Lotus Club Queensland
Dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the Lotus experience
Login
Register
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Membership
    • Member Login
  • Events
    • Calendar
  • Motorsport
    • Lakeside DTC Timed Laps
    • LAKESIDE DTC RESULTS
  • Magazine
  • For Sale
    • Merchandise
    • Classifieds
  • Posts
  • Galleries
  • Directory
    • Suppliers & Parts
    • Advertisers
  • Archives
greg-bob-dance-clarks-lotus25

Jim Clark’s Cortina

Story and pictures by Greg Bray.

Last year Chris and I did our bi-annual trip back to the UK to see the family. As always it happened to be in the month of September (funny that) so I could go just up the road to the Goodwood Revival with my brother.

Luckily for us, on the Sunday I spotted Bob Dance the famous Lotus mechanic. Bob, now in his 80’s was in the pits working on Jim Clark’s Lotus 25 as he has done since the 1960’s. Bob was giving the car the once over in preparation for the period F1 race in the afternoon.

jim-clarks-cortinaThe Lotus 25 won easily against all the opposition of it’s era, as it did in the 1963 F1 season giving Clark his 1st World Championship.

The point of my story is whilst we were staying with our Welsh Lotus friend Andy, he did what he usually does and drove me through many muddy Welsh lanes to visit one of his many Lotus friends. This time not too far away from Cardiff we turned up at William’s property. William owns four Mk1 Lotus Cortina’s.

cortina-elan-rear-endThe pride and joy of his collection is Jim Clark’s very own early road Cortina. Oh, to be an enthusiast with pots of money. He has the detailed proof, and apparently the car cost him as much as a very good house.

The very interesting part of this car for me being an Elan enthusiast was that Bob Dance had worked on the car in it’s early days. He made a frame to hold the Elan diff, and fitted the whole Elan diff, drive-shafts, struts, discs and put them all in the back of this Cortina. Which would have made the handling of the car so much better with the Elan’s independent lightweight suspension. But with Clark’s excellent driving skills, he did very nicely with standard set-up on the track in his race Cortinas.

Also would you believe in this garage one of the other Cortinas had a “Best in Show” certificate, and the car had been restored by none other than our Derek Dean.

Qld Super Sprints – Round 1, 2016 Jumpers & Jazz Weekend Away

Related Posts

mp-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Morgan Park Sprints R4

duratec-banner

Articles, Homepage, Technical

Duratec Elise – better late than never

gold-rush-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022

Random images

18-Nightcap-before-bed IMGP0349 dtc-7 20160522_101433 Philps-7 Ormiston-18 IMG_4894 IMG_4891 7-Roger-Greg-and-Clive 5-Arrival-at-the-Mt-Glorious-Cafe 20161105_103008 MG_6561 IMGP3420 IMGP3407 An-even-deeper-conversation A_cuppa_on_the_way_to_Beechworth P1020675 P1020670 IMG_8619 113_1373_IMG James IMG_4674 IMG_3371 Cairns-8 Greg-Chris-Bray Happily reviewing the day's events Complimentary Mother's Day morning tea vb-Pitstop Lodge Garage vb-Greg Bray December-EMR IMG_0370 Clive Geoff in his HPE Cool Parking Lot _MG_9169 as Smart Object-1 MG-8164 IMG-0178 IMG-0152 IMG_0077 IMG_6506 IMG_7353 122_2239_IMG IMG_8502 IMG_0105 IMG_0204 Just-relaxing Mar-main-9 IMGP8563 img_1069 Arbarth lec_0178 main-10 P1010417 P1010423 Drivers-as-spectators-Mike,-John,-Matt-and-Clive John,-Jason-and-Joe- IMG_4840 IMG_8542 IMG_4868 IMG_7125 IMG_5306 IMG_5035 IMG_4329 IMG_8924 IMG_3722 IMG_3653 14e 2_Erecting_extra_shelter Daryl_Shane_Jenny P1060267 2009_Maccleans_Bridge_013 P1050521 IMGP7345 IMGP7323 IMG_7379 Whats-in-the-box IMGP8327 LCQ Hillclimb Team Contemplating-the-serious-nature-of-Concours The Red Baron IMG_8882 Cols-Elan-3 A hard earned thirst _MG_9605 as Smart Object-1 Control-unit IMG_8648 Sam Murphy P1020917 Peter-and-Norma-gw George-penny-farthing Eddie-Lankhorst-and-Elisa-with-his-Ruby main-18 Clive super-healey-tank tin-sign-1 main-25 Transport-Museum-MGA CAMS Club Challenge-poster Two-Elans main-65

Recent Articles

  • Morgan Park Sprints R4
  • Kev’s Big Day Out
  • Duratec Elise – better late than never
  • Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022
  • Marburg Pub Run – 4 Sept 2022
  • Unique +2 Road Trip to Brisbane
  • Leyburn 2022
  • August 2022 DTC

Latest Gallery Images

20220220_093834 20220220_093818 20220220_093827 20220220_093743 20220220_093812 20220220_093730

Search articles by category

Archived articles

Lotus Club Queensland
© Lotus Club Queensland   |   Site by Black Eye Studios