Lotus Twin Cam Escorts

[Dom]

This may have been covered before but I've been looking at a load of Twin Cam escorts on Google, were the engines purposely fitted at a wonky angle?

[Vista]

Yes,

[The Transplanter]

"The wide Lotus DOHC cylinder head with its twin sidedraught Weber carburettors fouled the offside inner wing, so offset engine mountings were used to push the nose of the engine towards the nearside of the car."

[herb capri]

i didnt know that!

[Rally Pack 2000]

Mine is wonky but you cant see it from this pic however.

 

[eeb43]

mine has got ford on the cover where yours has lotus I thought all the escorts had?

[Rally Pack 2000]

mine has got ford on the cover where yours has lotus I thought all the escorts had?

 

RS1600's with the 16 valve Cosworth engines have Ford on their cam cover.

 

 

Twincam Escorts with Lotus 8 valve engines had Lotus on their cam cover.

 

 

Both engines you can see are mounted slightly askew.

[skeeter]

Does the slightly skewed engine impact the cars handling at all?

[eeb43]

had several covers with lotus at the front 1 with lotus down the sides 1 with brm on 1 with gig valve on probably an elan but the 1 with ford on the front is the only one I have ever seen

[Rally Pack 2000]

Does the slightly skewed engine impact the cars handling at all?

 

I have never read anywhere that referenced any discernible impact whatsoever. To be honest I doubt even if it was there could it ever been singled out as impact on handling. My reason for this is that I have driven about a dozen Twincams in my lifetime and no two were remotely the same. They really were individually built and and each very quirky in its own right. Time probably being the main contributing factor though as they all aged and wore differently. Maybe had I had the opportunity to drive them all new they may have had more similarity in how they drove. For my own car, handling was affected by all the conventional Escort things, bushes springs tyres, there was no way to tell what or if the skew engine had any impact at all. I have also owned several original Pinto and Kent engined cars and if it was possible to be blindfolded you could feel within yourself you were driving a similar family tree but with the Twincam that simply isnt there. I find it a very brutal car to drive. The hydraulic clutch and the sound and way the power was distributed and delivered. RS1600s were never sold here so I never had the privilege of experiencing one but I have always wondered if that may have been the car that came close to the driving experience of the Twincam. Club Lotus were always very welcoming over the years and often enthusiasts are happy to swap drives and I foolishly expected an S2 Elan to maybe have some traits of the power train , nope nothing like it, didnt even feel like the same engine its rally weird. Call it blasphemy but I always enjoy the 2Lt Pinto experience over the Twincam. Its really effortless fun performance and cruising.

[Rally Pack 2000]

had several covers with lotus at the front 1 with lotus down the sides 1 with brm on 1 with gig valve on probably an elan but the 1 with ford on the front is the only one I have ever seen

 

Yes there were a variety of covers for the Lotus 8 valve engine. Im not sure about Twincams in the UK as Australian Twincam production started a couple of years later than those in the UK so all our Twincams had the cam covers with the Lotus name at the front.  The more stylised Lotus logo along each bank was a trait of earlier Lotus engines found in Lotus Cortinas. Most images I have seen of the UK Twincams seem to be the same as ours although possible some of the early 68 built versions may have the older style cam cover, Im sure a UK Twincam owner will chime in with more definitive info on that one. I have seen photos of a Ford Lotus cover online but to my knowledge it was specially made it wasnt placed on any factory car or engine. As you have mentioned there are interesting big valve covers to denote the big valve engines although these were not put in Twincam Escorts from the factory. There are also many interesting covers made for the engine like the BRM and Piper covers. Miles Wilkins wrote a very good book specifically about the Lotus 8 Valve engine which details the wide variety of cars the engine found its way into.