I grew up as a kid going to parking lot races, mainly Bendix and King Radio, with a dentist who had one. (series 2 Super 7 1500CC as I recall.) It was a kit as shown below., Temperamental bitch she was but when hitting on all 4 she was a beautiful sight to see run. I remember he had teeth in the grill which was fitting.
There were a couple of variants of the "7" cars just within the series one cars and lots of changes both inside the series and as they evolved. It's hard to keep track of all of them. For example there were 3 steering linkages in the series 1 alone.
This is one of the last series one's made:
This is an early car:
If your guy has a "real" series one it will be one of less than a hundred made each year. There were a few 1960's sold but only a handful as they were leftovers. Very rare cars with weird builds.
Do you know what the engine or code might be as they made 5 models over 3 years with a couple of special builds such as the BMC-A's (2)one for Brittan and an America, a dual carb model from a Sprite. The Climax Super Seven or later the "C". had hight output "Climax" engines. Ford engines were "F's" as were the majority sold. The Ford was a Side Valve in the Series 1.
I know of of a person/ company who would possibly have something like this stashed in a collection but I wouldn't call where he keeps his cars a basement. I tried buying a TR6 off him in the early 2000's and lets just say he gave me the Hometown" treatment. As I recall he was an airplane buff too.
About this Cortina is it a white 2 door car with a green stripe down the side?
if not is there anything you remember about it like the engine?