Car Used In Great Train Robbery Sells For Six-figure Sum

[Mark H]

The Lotus Cortina, which has just 3,000 miles on the clock, was bought new by career criminal Bruce Reynolds, the mastermind behind the train hold-up, and used to recce the Hertfordshire countryside where the audacious 1963 raid took place.

 

For more than 20 years the white car with a distinctive green flash on the sides was kept in a lock-up after being impounded by police.

The remarkable Ford – fitted with its original highly-tunes 1500cc engine and described as being in perfect condition – was one of the coolest and fastest cars around in the early 1960s.

 

Racing stars like Jim Clarke and Graham Hill both drove for the factory works team which achieved huge success in saloon car racing.

 

The Cortina's specification and performance are modest by modern standards – its twin-can engine produced just 115bhp, it's 0-60 time was almost 14 seconds and its top speed just 108mph.

 

But at the time the car with its alloy doors, bonnet and boot lid was one of the quickest around and allied to its superb roadholding it proved more than match on the road and track for rival Mini Coopers and Jaguars.

 

When launched the car cost £1,100 but the new owner is believed to have paid 100 times that for the unique car – being sold by an Essex dealer – that once belonged to the notorious gangster.

 

Bruce Reynolds, now 77, was considered by detectives to have been the brains behind the robbery which netted the gang more than £3 million in used bank notes after they held up the mail train.

 

Reynolds went on the run after the raid hiding in Mexico and Canada before he was caught in Torquay in 1968 and sentenced to 25 years in jail. He was released in 1978 but later sent back to prison again for drug dealing.

 

Now the car – with its original registration number BMK 723A – has been bought by the mystery enthusiast who will keep it in his private collection.

 

A classic car expert said: "The car has got to be worth well over six figures – an ordinary one would fetch at least £75,000 but this is a Cortina with a unique history."

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/607...figure-sum.html