60 Years of the Ford Cortina

**Rallye Sport** · 18-09-2022, 03:48 PM

This Tuesday the 20th of September will mark 60 years since the release of the Cortina.

The nameplate spanned 5 different marks over 20 years. Engines were available from a 1200cc four to a 4.1 litre six and everything else in between with countless trim levels and variations available worldwide.

Australia had it fair share of models with the standouts for me being the Mk1 GT500, Fords first attempt and a successful one at that building a Bathurst homologation vehicle.
Lets not forget the TD XLE either, a full fat luxury barge with a mighty 4.1L thrown in six for good measure.

I'll be firing my TD up on Tuesday for some nostalgia, anyone else care to reminisce?

BENT_8 · 18-09-2022, 07:40 PM

Lots of fond memories in Cortina's.

Mum had a Mk2 and Dad had a TF Ghia when I was about 10.
My First car was a TC, had a few TE,'s TF and a mint TD XLE in metallic brown with black vinyl roof.

**Beastie** · 18-09-2022, 08:01 PM

Ahh, the old TC Cortina...

My first car purchased 2nd hand in 1986 for $600 with a 250 4spd...

Went like a rocket...

**GasoLane** · 18-09-2022, 08:07 PM

It wouldn't be a Cortina thread if Jim Clark didn't get a mention.

**buggerlugs** · 18-09-2022, 08:16 PM

Mum had a TD , I had a TE Ghia and the old man got his first ever new car a TF GL..........

GCRXR6 · 18-09-2022, 09:35 PM

My first car at 17 was a 1967 Mk2 1500 GT. Had a couple of problem areas, but no more than most cars of the era.

LG17 · 18-09-2022, 10:00 PM

My old man sold his Studebaker Lark in 1969 and bought a Silver fox Mk2 1600 auto.
He also had a TE later in life - 4 cyl auto.

I have a '66 Mk 1 GT 4 door now.
It's currently off the road after being my daily for over 10 years, undergoing a very slow restoration. It'll be finished when it's finished...

asagaai · 19-09-2022, 01:15 AM

Aah Cortinas.

My old man said I could not buy a v8 or a 6, had to be a 4 cylinder, when I was at home, despite me working and saving for and paying for my first car.

My first car at 17 was a Ford Cortina Mk 11 1600, close ratio 4 speed manual box. Later on about 1.5 years later saw a 1600 Ford Kent in a rally shop for sale. Twin 40 dcoe side draft webbers, big cam, big valves, ported, high compression, balanced and "blue printed". Promptly saved up, bought it and plopped it in the 1600 GT.

Was faster to 120 than most v8s :0 - that shut the old man up.

Its suspension was set up for rallying, and nothing EVER kept up with me on dirt, and the induction noise- with trumpets and foam socks- was to die for.

When it was totalled, got a Ford TE 4.1 Cortina. Eventually built the motor with waggot cam, holley 350, big valves and some porting, alloy head, shaved head with high compression. That was pretty quick for the time- lowish 7 seconds to 100.

Handling was crap, the alloy head up front helped a bit by taking some weight off, was living in Northern Territory and worked in Katherine and had to drive 300 km to Darwin when there were no speed limits.

Remember my goal was to go through Hayes Creek bends at 160 kph, never had the guts to do it, always had to back off. Ahh those were the days.

Remember passing a policeman driving other side leaving Katherine about 15 km out doing 190 kph on a down hill, flat out, he did not blink, - those were the days instead of the crappy tolerances nowadays.

Out of those 2 the 1600 GT was my favourite, not as fast, but just more fun, bit like a raw rear drive version of the Fiesta ST.

xkxlxm · 19-09-2022, 08:46 AM

Mum had an ex-PMG (Vic) MK 2 two door, in that grey (?) PMG colour of course. Many years ago I bought a similar model Cortina that had been accident-damaged and I thought I was going to use the mechanical bits in a project ... never happened.

**98TLS** · 19-09-2022, 11:03 AM

My old mum n law still has this,gets driven once a week to get the shopping in,was bought by her husband (who passed away years back) then sold for a Falcon then bought back again,plenty of sentimental value to her.

**FTE217** · 19-09-2022, 12:38 PM

Nice Corty Rallye, yes they sure have history here.
A friends elder bro back int he day had a GT, I was impressed the many rides I had the pleasure being in it, he used to drive it like you stole it......

Those XLE's sure got my eye back then but I couldn't afford one but a close frined of the fam had one that I got to drive a few times, those 6's went in those things I loved driving it.

Happy Anni Corty tomorrow and enjoy yours fired up.

