Start with what the Lotus Cortina is: a 2-door saloon with 1557 cc Twin-Cam I4, built from 1963 to 1966, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. What it meant takes a little longer.
How it came about
The Ford Cortina Lotus (commonly known as the Lotus Cortina) is a high-performance sports saloon, which was produced in the United Kingdom from 1963 to 1970 by Ford in collaboration with Lotus Cars. The original version, which was based on the Ford Cortina Mark 1, was promoted by Ford as the "Consul Cortina developed by Lotus", with "Consul" later being dropped from the name.
The Mark 2 was based on the Ford Cortina Mark II and was marketed by Ford as the "Cortina Lotus". Lotus gave the model the type number designation Type 28. There were 3,306 Mark I and 4,093 Mark 2 Lotus Cortinas produced.
The hardware
The engine is 1557 cc Twin-Cam I4. The wheelbase is 98 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Pontiac GTO, the Buick Riviera, the Maserati Quattroporte. Its Lotus stablemates include the Lotus 100T and the Lotus 101.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Lotus Cortina — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.