(first posted 11/18/2015) When you’re telling a story, they say you should begin at the beginning, go on till you reach the end, then stop. But where is the beginning, when telling of a car you owned for a quarter-century? Does it begin in 1982, when I bought the car? Does it begin in 1976 when I got my licence? Does it begin in 1974, when the car was made? Or does it begin even earlier, when the car in question appeared at the Melbourne Motor Show in 1972 , and a poor but car-mad fifteen-year-old from the wrong part of town eagerly made the round of stands, collecting many (but not all) of the brochures that were to be had? Let’s start our journey there.
Somehow, when I pored over those brochures in the privacy of my room, I knew that I’d wind up with a TC Cortina someday. I read the specs, sorted my way through the options, and figured out what I wanted, as only a fifteen year old would do. There were lots of really nice colours to choose from, but the plum-coloured XL with gold fender stripes on the brochure cover looked pretty good to me.
The base L looked a bit barren outside, although the XL’s interior was a bit over the top with all that chrome and woodgrain. Definitely I’d get the big 2000 OHC engine, and a manual. Options? Well….. it’s amazing what you could do with an unlimited theoretical budget!
Cars were fun in those days. My brochure-fests continued year after year. Ford later upgraded the Cortina with Falcon running gear, but the six had a bad reputation for understeer, whatever that was. I’d stick with the four. They brought out a mini-brougham XLE model – I thought that was just ridiculous. Still, you saw a lot of them around.
The later TD facelift with the plain dashboard and plastic grille didn’t look as nice to me, though I liked some of the other changes. The later square-bodied TE just did nothing for me; undoubtedly more modern, it just lacked something – that shape was gone. So I’d have a TC, someday – it looked the best of the lot.
Reality was a bit different. When I got my licence, driving to college was out of the question – battling all that way through traffic, with nowhere to park? Not for me. Melbourne had a good 1920’s tramway service. As a history buff that was fine by me. Trams took me to college, and later to the hospital for work. I could always borrow the family car when I needed to go somewhere the network didn’t service. Dad’s ’67 Falcon wasn’t new, but in my neighbourhood having a family car at all was a plus.
Borrowing the family car….yes, I reckon we’d all have our tales to tell about that. I didn’t drive a lot, as the car was bigger than I would have liked and parking was always a problem, but there was one day I’d taken the car into the city – I’ve forgotten why. I was driving home down St. Kilda Road in the evening peak hour traffic, revelling in the low-down punch of that 200 inch six and thinking maybe this wasn’t so bad after all. And suddenly the gear linkage jammed, and I was unable to change out of first gear. I limped it along to the next set of traffic lights (fortunately on red), jumped out, opened the hood and wiggled the gear linkage to unjam it. It seemed to take forever, Fortunately other drivers were patient and understanding – young bloke in an old car with problems, the sort of thing you saw all the time. Eventually I got the car moving again, and on the way home the decision was made: I had wrestled with those gears for the last time. I would buy my first car. Of course it would be a Cortina.
Cortinas were quite common on the road in those days, so there wasn’t too much problem finding what I wanted in a used specimen. Most people seemed to go for the six, though I knew from reading road tests that they were heavy on fuel, much the same ‘economy’ as Dad’s Falcon. So, a four. Colour was negotiable, but bright without being too bright. While I liked orange, I couldn’t see myself in an orange car. Green, perhaps. And I’d decided the base L trim level would be sufficient for me.
Scanning the ads, I found one that looked likely – a bronze Cortina L with a grey vinyl roof. A test drive around some local streets and cobblestoned lanes proved the car was sound. I became the proud owner of a ’74 Cortina, IAG 132, with allegedly 105,000km on it. Little did I know how long I’d have that car for.
For the first few months I didn’t use it much. I still caught the tram to work, but the weekends saw me going out much more – and having less money as a result, just like Dad had predicted. I soon learnt to moderate my use of the loud pedal.
