1965 Cortina GT

Yep - guess I'm lucky the Marina has a slight guard flare that allows me to fit the 205's without (much) contact.
It has illustrated that the rear axle housing is slightly offset under the body though - every car I have fitted the 205's on has contact on the left rear wheel arch only - solvable by beating the inner edge of the fold in the guard upwards - so that it manages to clear under max suspension compression - which is only about 1.5" off the stops when lowered by 2".
I have cut the bump stop rubbers down by half an inch to allow a little more suspension travel - but my current testing involves using stronger rear springs that will hopefully compress less under the same loading.
Its really just a game of suck-it-and-see..

I think the Mk1 Cortina is THE item.

Keep it up.

Kilroy

whats next fro this thing of beauty then?

Its pretty much done really. Bit of paintwork improvement to do, possible change of wheels, some coilovers going on over winter and an LSD...............then again......maybe a zetec on throttle bodies! they're never really finished are they? They just seem to evolve. ;D

Getting my winter mods under way on the GT. First step is this stainless manifold to replace the current Mexico one......

mated to a full 2" stainless system to free up some more power.
Current engine spec is 1760cc , Accralite high comp 1300 pistons with tin tops and valve cut outs, Lotus rods, Piper Magnum 285 cam, big valve head,twin 40DCOEs on gasket matched and flowed manifold, duplex timing chain, steel rockers and posts, double valve springs, HP oil pump, Lumenition ignition.
Last power run saw 118bhp at the wheels - I shall see how much that can be improved by.
Also have 4.1:1 slipper diff to go in and possibly a rear rollcage, although I havent made my mind up 100% on that yet! Part of me can see a nice shiny red cage in there but on the other hand I like he stock appearance of the interior, any opinions?

i think a cage would spoil th line of the interior, plus that dash is too cool to take attention away from it.

Cage it !
Cage it !

This is by far the best Mk1 cortina I have EVER seen!!!!! Everything about it is sooo right. These have to be a 2 door to look right and boy does this tick all the boxes!! Hot kent motor, super low ride height, period-perfect interior and straight un-molested body. It looks like its doing 80mph standing still! That is a great colour scheme too, unusual and very distinctive but not wacky - is it factory?

Thanks for the comments. The colour is Lombard Grey with Ravenna red interior. The car was originally built for export to South Africa but never went. S.A. market cars had the interior metal work colour matched to the interior trim, I added the red exterior stripe. The floorpans are also made of thicker steel, presumably to withstand the S.A. roads of the time and I guss this is why its totally rust free underneath with no welding having ever been done!