1964 FORD LOTUS CORTINA MK 1

Shane Brown likes cars. All types of cars.

On the forecourt of CarsGalore – the business he runs with wife Leanne in the picturesque city of Toowoomba – are more than 200 cars of all types, all models, and all marques, ready to be sold to eager buyers.

But these are not the only cars he has, for Shane has a passion for cars that has seen him build a formidable collection of classics that are tucked away in a number of anonymous garages and buildings around the city.

“I’ve got three twin-cam Mark I Escorts, two Mark I RS Escorts and two Cortinas,” he says. “We’ve also got a Lotus 11 reproduction, a ’66 MGB, a ’66 Mini Cooper S, a 1936 Singer Shelsley Special, four Alpha Romeos – including two mid-60s Alpha Junior step noses, a ‘73 Alpha GTB, a VL Brock Commodore that I’ve had from nearly new . . . . . . .”

Shane pauses and thinks for a moment. There are so many in his collection he might have forgotten a few.

“I did have GT Falcons and Triumphs too but I’ve sold all of them,” he adds with a smile. “And I had two Lotus Cortinas until recently, but I sold one of them too.

“That was quite an expensive car – a 1963 pre-airflow A-frame rear-end which was the first of the type.

“I advertised that on the internet and a chap from England bought it and shipped it back over there.”

The words ‘pre-airflow’ are quite important when talking about the Lotus Cortina. The ‘airflow’ itself is just a vent in the back frame that runs down from the roof, but the very first models didn’t have them and, in the world of classic cars, such distinctions are important – and worth a pretty penny.

Shane sold the ‘pre-airflow’ Cortina for nearly $90,000. The ‘airflow’ model he still owns, and which is pictured here, is ‘probably worth in the $50,000 mark.’

However, though it’s worth less than the model Shane sold, this 1964 Mark I is still a rarity.

“They never sold the Lotus Cortina in Australia,” says Shane. “They were a special order. I think only two or three brand new ones ever made it here and the rest were imported over the years. There’s probably only 20 in the country.”

Shane found this Cortina in West Australia and bought it about six years ago.

“It started off with an owner in Queensland,” he says. “Then it went to Victoria, then to Adelaide than to West Australia. The chap there had it for about ten years.”

The car is, basically, a high-performance Ford Cortina built in collaboration with Lotus to take on the challenge of saloon car racing popular in the ‘60s.

Its 1598cc engine – a 1600cc engine would have moved it into a different racing Class – proved very successful and a Lotus Cortina won the British Saloon Car Championship in 1964 and the cars performed well in the many races then prevalent throughout Europe and the USA.

Its racing pedigree is still put to the test when Shane has the chance, most often in ‘Regularity’ races (events in which a driver nominates a time it will take to negotiate one lap of a track and the winning driver is the one who can complete laps most consistently
near that time).

“I use it as a road car but have used it for ‘regularity’ races too,
and hill climb events like the
Noosa Hill Climbs.

“I didn’t buy it with the intention of racing it,” he adds. “I just always liked the Cortina and they don’t come up for sale
very often.”

When Shane bought the Cortina it was in such good shape that he had to do very little work to it, and anything that does need doing he does himself.

“Most of the people who bought them were enthusiasts and didn’t drive them all that much,” he says. “This one has only 57,000 miles on it. None of these old cars, especially these kinds of cars, have done big mileage.

“And they’re a very easy car to work on too. No computers or electrics! They’re pretty easy to look after. The only thing
I did was put a set of track tyres on and upgrade the brake pads so I could race it.”

And although he has raced it on occasion – and in its lifetime the car has taken part in the Classic Adelaide Rally – Shane, like many classic car owners, is sparing on its use, driving it enough to keep it ticking over and healthy.

“I probably only do 100 miles a year in it now,” he says. “I might drive it to work 10 times a year but I only live
4kms away, so that’s not a lot.”

Driven by a passion for motorcars, it seems entirely possible that Shane will find more classics to join the Lotus Cortina in his collection.

“I’ve never gone looking for the cars I’ve bought,” he says. “I’ve just come across them. They’ve all been impulse buys.”

Quite where he will find room to keep them is another story. The real estate agents of Toowoomba must be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect.