1966 Ford Cortina GT (Mk1) Four-Door Rally Car (LHD)

• Sold directly to Switzerland in 1966 returning to the UK in 2016
• Nut and bolt restoration in France by Cedric Masier around 2002
• Lotus Cortina aluminium 4-speed, close-ratio box with Quaife internals
• Lotus Cortina struts and dampers optimised for fast road use, Brembo discs, Girling pistons and Pagid fast-road pads
• GT pre-X-Flow with a big valve head, blueprinted, lightened and balanced with a Kent 244 cam fuelled by twin 45 Webers. Originally built by Burton Racing
• Full engine strip, inspection, and rebuild including a new Kent 244 cam and followers by Coltec (22-12-2014 - £1,606)
• Period-style bucket seats, Moto-Lita, Brantz International Pro-2 Digital rally clock, Terratrip intercom with headsets
• Massive history file (workshop manuals, vehicle manuals, technical articles)
• Prepared for road rallies, stage rallies, regularity runs or just chasing other Cortinas about on an Owner’s Club day out, this could be an ideal entry into the gently competitive word of classic rallying.

Ford’s Cortina was a mid-sized family car launched in 1963, designed to fill a gap between the smaller Anglia and executive Zephyr/Zodiac models. With its lightweight shell and decent handling, Ford’s engineers soon realised that the Cortina had genuine potential as a performance model and thus created the GT, by adding a Cosworth-tuned 1.5-litre version of the Kent four-cylinder engine, upgrading the transmission, brakes and suspension, installing a rev-counter to the steering column and extra dials in the centre console. The Cortina GT was soon selling in huge numbers as few cars could match its 95mph top speed or willing acceleration, at such an affordable price. Cortina GTs were homologated by Ford for rallying and notched up numerous wins in the mid-1960s, while the more potent Lotus version was developed for circuit racing.

This delightful 1966 Cortina GT is a four-door example, finished in left-hand drive and exported to Switzerland where it has spent most of its life. It returned to the UK in 2016 and the registration number, UCA 487D was awarded by the DVLA in September of that year.

There is a significant amount of history with UCA and naturally, most of that is in French or German, but we can see from the invoices that the car has been subject to a total nut and bolt restoration in France by Cedric Masier and Patrick Hugo around 2002 utilising “Genuine Ford Motorsport Period Upgrades”. It was rebuilt with a Lotus Cortina aluminium 4-speed, close-ratio box with Quaife internals (1-2.5, 2-1.66, 3-1.22, 4-1.1. Limited slip differential 3.9-1). It’s been set up with Lotus Cortina struts and dampers optimised for fast road use, Brembo discs, Girling pistons and Pagid fast-road pads.

The engine is a GT pre-X-Flow with a big valve head, blueprinted, lightened and balanced with a Kent 244 cam fuelled by twin 45 Webers. Originally built by Burton Racing, there is an invoice in the file from Coltec Racing dated 22-12-2014 totalling £1,606 relating to a full engine strip, inspection, and rebuild including a new Kent 244 cam and followers and a repaint of the block in Holbay Green. It’s fitted with a competition clutch and a Race Stainless Steel exhaust (since changed).

The interior was renewed back in 2012 and remains very smart with twin period-style bucket seats, Moto-Lita steering wheel, Brantz International Pro-2 Digital rally clock with remote, map light and Terratrip intercom with headsets. The GT continues to present really well in Ermine White with a distinctive Forest Green triple stripe and door roundels and the coachwork appears exceptionally straight remaining very tidy underneath. This is a good-looking period Rally Car and it’s classic appearance is enhanced by the silver alloys, Speedwell wing mirrors and four PIAA rally-spec front lights. We understand that the car has been enjoyed in light competition throughout Europe and even on the hugely challenging Monte Carlo Rallye and the Winter Raid it proved totally reliable.

UCA was purchased by our vendor on 2/03/2019 and he informs us that during his ownership “I changed the silencer to make it less loud, changed the crown wheel and pinion from the 4.7 to a more roadworthy 3,9, fitted a new lightweight starter motor, renewed the interior carpet and soundproofing, changed the wheel studs so that it could take the Minilite wheels, fitted 5 new Revolution Minilites with new Toyo tyres, renewed the steering idler arm and associated bushes, and finally took it to a specialist to balance the twin Weber carbs.”

Included in the large history files are technical articles, workshop manuals, vehicle manuals, the original ‘Carnet de Service’, magazine articles featuring this motor car, acres of invoices, the UK V5 registration document and much more. It's also supplied with six original steel rims with snow tyres.

This not a weary, rally-rashed, Forest Ford but a delightfully presented Sixties sporting saloon that appears to have been cared for during its fifty years in Switzerland and certainly since it returned here in 2016. Only 59 Mk1 GTs are believed to be still current in the UK, and very few will be left-hand drive with four-doors, so this is a rare car in its own right. Prepared for road rallies, stage rallies, regularity runs or just chasing other Cortinas about on an Owner’s Club day out, this could be an ideal entry into the gently competitive word of classic rallying.