Happy 50th Birthday Ford Cortina

[4stanger]

I had 2 te cortinas sedans back in the 80s, one auto, one manual with ac and gs pack, both 4.1. I liked the fact that some interior bits and mechanical bits were the same as XC & XD falcons so parts were easy to access at the local wreckers. I wanted to go to a TE or TF 4.1 wagon after those 2 but decided to get a EA auto sedan instead! Happy birthday Cortina.

[gtxb67]

one of the first cars i remember was my pa's mk 1 consul cortina he bought from new - great car
was still going strong and rust free in 94 at the age of 31. it is probably still going strong now

[Neale]

Love this, Ford seamed to do elaborate stunts to promote the cortina, Like this.

The mk1 cortina being driven down the Bobsleigh run from the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo. The town the car was named after.

It was celebrating more than 200 wins in in 26 countries & also being named the international car of the year in 1964


Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_XyqpD1_O4

The one millionth cortina was flown from england to Belgium, yes Belgium, flying the one millionth Ford Cortina car where its new owner awaited its arrival with keys in hand. They sold 4,279,079 between 1962 &1982



And a few newspaper clippings bragging about some of their race wins




With all of this promotion & success in racing turned into sales.

From 1972 to 1981, the Cortina enjoyed an unbroken run as Britain best selling car every year.

As recently as the early 1990s, Cortinas were still a common sight on British roads, and in May 1992 The Times newspaper revealed that the Mark IV and Mark V models were still among the 10 most common cars on Britain's roads

A total of nearly 2,600,000 Cortinas were sold in Britain, and in March 2009 it was revealed that the Cortina was still the third most popular car ever sold there, despite having been out of production for nearly three decades.

[66GT]

Allan Moffort did a lot of racing in a Mk1 Lotus cortina in his early days - winning most events. This led to him being noticed & picked up by Ford to campain in the GT Falcon.
My uncle used to proudly drive around in his Mk1 Consul Cortina from as early as I can remember. My brother & I freshened up & trashed for some years as our joint daily - as our other cars were often broken.
My current Mk1 GT - currently owned for approx 13 yrs. hopefully back on the road again soon.

[jpd80]

By the time the early 1980s rolled around, FoA was glad to move onto Laser and Telstar,
the quality on Euro Escort and Cortina was terrible, mostly because they were difficult to
build compared to equivalent Japanese designed vehicles and Ford workers and buyers
all breathed a collective sigh of relief when Ford adopted the Mazda designs.

As a past owner of several European Fords, I have kind memories intermingled
with bitter disappointments and frustrations with dealers getting lots of simple things fixed.

[ebxr8240]

The latter model MKlll onwards built here were no where as
well built as the Pommy versions as much as I hate to say it..
Putting a heavy Falcon 6 in them didn't help handling..
BUT we're talking about the MKl which was a top little car
way a head of cars in 60's.. The Datto 1600 came out latter..
The first engines in the Mkl was 1200 from the Anglia with 3 main
bearings. The 1500 was the engine most popular..
The difference between std Cortina and 1500 GT is light years different..
With there short stroke a 2 barrel Weber, mild cam, extractors, larger valve head really woke these engines up..Along with 4 on the floor with console made them real smart.. Things that's taken for granted these days...
The Lotus engine back then was built by lotus which changed when the Mk 2 came along..
The front guards were welded on .. NOT bolted like most new cars..

[LG17]

To celebrate it's 50th, I've just purchased a '66 GT to play with.

[the ford fan]

I own a 67 mk2 GT Cortina and I will admit it is not the most powerful car of it's time and because it was built on a small budget it can be considered fairly cheap in more ways than one but it is a much loved peoples car because of it's great value for money and legendary racing pedigree.
Happy bday corty

[buggerlugs]

Originally Posted by LG17

To celebrate it's 50th, I've just purchased a '66 GT to play with.

As you do..............

[LG17]

Originally Posted by buggerlugs

As you do..............

Haven't done much playing for a while - too bloody busy building sheds and verandahs and stuff!

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by LG17

To celebrate it's 50th, I've just purchased a '66 GT to play with.

Mmmmmm very nice ... A restored 66 Lotus would be my dream car !

[buggerlugs]

Old man bought a brand new TF Cortina. Bloody great car. Best mate had a TE 250 6 cylinder Ghia. Used to go like a shower of *****. I on the other hand purchased a TE Ghia 4 cylinder Auto. Didn't go quite so good.......