A trip to the mechanic showed that my car was built in the last few weeks before model changeover. Some TC parts wouldn’t fit; it needed TD ones. The suspension was a mixture of parts from the two models, and so was the interior. The owner’s manual was for the next model. My car had a rear-window demister which wasn’t listed in any brochure I had seen, yet the switch looked to be factory.
The AM radio/cassette player got a workout. It was an aftermarket unit with large round speakers in the front doors. I had to redo the wiring to the speakers soon after getting the car. Remounting the speakers was a yearly ritual, as they were heavy great things and the masonite backing behind the vinyl had crumbled from the weight. Some sheetmetal reinforcement a few years later fixed that.
Holidays came – time for the first long roadtrip! I was visiting my parents’ friends in Adelaide. I’d never been there before, but I had a map, a car and a full tank – how hard could it be? Pretty easy, as it turned out. Frank was there to meet me at the end of the freeway, and I followed him to their house, which was my base for the next two weeks as I explored the Adelaide Hills.
On the way back I took my time, exploring north-western Victoria. I followed any road that looked interesting, to any place whose name sounded curious. Like Bringalbert South. I never did find out who Albert was, or why someone wanted to bring him south. I found many towns that had fallen into decline – one storefront in Murtoa still had New Year decorations from eight years earlier! But I enjoyed a time I have never forgotten.
One memorable night I parked the Cortina by the side of a lake in the middle of nowhere.. I laid the seat back and went to sleep. I woke to a sliver of light on the horizon. “Beauty”, I thought, “I’ll just sit here and watch the sunrise.” But the view seemed to stay the same for an awfully long time, so I turned on the radio – only to find out it was 1:30. I had woken to the streetlights of a nearby town!
Home again, and back to the mundane. I was working as a pathology laboratory technician, and had regular stints of eight weeks of night shift. The Cortina made the trips to work much more comfortable and safer than late-night tram travel from St. Kilda, though I was often a bit sleepy coming home. And the trip was much quicker.
But problems arose. There was this weird intermittent ignition fault – sometimes the car ran beautifully, other times it had a persistent miss. Eventually it refused to start the night I had taken my fiancée into church to finalise arrangements for our forthcoming wedding. 9pm, inner-city car park, and we were the last to leave. Eventually the RACV man got it going, though I had to keep it above half-throttle to stop it stalling, and it kept missing and backfiring something terrible. Eventually it got me home, though I attracted lots of attention. Next morning it had to be towed. The fault was with the coil – and the mechanic swore there was no way I could have driven it home from the city the night before.
I married Jane. She had been brought up with the principle that ‘If you’re going to drive, you have to know how a car works and how to fix it’. From her father I was soon introduced into practical automotive mechanics, assisting in maintenance and servicing of the family fleet. There were limits – ‘Not the automatic; that’s a job for an expert.’ But as my tool collection grew, sometimes my enthusiasm got the better of me. Like the day her engineer brother found me with the Cortina’s Weber stripped down to the last nut and bolt. ‘Even I wouldn’t do that!’, he said. Maybe that was going too far?
Speaking of Webers, the carby continually gave problems during these early years. A rebuild kit (remember those?) didn’t help, but I soon learned my way around a 32/36 DGAV. The accelerator pump was stuffed. I also got acquainted with the local wrecking yards, trying to find a better carby than my own. Eventually I made one good carby from several junk ones. My brother-in-law was heard muttering that there was nothing wrong with my car that twin DCOEs wouldn’t fix. With my budget, that wasn’t happening.
Then the vacuum advance unit came loose from the body of the Lucas distributor, which created infinitely-variable spark timing. Not recommended! A trip to a local race shop resulted in a rebuilt Bosch competition unit for less. Sounded cool when I hit the loud pedal, too.
