of
the MkII’s sporting aspirations.
Roger
Clarke was amongst the Cortina Lotus drivers who, in 1967,
whilst driving in the Scottish Rally, drove his Lotus to destruction
by jumping the car so high that the bodywork began to concertina
upwards - badly enough for the painted side-strip to take
a decidedly curved appearance, so much so that the attending
motoring journalists nicknamed the tough little car the "banana".
Clarke
was also involved with the MkII Cortina Lotus during the 1968
London to Sydney Marathon. Entered by the Ford of England works
team, four near Group 2 rally specification cars were used.
The race required two drivers per car and Clarke was teamed
up with Ove Andersson. Other teams were Bengt Soderstrom / Gunnar
Palm ( The Swedes also drove a Group 2 Cortina in that year’s
East African Safari ), Eric Jackson / Ken Chambers and Nick
& Jenny Brittan. Ford of Cork entered their own team in
a Cortina Lotus driven by Rosemary Smith and Frenchwoman Lucette
Pointer.
However,
the car that carried the "No.1" on that year’s London
to Sydney was a modified MkII GT. The car was adapted by Bill
Bengry at his garage in Leominster and was driven by himself
and Welsh farmer, Arthur Brick and John Preddy, a pharmacist
from Sussex. Sponsored by the then Motorway Remoulds,
the car used an essentially standard 1600 GT crossflow with
a peakier than standard camshaft. Gearbox was pure standard
1600 Cortina attached to a final drive with a ratio of 3.9
to 1. Front suspension was heavily modified with a reformed
strut housing which allowed the use of Renault 16 DeCarbon
shock absorbers between the inside of the strut top and the
track control arm. This was to help eliminate the possibility
of "crash through" should they have encountered
a large hole during the event. Rear suspension was fairly
standard with the addition of Cortina Estate Armstrong lever
types located on the back axle to alleviate wheel tramp on
the uneven surfaces that they were likely to encounter.
With further exhaust and cooling
modifications in addition to a huge auxiliary 20-gallon aluminium
Bentley fuel tank, this GT was a robust entrant.
The
MkII’s frontline motorsport role would give way to the era of
the incredible works Escorts. However, these sporting Cortinas
can still be seen in competition today and adds to the reputation
of the MkII as a tough, well engineered car of it’s time.
Some
1,101,580 MkII's were produced, securing the last Cortina
of the 60's a much deserved place in the hearts of the British
public and the annals of automotive history as one of the
most successful family cars ever.
