This Lotus Cortina is listed as a 1964 on eBay, but as a 1966 with chassis AB74FJ59557 on the dealer’s site. It is claimed to have been car #129 of French entry Delalande/Metayer that finished 80th in the the 1967 Rallye Monte Carlo. It looks quite well prepared for current historic events, and has run several prestigious events in Europe in the last decade. We are still digging for online documentation connecting this chassis number to the Monte and its result, with links and pics below. Find the car here on eBay in Diksmuide, Belgium.

The photograph below was scanned images from a book “Le Rallye Monte-Carlo au XXe Siècle” by Maurice Louche, and was found here on Lotus-Cortina.com. This Monte Carlo results page shows ten Cortinas in the event, but does not show this one, so it is possible that it did not finish. The photo clearly shows a car 129, so it would be interesting to hear what transpired.

The classic white paint with proper green trim looks perfect on this Cortina today, though interestingly the Monte photo above shows a black hood and no side stripes. The Minilite-style wheels are always appropriate on any 60’s era racer, but above it ran steel wheels which many consider to be dangerous today to to splitting.

Inside, the modern composite racing seats and well-worn Sparco steering wheel appear to be the only concession to modern safety standards. The bare aluminium door panels, with simple window winder and leather pull strap, look lovely. Do we spy a vintage Halda Tripmaster mounted in front of the navigators’ seat?

Under the hood, the Lotus Twin Cam is said to have been built by noted specialist John Wilcox. Everything looks quite tidy, though we are somewhat surprised to see a vintage-looking copper-cored radiator rather than a modern aluminium unit. We’d love to see some dyno and build sheets on the Lotus mill.

The car has more recently been run at the Historic Monte Carlo event, and we’d love to take it there again. The size of the field in that event makes it the one at the top of our bucket list. The car is listed for 49,950 GBP (today ~$85k) on the dealer site, so it will be interesting to see where the eBay bidding goes.