Engine Rebuilds – Rebuilding a Lotus Twin Cam
The Ford Lotus Twin cam, the legendary high performance engine of the sixties era. The Mk1 Twin Cam was introduced as a test bed engine in the Mk1 Cortina in 1963 & followed by the Mk II which powered the
Mk II Lotus Cortina – the same engine that was also fitted to the 1968 Escort Twin Cam.
The lotus Cortina & the Twin Cam Escort were instant winners both on the track and in many, many rallies held throughout the world. It is often said that the sixties were the golden years of motor sport, and the firm of lotus and their highly competitive cars were held in high esteem. But the Lotus elan which was publicly released at the1962 Earls Court motor show was the sports car that set the motoring world alight, the elan established a reputation for rapid point to point motoring, as well racking up success after success on race circuits around the world. Lotus was quick to build on those success with the release of the lotus elan 26R, the racing version, which was based on the elan S2 model, only about one hundred 26Rs elans were produced by the factory.
The run of the mill four cylinder ford cast iron engine block provided the base on which the twin cam engine was built, the cylinder head was a Harry Mundy designed twin cam alloy head, which incorporated chain drive to the twin over head cams, which actuated the eight valves. The engine was normally aspirated and fed by ‘twin forty millimetre Weber carburettors, which are characterised by the distinct clucking sound they made when the throttle butterflies are opened. Read more