Terry:
Ford of England had a weapon back then that was quite potent in both road
racing and rallying; the Lotus Cortina. It was basically a standard Cortina
chassis, albeit with a few little stiffening braces here and there, a
stiffer suspension and, in early models, alloy body panels and a coil-sprung
rear axle. Under the hood, however, it was a different story. They were
powered by a 1558cc Ford topped with a Lotus TwinCam crossflow head and dual
sidedraft 40 DCOE Weber carburetors. You could get them in any color you
liked, as long as it was white with a green "flash" down the side.
The cars were campaigned by the likes of Jimmy Clark and Sir John Whitmore,
to name a few, and were a rousing success in just about every kind of
European sedan racing there was. They had a very characteristic and
distinct 3-wheel corning attitude; when pressed hard in a corner, they had a
tendency to lift the inside front wheel. They were nice looking cars and
quite spectacular to watch.
These cars later led, in 1970 to be exact, to an even more potent and
successful rally and race car from Ford of England, the RS 1600 Escort. You
will see these cars on the Speed Channel as well tearing up the rally and
road racing circuits all over Europe back in the early '70s. Later models
continued the tradition, all the way up to the absolutely vicious Ford RS
200 of the mid-eighties (a twin-turboed Cosworth-powered all-wheel-drive
monster that had an obscene amount of horsepower and the traction to get it
to the ground). The RS 1600s were even more powerful as they had a Ford
1600cc engine topped with a twin cam, four-valve-per-cylinder Cosworth head
along with dual sidedraft Webers. These puppies were actually able, in
racing tune of course, to put out somewhere in the neighborhood of 250
reliable horsepower. Hmmm...lets just say I wouldn't want to tangle with
one of those rascals on a road course in my Tiger, or in most other hot-shoe
cars of it's day.
Sorry for the dissertation, but I used to own a '70 RS 1600 Escort and I
wish I had it back. Ah, the good ol' days...
Take care,
Andy Walker
B382001600LRXFE
----- Original Message -----
From: <Packertl3@aol.com>
To: <tigers@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 6:56 PM
Subject: 1966 Rally Question
> I recently saw part of a SpeedChannel program on a '66 European Rally in
> which factory Tigers competed. Apparently they won their class. However, I
> think they were bested outright in hillclimbs and other tests by something
> which I believe was a Ford product, possibly a Cortina(?) It looked a bit
> like a Datsun 510, also a successful rally car in its day. Anyway, my
> question is whether anyone knows what the car was and what was the secret
of
> its performance? It didn't appear to have the advantage of being either
> super small, super light or super aerodynamic all of which makes me wonder
> what made it go?
> Terry Packer
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