Tyres were next. I was assured that Kelly-Springfield 185/70R13s were the go for Cortinas, and that they’d fit on the standard rims. They did, and made a huge improvement. An update to Monroe Gas shocks followed, which cured the car’s habit of needing new shocks every year or so. Dad wondered how I wore them out so fast. They also gave much-improved roadholding. Ride? Don’t ask. One out of two ain’t bad!
After seven years at the hospital, I heard the call to the ministry. The next three years had me attending classes at the nearby college, and ferrying other students to and fro. The Cortina coped faultlessly with the daily 20km commute during these years, even if it was one of the oldest vehicles in the car park. It also took us on periodical long trips to distant churches that needed a preacher.
During these years our two children arrived. Sometimes it was a bit awkward getting them buckled into the back seat due to the swoopy curve of the window frame, but the Cortina coped well as our second car – and main car once Jane’s Corona died in my final year.
Then we were off to the country. Kerang was in the north of the state, not far from the Murray River, and a five hour drive from our previous home. Not a major tourist destination by any means. The Cortina made the trip faultlessly, and fitted in to the town’s vehicle-scape well. In fact, it looked just like a car one local family had scrapped not long before. I had a few strangers come up and say “I see you got Lorraine’s old car.” I had to say “No, this one’s up from Melbourne.”
It coped well with the long-distance cruising between towns in the north-west, and the occasional visit to Mildura, some four hours downriver. Sometimes, when it reached 40C I wished it had air-conditioning. It was a dry heat though, so I just cruised with the windows and vents open and the fan on flat out. With frequent stops for cool drinks.
After a few years we moved to Horsham, further south. Once again long trips took me around the local towns, and there were monthly trips to Melbourne as well. It’s funny how city traffic seems so much worse than you remember after a couple of years away. It was here that I had the driver’s side front floorpan replaced, due to rust-through, and had a stainless-steel exhaust system fitted after the local supplier had trouble sourcing the section needed.
By now the car had racked up some 300,000km, much of it constant speed on country roads. Another move took us to Batesford, a small village outside Geelong. It was by far the smallest place we had lived in, not even having a shop. And our house was at the bottom of a steep-sided river valley, in an 80km/h zone. This was murder on a cold old engine.
Not long after moving there, several burnt valves led to a reconditioned head, which I had converted to unleaded petrol. The garage scooped metal out of the combustion chambers to lower the compression, then did a port and polish job to restore the performance some. It was great to be able to fill up on the cheaper petrol, and I found that if I filled it with Super, the old girl really flew! Call me a very happy customer.
One memorable day I was taking some other ministers to a meeting in a town an hour away. At one point the road was about to narrow from four lanes to two, and my navigator pointed to the car ahead and said, “Get ahead of him if you can.” Right: back to second gear, floor the accelerator, and we shot past the slowcoach. Graham turned to me and queried, “Is this one a four or a six?” I replied with a smile, “It’s a four, but not as Henry made it.”
By now my Cortina was getting a bit worn. The twenty-year-old respray was starting to fade, and rust was beginning to rear its ugly head in some areas I couldn’t fix. Repair parts were getting harder to source. Once I was asked by a mechanic at Ford just how long I was going to keep this car for. I asked him how a modern FWD small car would handle the rough bush tracks where some of my parishioners lived. He said it wouldn’t cope. “Okay then”, I said, “Keep this one going”.
Then I came down with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and had to give up work at forty. My driving was limited to meeting the kids at the school bus at the end of the street. We moved to Bannockburn, to be in a larger town without the traffic of the city, and closer to the doctor. As my condition improved the kids and I went on ‘road rummages’, exploring the local back roads and fire trails for miles around.
The children grew up, and needed to learn to drive. We needed a manual car to teach them in. This led to the purchase of my second car (COAL forthcoming), which meant the Cortina was mostly retired to the shed. Although she still ran fine, rust was starting to take hold at the base of the passenger-side A-pillar, which was an instant roadworthy fail. Along with various other problems I’d never noticed, until they were pointed out. It’s amazing what you get used to.