[cortinagt]

My dream cortina would be a '64 Lotus Cortina, or one of the very rare fastbacks

[CyberWasp]

Happy Birthday Cortina !!!!!!!!!

I learnt to drive in a 1970 Mk2 Auto with a 1600 Engine. Fond memories indeed.

[DJR-351]

Originally Posted by CyberWasp

Happy Birthday Cortina !!!!!!!!!

I learnt to drive in a 1970 Mk2 Auto with a 1600 Engine. Fond memories indeed.

It's 52 now......

[csv8]

I had a TD XLE in bronze with ginger trim black vinyl roof

[2011G6E]

Here's two that I owned...like other people, I really wish we'd have had better cameras back then than 110 instamatics or old 35mm ones. Now all that's left are scans of scans usually. For instance, the photo of our white Cortina there is only really about two inches by three inches and not very good...needed a fair bit of retouching as some old photo albums weren't kind to pictures when they sat in them for ten years or more...


I should never, ever have sold that one...it was a great car.


This one was a bit of fun...we owned it for quite a few years. Was a great family car and good on long trips. It was a TE Rally Pack with the 4.1 iron head x-flow and a four speed. Fair bit of work done to the motor.

The...erm...exhaust used to smoke...a lot...officer...

That fastback Lotus Cortina was interesting. In Bundaberg back in the early eighties there used to be one...and only one...wagon of that model. Apparently he was always getting big offers from people to buy it, but he'd always say no and you'd see it toddle around town now and then. Love to know whatever happened to it. They're pretty rare apparently.

Just found a half decent photo of them together...

God I miss those two cars...I mean, not as much as my Charger...but still...

The reason for the "lead tipped arrow" feel of them sometimes in corners was simple (if usually said by people who hadn't actually driven and lived with one for a while...it wasn't that bad). In England, a "big" engine in a Cortina was a 1.6 Kent engine (even up to what we called the TE and TF Cortina). Usually though they had the 1.3 Kent in them. Maybe if you were feeling flash you could opt for the "big" two liter SOHC engine, but that's just showing off...
It was only Australia and South Africa who shoved six cylinder engines in them. I think SA versions used the same V6 that the Capri had fitted to it if I'm not mistaken.

[GCRXR6]

[QUOTE=2011G6E;5145711]Here's two that I owned...like other people, I really wish we'd have had better cameras back then than 110 instamatics or old 35mm ones.

image
I should never, ever have sold that one...it was a great car.

That one looks like a 68 MK 2 1600 GT. Is that correct?. I had a 67 MK2 1500 GT...identical, but minus the GT stripes. Great cars.

[Mechan1k]

Parents bought a demo TE X-Pack 4.1GL 4-speed manual back in 1980 ... great memories as a kid in it on driving holidays.

Was silver with the vinyl roof ... bumper overriders, factory Hella foglights on the front ... cloth trim ... chunkier black steering wheel. Still had the 13" steelies on it from memory with the back centre caps. Also had the red/orange stripe pack around the sides of it.

Was my Mum's daily driver ... she used to give it a hiding back in the day ... used to go very well in a straight line.

Would love to get one again as a project ... trying to find a decent one on the other hand was near imposssible.

Rego back then on it was KXA 085

Found old pics of it a while back when I was a little kid ... boy how times have changed.

[Mechan1k]

Pretty much identical to this:

[2011G6E]

With our TE, at the same time a friend of mine owned a Ghia with a stupidly worked 4.1 x-flow and four speed. God damn that thing was quick!
His Ghia had the "chunky" four spoke steering wheel you speak of and I actually searched wrecking yards for a couple of years until I finally sourced one for our Cortina (which had a sports wheel fitted when we bought it). Very comfortable and grippy wheel, which also allowed you to see the full instrument dash properly as well, which most smaller sports steering wheels didn't.

[krypto71]

I too had a Cortina in my younger days.

Went from a Mini to a 79 TE Ghia, 250/4sp man combo. It has 220,000kms when I bought it, and more than 400,000 on it when it went to a wrecker 12 years later.

Still wish I had it really.

[2011G6E]

Looking back (and not through rose coloured glasses), a few things really stick in my mind about the '79 TE we had.
It was roomy...I mean not as much as a Falcon, but certainly plenty of room for the two of us and the two kids we had at the time. Mates used to pile in as well on speedway nights to go out and watch. The dash was comprehensive...the Rally Pack had the full instrument dash and it was great. It was relatively quiet on the highway (ours had plenty of work to the engine, extractors, and a free flowing 2-1/2 inch system), and was actually fairly economical as the engine didn't have to work hard.
It was easy to park, handled quite well (lowered slightly and with gas shocks and new springs and bushes), and went really hard.