Bossxr8 · 19-09-2022, 01:57 PM

Mum had a lime green TC wagon with a 3.3 six. Black vinyl interior and metal seatbelt buckles, can't forget the almost 3rd degree burns from touching them as a kid.

Got T-boned and written off. Dad had one of the earlier Cortinas, but that was before I was born.

Honest Gaza · 20-09-2022, 01:34 PM

My first ever car...Cortina TE Wagon (manual)
My first ever stereo / speaker upgrade (including spectrum analyser on the equaliser)
My first ever accident...written off

Ahhhhh....good times.

csv8 · 20-09-2022, 05:02 PM

I had an XLE in 1977 in gold with a black vinyl roof with the 4.1. Fond memories...

**Gothefalcon** · 20-09-2022, 06:21 PM

In the early 80's, I had a 72 TC 2.0Ltr 4spd Wagon, Dark metallic green with a white roof.
It had a 2bbl weber carb and fairly flew, for a car of it's era

After that I had a 77 TE 4.1Ltr Auto GL Wagon, Dark Blue.
The 250 had been warmed over a bit and was good for 230Kph on a lo.....ong road (like the Hay plains

)

Both were great cars to own back then... and had a lot of fun in them !

D

foxtrot3 · 20-09-2022, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xkxlxm

Mum had an ex-PMG (Vic) MK 2 two door, in that grey (?) PMG colour of course. Many years ago I bought a similar model Cortina that had been accident-damaged and I thought I was going to use the mechanical bits in a project ... never happened.

Hi. Once knew a girl who had one of them, they were a real budget build car, just had a flat dash in front of the passenger instead of a glovebox. Cheers MD

GTP534 · 20-09-2022, 10:52 PM

First ever car was a 1966 Ford Cortina 440, British Racing Green. We bought it in 1973 as my grandparents were coming out from Northern Ireland to visit us here in Sydney.

Had a bench front seat with 4 on the column. Great little car!

Traded it on a 1972 TC 2L wagon in 1977 - that was a heap of rubbish!

Happy Cortina Day!

road runner · 21-09-2022, 08:57 PM

I had a '67 Mk2 GT1500 as my first car, loved it. Looked after her, but she would blow away EH's etc everytime. Now I've got another one...

minheim · 22-09-2022, 05:37 PM

I had a mate who had a TC or TD cortina 4cylinder sedan back in the 1980s. He was not a very car proud person. It was a bit of a mess inside in terms of tidiness etc and he had even removed the front passenger seat so he could cart bigger items etc. Anyway it got stolen one day and several days later he was contacted by the police to advise they had found it. They told him to be prepared for a shock as it had been badly trashed and was a mess inside. Suffice to say it was the same as when taken.

He was a bit of a cortina tragic. His first car was a cortina mk1 sedan. His older brother who had owned a cortina mk1 previously had advised him to get one. This would have been around 1977. The most i remember of that car was it seemed to have lots of head gasket trouble and spent an inordinate amount of time in his back yard. I think it was constantly being repaired with silicone.

I and most of my other mates had purchased Hr holdens as first cars. All were of course written off and the mags wheels of one were passed around at a cheap price ultimately ended up being fitted to 3 of our cars. In one instance two Hrs were written off by each other when one braked hard to avoid an accident in front and slide sideways before being t-bonedv by the following mate's HR. Amazingly no one was ever injured in the HRs.

Trevor 57 · 25-09-2022, 05:27 AM

I have owned 2 Cortina's. A Mark 1 which was my grandfathers car, I bought it from his estate with 11,00 miles on the clock. I had it when we got married, I got pics somewhere of it 'painted up' on our wedding day.

After a few years I traded it on a Mark 3 Cortina, a TD (but with rectangle headlights), it had a 3.3 litre 6 cylinder in it and a 3 sped manual trans. We had to sell it when my wife fell pregnant with twins, we already had two children, we couldn't put 4 kids on the backseat :-). I still miss that car - it was awesome.

xkxlxm · 25-09-2022, 07:06 AM

I believe MK2 front blinker units were used on Aston Martins at one time.

xkxlxm · 25-09-2022, 11:31 AM

I still have some parts from the damaged Cortina I bought decades ago: diff, cylinder head, grille (average-ordinary cond.), front bumper, front blinkers, handbrake lever/rubber boot/cable, two instruments, probably a couple more bits. There is a cylinder head as well.