I discovered that nobody wanted an old Cortina – not a four, anyway, and certainly not one with 450,000km on the clock. Despite ads in several old car magazines, she remained unsold for several years. Finally she was given away to my son’s friend who needed money to get through college. He got her up and running again (if a bit noisily), and passed her on to a buyer from Bendigo who was going to restore her to her former glory.
Maybe one day I’ll see her again.
Great write up. I see a lot of U.S. spec Ford Maverick in the lines, though no actual body panels were shared.
That’s love right there! Kinda makes me wonder how it would have played out had I kept one of my old car loves going. The one that comes to mind is the ’89 Bonneville I had from 1999 to 2003.
Great read!
Good choice going with the bullet proof 2.0 engine such as we got in the US in the Pinto. Did the automatic transmission ever need to be rebuilt? I think you mentioned you only owned 3 or 4 cars in total. I respect that. I also keep my cars as long as it can be kept safe and reliable. 30 years on one truck, 24 and counting on current car. (’86 Jetta GL) Shows how long a well built car can last with proper care. And I’m sure the roads in your area were hard on a cars suspension as well. The automobile dealers and manufacturers may not appreciate long term ownership, but the pocket book and environment sure do. Looking forward to the next long term ownership write up.
I sure don’t think the dealers appreciate long term ownership, but when it suits their needs, I think the manufacturers do. Right now in my area there is a Honda commercial featuring a couple who bought a new ’85 CRX which is reported to have 795K miles. Earlier this year a Toyota commercial here featured a Prius owner who had rolled up over 500K miles. I likely won’t ever accumulate that kind of mileage, but I’m hoping to go many more years as Pete did before I replace my 2003 Matrix.
I would think it’s the other way around. Auto manufacturers may advertise the longevity of their cars, but they’d be happiest if you come back and buy another one as soon as possible. Advertising a car’s longevity is secret code for “high resale value”, so potential buyers won’t be scared away by the prospect of depreciation at resale time.
Manufacturers only profit when people buy brand new cars, so long term owners don’t help their bottom line. Used car buyers only tangentially help by supporting the car’s resale value, and because someone had to buy another new car to sell them that used one.
From what I’ve read, dealers don’t make that much from car sales relative to their profits from service and repairs. Old cars need repairs, and on the customer’s dime, not warranty work which pays less. Of course, if the car is so old that the cost of repairs is prohibitive or impossible because parts have become “obsolete”, you’re already at the dealership where they can try to sell you another one!
I agree that the manufacturers would love to have us come in and buy a new car every year, that’s how they make their money, but realistically that’s not going to happen. So they “cherry pick” the owners with the impressive mileage totals to showcase how durable their cars have been, and hope that image assimilates to what is available in the showroom. This is what I meant by “when it suits their needs”. As for service, I think about the only time a dealer sees an older model in their service department (say 10 years or older) is during a recall. I think the dealer service department makes most of its money on cars that are still under warranty – as in servicing the car at the dealership so that in case of a warranty claim, there’s no contesting the quality of the routine service that was performed.
Good points. To keep a car long term, you need a model which was built for a long time and in large numbers. And which is durable to begin with. The dealership isn’t going to be any help as the vehicle ages out of the parts cycle. The internet is your friend for finding affordable parts, with the added advantage that they arrive in your mailbox. If you can do most or all of the repairs yourself. If not mechanically inclined, then a good independent mechanic, ideally one with lots of experience with the make and model you own, is a must. It also helps to have another vehicle available since repair time will be longer if parts are not local and off the shelf.
After about ’90 or so, many bits (like the steering universal joint) had to come from wreckers. The beauty of the Cortina was that every mechanic seemed to be familiar with it, and could find something to fit.
Or you can get lucky, and own an old rig that has catalogs of restoration parts available for it, like my first gen ’83 Ford Ranger 🙂
The auto did need rebuilding. Ford Australia used two different autos in these, either the C4 of the Borg Warner 35 which my car had.
