Ford Lotus Cortina MkII Amber Gold RHD - Corgi Vanguards 1/43

Ford Cortina Lotus Mk2 Amber Gold, Colin Chapman’s Car

During the 1960s, Colin Chapman’s rapidly expanding Lotus car company and F1 team enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Ford. The Lotus Cortina Mk1 won races in spectacular style and Chapman worked closely with Cosworth’s Keith Duckworth and Ford PR genius Walter Hayes to develop the DFV, the engine that would revolutionise F1 and which was initially designed for the Lotus 49 F1 car.

Chapman was given a new Ford Cortina Lotus as a company car and that is the car modelled here. He kept it into the early 1970s, covering 14,233 miles, before it was put on display in the company’s museum until 1998.