5thFordWA · 25-09-2022, 04:13 PM

I was a Ford dealer mechanic in 1973 and bought a brand new TC XLE 4.1 4-spd manual, I knew the next model was going to replace the toploader transmission with a Borg Warner (I think it was) so I bought one before that happened. It was red with cream vinyl roof, and was a great tow car for towing my brother's App J Mini to Wanneroo. With the Falcon engine, toploader trans and basically Falcon rear axle, these were strong cars, but the body did let them down a bit.
One day my bro-in-law who had just bought a new RX3 rotary was riding with me, and we were talking about torque of the engines. I stopped on a level road, turned off engine, put in first, hit the starter and it started in gear. I did not touch the throttle and changed into 2nd when it had built up a little speed, then 3rd and maybe 4th, all with engine at idle, got up to about 50kms/hr! He said "this is not a car, it's a bloody truck".

Had a fair bit to do with the 1500 & 1600 Cortina engines in sports cars and Formula Ford. Good engines for their time.

**Rallye Sport** · 25-09-2022, 05:18 PM

I've been driving my old girl every day this week and whilst cruising I got thinking about the 'tinas that have got away from me over the years.

I came across a Mk1 GT500 in the mid nineties, it was parked outside the accommodation barracks at the Bullsbrook RAAF base, I remember parking out on the road and looking at it with with the old mans binoculars (try doing that nowadays

) It eventually disappeared. A few years later a mate ended up there after doing his training and was asked to do some digging about it.
The storeman remembered the car and according to him the guy had taken another posting, the car was left behind and after due notice it was sent to the rifle range.
Not such a happy birthday for that one...

jpd80 · 25-09-2022, 06:07 PM

Owned a ‘69 CD 440 as my first car, reliable honest little car, but for a blue XB 302 Futura catching my eye, I had my eye on a beautiful 2.0 Manual TD XL Cortina.

The Falcon was $500 more…

I do recall seeing an oddball TC with an Essex V6 in it, must have been a South African import.

BENT_8 · 26-09-2022, 02:37 PM

Not long aftet I got my licence and my first daily, a green TE 2.0l, my old man set about looking for a few parts that needed replacing.
Found an ad in the paper for a Gov car auction that listed a TE Cortina, this was in 94 and so we figured it must have been an impound or something as it seemed too old to be a Gov fleet car.
When we got there on auction day it turns out it was a Gov fleet car that had done a water pump bearing and thrown the plastic fan through the radiator and had been parked in their shed since early 80's with radiator out and in the boot.
Had less than 40,000km on the clock.
Metallic chocolate brown S Pack, 2.0l 4sp.

Dad bought it as it was mint, think he paid around $1k.
Brought it home on a trailer and decided it was too good to part out so we stripped the pump and fan, put all new parts on and with a bit of fresh fuel and a jump start she fired straight up.
Found it had a miss under load so got Lube Mobile out. They spent best part of a day on it and couldnt get it right.
Timing was right, so mechanic suggested carby issue.
Dad stripped the carby off and took it to the Sprint Auto shop at Para Hills as they did carby servicing, had it overhauled and put it back on.
No change so Dad had a closer look, turns out a couple of the vaccum hoses we're on wrong so swapped them around and it ran perfect.

I so wanted it for myself but Dad ended up selling it to recoup his costs.

zilo · 26-09-2022, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BENT_8

Found it had a miss under load so got Lube Mobile out. They spent best part of a day on it and couldnt get it right.

Yep...yep...and yep.

mondeomatureguy · 28-09-2022, 08:33 PM

Hi Guy's
i have mixed feelings about the Ford Cortina. yes it won Bathurst in 1963,1964,1965.
by some Luck i have a 1977 Wheels Mag which has a test of a Ford Cortina TE Ghia.

Priced at $7576 dollars with a six cylinder engine and did 167km/h (104mph) and had a Manual gearbox not great on fuel 6.7 km/h (18.9mpg) over 280km.

At the end of the road test it says " there is still areas for improvment in handling.
There's no getting away from the fact that the rear suspension is unable to cope with the torque of the engine on wet surface.

**Rallye Sport** · 05-12-2022, 09:40 AM

The celebrations will continue next year to mark 60 years of the Lotus Cortina.
The inaugural Jim Clark Trophy will be held at Goodwood with 30 Lotus Cortinas expected to contest the race.
Should be a good one to watch.
https://www.goodwood.com/grr/event-c...rophy-at-80mm/

PooDog · 05-12-2022, 11:18 AM

The mk1 Cortina would be my favourite.....my 2nd car was a 65 2 door 1200 4 on the floor (wish I still had it) crank shaft pulley ripped the centre out as an apprentice mechanic I thought it was a good idea to chisel a slot in the boss so I could lever it off instead snapped the front of the crank off .....oh well time for a 1500 was one of the first motors I did up , with a Weber and extractors cost over 600 bucks ( a lot of $ for an apprentice in those days ) that motor ran so nice after a good thrashing it was like the inside of the exhaust pipe had been spray painted white ......the beauty of leaded fuel