Still, a valve job and transmission rebuild is not bad for 25 years with high mileage.
The fact that it was a country car, never used in the stop and go peak hour grind would have helped a lot. When I was up north, it was like an hour or more at ~100km/h between towns, at constant speed except for the occasional overtaking move. Ideal for an engine.
My Volvo 245 had a B-W 35 trans in it, and all I can say is I wish it had a manual trans in it. The B-W 13-50 transfer case in my Ranger, however, has been outstanding, even behind my mildly built 302.
Excellent. Kept my 57 but didn’t keep it the way I needed to. You did a much better job.
Ah, the coke-bottle Cortina ! In blighty these started with a 1300 Kent motor and a Ford carburettor. The 2-litre ones usually got the 4 headlight front, which made them look a bit better.I sometimes see a Mk 1 or a Mk 2 Cortina, but I haven’t seen a Mk 3 in a long long time.
Here in Australia they saved the 4 light grille for the sixes. I agree, it does look better.
That was the 2.0L GT grille here plus Rostyle wheels.
Great writeup, thanks for sharing. I can certainly relate to learning auto mechanics by necessity after acquiring your first car. Part of your story also reminded me about my blue pickup truck. When the restyled Dodge pickups came out in 1994, I told my friends that one day I’d own one of those, and I did.
You didn’t explicitly say, but I gather from what you wrote that you got rid of the Cortina in 2007, so it was about 33 years old at the time?
That’s right – just at is peak of ‘undesirability’!
Very popular cars in Godzone they became the best selling car of the mid 70s surpassing the HQ Holden, The guidance counselor at highschool had a 2Litre GT in bright orange I kinda liked it then suddenly he traded it for a Mitsubishi GTO, Every commercial traveller in NZ had a MK3 Cortina they were literally everywhere now they are nowhere all rusted out and gone even here where rust rarely exists, there was a yellow 1300cc version around the corner but the owner moved and took it with him.
You chose well Pete the six was a total abortion of a car, shocking understeer and on gravel very tail happy without good handling to take advantage of it and the front subframes arent up to the extra weight and crack alarmingly, I had the misfortune to drive one around Narrabri for a few weeks while the owner negotiated having his license returned after his ban was up, it could light the tyres up ok and was moderately fast in a straight line but at speed not very nice at all, I’d take the four at least they steer.
Dad was keen on getting one of these, but he was determined to go for a six despite having driven my four – until he found he couldn’t afford any new car at all. Inflation!
The straight six must have been way,way to heavy as the British Savage Conversions Essex 3.0 V6 handled good.
A world car as Korean and British built trims varied. In Portugal and Sweden Cortina and Turnaus shared show room floors.
Allegedly 465 pounds as fitted to this model, and the 1976-on crossflow-head ones were 531 pounds. Compare that with 370 for the Essex V6, which is a more compact size, allowing you to mount the weight further back. No wonder the Savage was a great handler. A V6 from a Capri 3000GT would have been great, but they were hard to come by here. That’s the only car we got them in here in Australia, and they were highly prized; pretty much ‘classic’ by the eighties already.
Lovely story, many thanks for sharing it. I note that there are plenty of little styling differences (lamps, badging), which, to UK eyes, make this look 80% Cortina and 20% Taunus. Right for the Aus market, by the sounds of things. Lest we forget, Ford sold a million copies each of Cortinas Mk I-IV in the UK. They really were everywhere. Today, Mk Is and IIs from the 60s (1600Es and Lotuses) can still be seen occasionally, but Mk IIIs and IVs are a rare treat.
Mark IIIs were very common here, despite the bad reputation they had for spotty assembly quality, and the structural and mechanical problems peculiar to the six which Bryce has described. There were three in this town when we moved here seventeen years ago; mine was the last to go.