A friend had a two liter TE wagon at the same time we owned ours and my other friend had his six cylinder TE Ghia sedan. It had (very expensive at the time) twin sidedraft Webers and a lot of head work, hot cam, with a decent exhaust. It was very nicely balanced...probably a lot better balanced than the six cylinder ones of myself and my other mate. It was handy being able to swap around and directly compare each others cars. Even though it was a wagon, it still handled nicely and you could really notice the lower weight over the front end. At the time my brother-in-law also had a TF Ghia sedan...a two liter auto...and it too felt very different in corners with the lower front end weight.

The only reason we got rid of our TE was severe rust in the rear subframe rails...big, long holes. Apart from the body being somewhat prone to rust in a few areas (behind the rear wheel arches, behind those little "vents" on the rear C pillar, etc), it was reliable as anything and parts were cheap as chips. I will say that it was plagued with the exact same fragile door handle problem that Falcons had at the time.
Cortinas were a very popular car back then for smaller families and people who didn't really want or need a "big" car like a Falcon...probably the same as people who bought Toranas instead of Kingswoods, as the Torana was a direct competitor for the Cortina.


I would imagine it is a little like the Mondeo/Falcon duo these days.

[Thunderchild]

My brother had a TD XLE, luxurious for its day and plenty of power with the 250 and going by the all reports of its abysmal handling I should never have survived the many trips in the burringbar ranges I did in it in my younger days.
Happy birthday Cortina

[66GT]

Hi GT6, I don't suppose you used to live in Inala ,Oxley area during the late 80's early 90's. I ask as I used to admire a mk2 GT the same as yours quite often out & about. If so I was most likely in a mk2 escort 2 dr crappy red with Globes.

[rodent5l]

My first car was a 1980 TF Cortina manual 3.3L Alloy head 6 Cylinder.
I still have very fond memories of this car. I think the only way it could have been better was if it had air-conditioning.

I still notice them around sometimes and think of times past.

Happy 50th Birthday Cortina!

[ZGM86]

I learnt to drive in a 1974 TC Cortina XL 2 litre manual - was my Xmas present when I was 12 years old and was my bushbasher. That old beast took all the punishment I could throw at it and just kept going! This TC was more unbreakable than any Hilux (it took a bushfire to kill it in the end). There were many crazy moments in that old thing with my mates - doughnuts, blasting through flooded trails, getting airbourne, getting bogged so deep in mud the wheels aren't visible, fixing damage with bush mechanic tricks...good times!

My first road car after getting my P plates as a 17 year old was a 1978 TE Cortina GL 4.1 litre manual wagon. I really wanted an XB Falcon at the time, but the parents said that would be 'too big' for me, so we agreed that the Cortina was a good compromise. It worked out well in the end. I drove that one more carefully and with more respect than the bushbasher, but it went pretty damn well! I couldn't bare to part with it, hence why it's still in the garage. I'll get around to restoring her one day (after the Fairlane is finished though).

[ebxr8240]

There were many engines in these cars worldwide..
The 2.5 V6 Essex was a crap engine.. Smaller engine to V6 Capri..
This engine wasn't released in Aust .. Other than a few Mk4 Zephyrs..
Then there was the 1300cc on order from Gov depts. Like nurses etc..
The body panels TMK were pressed in UK and assembled here..
Which left much to be desired at the time..
Most the bad stuff written was was the early Mk3 with there under
engineered front suspension..Rubbish V6 until the German V6 Cologne] arrived..
The Sigma was its competitor [in 80's] and there's not many of them around either..

[unkey]

The MK5 Cortina was my first car,a brand new one which I loved,and had for 6 years...in South Africa.
It was an extremely popular car,and was top seller for many years,probably because it was very well sized,and had been well priced and looked good.
Was replaced by 1984 with the Sierra,which drove customers away in droves who flocked to Volkswagen Jettas and Toyota Corollas and Cressidas,as the fleet market in particular wanted sedans,not hatchbacks mid sized.
The MK4 AND MK5 were sold in Europe ,where they were badged as the Taunus.

[flappist]

Originally Posted by RASER

A nothing vehicle

One of the WORST, if not the MOST worst vehicle to ever have a BlueOval badge attached to it.

Even SIMS Metal dont want them!

You mean the car that won Bathurst THREE TIMES IN A ROW.