Several have surfaced on a facebook kiwi classic car page I belong to lots of young guys have grandads old Cortina and are restoring them, theres a lack of once common cars these days I mean old Minxs like mine were everywhere once upon a time now mine is almost the only one I see.
I nearly got a Minx like yours for my first car. I had my eye on one, but Dad put his foot down – a ‘young professional’ (as he liked to think of me) needed to have a car to reflect his success. Yeah, right, and what did he drive….?
A great write-up indeed! Must have been hard to part with a car that had been with you for so long, but it’s great that it ended up with someone planning a restoration. Hopefully they followed through and you might meet your old Cortina again someday!
I’ve had two different cars that I lusted after as a younger man, hoping I might be lucky enough to experience more as the years go by. It’s always a good feeling to fulfill a dream of your youth.
It was very hard to part with, but it was just taking up space in the shed. By that stage I was using COAL #2 for everyday driving. And realistically once that A-pillar rust took hold I knew I couldn’t afford to get it fixed. I’d been watching that for a few years and knew it was serious.
I had a friend I hadn’t seen for something like twenty years come around to visit one day. I took him over to the shed and opened the door – he was just stunned. He remembered me showing off the Cortina when I first got it, and was just amazed that I still had it, and that it was in such good condition.
Dear Pete, that is such a cool story. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. When you were in your early forties and recovered from that fatigue did you go back into fulltime ministry, and are you still involved in it? In my own retirement I seem to have been slowly pulled in this direction too but only as a deacon as being an elder in an Australian-run South Pacific church conference could be too hard for an oldie I think. Funny how many Australasian guys I come across in ministry turn out to be existing Holden or Coon gearheads or ex-speedway or dirt bike racers or whatever from their youth. They never seem to lose the interest. Guess the wipe-outs they have all had bring them closer. There have been 7 occasions when I thought it was all over, one as a 5 year old in a split window Minor, one as a kid on a Norton 650SS, one in a Cub 90, one in a Cessna 336, one in a 172, one in a Tiger, and one in a Mini. Each time it was a high speed impact that was about to occur that would be no way survivable, or, somehow, it was, or somehow time and place seemed to switch places for a split second, and contact was inexplicably averted. I don’t know how. Well.. perhaps I do 🙂
Craig, I’ve never fully recovered, after all those years. Yeah, that’s rough at my age. For a couple of years there I was part-time assistant at a big town church, but even that wore me out and caused a relapse. It’s taken me four years and I’m still not back to where I was before.
Currently I’m preaching once or twice a month at small country churches that don’t have a minister. It takes me a few days to recover, so at the moment that’s as much as I can manage.
Hi Chris I disagree with your wife (;
Goodness, your Cortina was a car of a lifetime! Thanks for sharing this very well written part of your life.
Pete, thanks for sharing your Cortina story; I hope the car has had a deserving restoration by now. A handsome little car.
Your car sounds VAGUELY like the car owned by Jack Thompson’s character in the movie Sum of Us All.
Like many/most (?), I have a preference for the Mk II Cortina, but with that 2 liter engine and a near bullet-proof Ford C4 automatic transmission I could see myself in a Mk III. I once owned a 73 Capri with that combination and it was a nice driving car.
I think I am just a bit too hard on my cars to have any COAL last a lifetime.
Loved the story, and I loved your loyal little Cortina. It is not often that someone sticks by a car like you did with this one.
I found buying a car from a dealer such an unpleasant experience that I vowed to do it as little as possible. 🙂
Come to think of it, this is the only time I bought a car from a dealer. Two others were private sales and one a hand-me-down.
Great story and pictures, Aged Peter. Nice Ford !
The Taunus was the German not-so coke-bottle version. Also available as a fastback. These cars were the -highly successful- ancestors of the Sierra and Mondeo. Both Ford and Opel can only dream of the market-share they had in this segment, back then.
The Slim German model with out the British curves!. These always got a double take look from passing British motors. ” Funny looking Cortina!”.
Don’t they look like a Mark Four though, apart from the roof.
My uncle had one of these when I was a small child. As a five year old, I found the back seat very roomy and liked the styling. Same color as the featured car but it had the square headlights.
Pete, this was very enjoyable and I smiled the entire time I read it. I’d say you have a wonderful combination of talent and stubborn in keeping the old girl going as long as you did.
A truly terrific car to see you through several of the key chapters of life. You’ve (almost) made me regret selling some of the cars I have!
I enjoyed the read! That Cortina was family.
And it’s no illusion, Melbourne traffic just gets worse, and the compromises needed for dedicated cycle paths (and tram super stops!) on arterial roads don’t help. An increased frequency of rail services and the proliferation of crossings at grade add another degree of joy. You’ll be informed of the only viable solution when I’m Emperor.
I know country folk who simply will not drive in Melbourne. They’ll stop about 20-30km out and hand the wheel over to someone else. Or else (like me) they won’t go there in the first place. I escaped in ’90 and don’t miss it one bit.
Loved reading your story Pete. The Mark III Cortina was always my favorite of the bunch. They were never imported to the US, but apparently Ford of Canada imported some in the early 1970’s.
“They were never imported to the US, but apparently Ford of Canada imported some in the early 1970’s.”
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics/they-sold-what-here-1973-ford-cortina-mkiii-in-canada/
That article suggests that Cortinas were sold in Canada through the 1973 model year, with the last couple of model years being MkIIIs. Cortinas were last sold in the U.S. in 1970, before the MkIII was introduced.
The six cylinder cars were quite powerful.
KJ in Oz
A 302 is easy to fit in the sixes, but then you have the bodyshell twisting out of square – that brings even more problems!
A guy I worked with in Tassie had a crossflow 250 6 and 4 speed in a MK4 Cortina the whole rear end was there only by luck with huge cracks across thru the rear window appeture it flexed if you pushed down on the suspension, his commute to work was via Nichols Rivulet road a brilliant Tassie Targa stage very twisty great fun in a good car, I imagine it contributed to the condition of his car quite a lot.
What a great read!! Thank you!
I will say I always thought it was crazy that the Cortina didn’t sell better in the U.S. when Ford offered it. I like the Cortina so much better than the Maverick, and wonder how Ford would have done by going to a “World Car” approach earlier than the early 1980s Escort. Seems like this vintage Cortina could have worked well stateside…
The Cortina was smaller than the Maverick, being on a 101.5″ wheelbase. One of the brochure shots above gives you the rest of the measurements. But honestly, having looked at a few Mavericks here in Australia (I’ve seen two) I don’t think you’d miss the space inside. If anything, the cabin might have been larger.
The problem was, the Maverick was a rebody job on old paid-for Falcon bits. The Cortina would’ve meant all new tooling. Expensive! Plus it was Not American. 🙂
You’re undoubtedly right about Ford being cheap and wanting to use the old Falcon platform. And the Maverick was a hit stateside, especially initially. No room for the Cortina then… but… how about as a Mercury?
Think of it: instead of the pathetically badge-engineered Maverick-based Comet, you could have had the perfect upmarket little Mercury. The car even shares quite the family resemblance with the ’68 and ’69 Mercury Montego. A Mercury “Cortina Comet” would have been a great companion to the popular Capri (based on the same mechanicals too). The upscale interiors shown in the brochure shots seem very premium–especially for a small car. Imagine, unique Mercury products with a more “international” flair, perfect to appeal to those upscale folks who were becomingly increasingly aware of the benefits of efficient packaging and nimble handling.
Sigh. What might have been…
World car no not really the Australian MK3 Cortina uses an Australian only bodyshell it isnt the same as the UK model NZ has examples of both but mostly the UK locally assembled version even the poverty pack L could be had here with 2.0 OHC and 4 speed many were govt fleet cars and actually that was where the big sales were fleets they replaced the HQ Holdens when an engine size tax was landed on us yet HQs correctly specced are cheaper on fuel and suspension components, price was the big factor.
The first Aussie ones used the same firewall as the British ones (I’ve seen a few here in wrecking yards), but the big changes came when they went to the six, and commonised the six’s body shell for the fours as well. As you would. In the Aussie shell there was enough room to mount the four about six inches further back – not that they did, but they could. I often wondered what moving the weight back would have done for mine, but lacking the skills or money I just left it as it was. Imagination is free; labour is not!
Why did your children have to learn to drive a manual? Is it a law in Australia?
The law was that if you did your test in an automatic, you were only licensed to drive an automatic vehicle. If you wanted to drive a manual after that, it meant a retest. Think of how some folk raised on automatics have awful troubles adapting to driving a manual competently – it kinda makes sense.
It does make sense. Thanks for the clarification.
I wouldn’t be surprised if drivers license candidates were once required to take the road test on a manual, if you go back far enough in time, before automatics were common.
I recall my mother once saying that she passed her road test in a manual (this would have been in the late ’50s, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts) but has never driven a manual since.
My Dad learnt to drive on a T model Ford, back in the twenties. My Cortina was the first automatic he’d ever driven. Automatics didn’t really take off here until about 1960. Back then many folk in their sixties and seventies wouldn’t have an automatic, because it was like learning to drive all over again.
A Cortina! And a wonderfully-interesting write-up, thank you Old Pete!
I was raised on Cortinas – my parents had a MkII 1600 sedan when I was born, and by the time I turned 15 in 1988 and got my licence they’d progressed through MKIII and IV 2.0L station wagons and were onto a MkV (also a 2.0L wagon). Our MkIII was a New Zealand-assembled 1975 facelift model, equivalent to the Aussie TD model. It was manual (as all my parents’ cars were until the mid-90s).
Our neighbours through the 70s and 80s had an early 70s MkIII 1600 sedan – it had the earlier dashboard (which I hate, sorry…!), so was what you’d call a TC. It was bronze, although I think a darker shade than yours.
I find the MkV to be the best-looking version of the MkIII-V/TC-F shape, but the MkIII’s hippy (ha!) looks are great too – and seem to have come into their own nowadays with just the right amount of retro swagger.
The Cortina was hugely popular in New Zealand, and the MkIII saw it ascend to the top of the sales chart in 1975 (I think), where it reigned until 1982 (again, I think) when the Laser relegated it to #2. It was the top-selling model of all time in NZ for a number of years (surpassed more recently by the Toyota Corolla), so there are still survivors around. They’re getting quite thin on the ground now though, especially the MkIII.
Thanks for a great article, thoroughly enjoyed it! 🙂
Thanks, Scott. I know the colour you mean (IIRC it was Brown Satin). Ford offered such a wide range of colours back then, but the browns were very popular. Several times mine was parked next to one the same colour, but most got a cream vinyl roof (if they had one) rather than the grey on mine.
We’ve still got a 2.0L 1976 Cortina.
Thanks for a great story, Pete. You really really have a way with words! I look forward to your next post.
And thank you Mike. I’ve always enjoyed playing with words. I’m in the local writers’ group, and we have an anthology coming out soon. Privately published, yeah, but still…!
Great story Pete! Although I’m a few years younger, your experiences aren’t terribly far removed from my early days of motoring in country Victoria, and the good old Cortina reminds me of many similar cars when I was growing up just a little bit further upstream of Kerang… And my first car was a Torana hatchback, similar but different! And equally painful to wave goodbye to…
Ah, the stories I could tell if I wasn’t constrained to a word limit! Paul was remarkably flexible, but some things just had to get left out.
Like picking up two hitchhikers in the middle of nowhere when I’d left Mildura at 5am. Or the time I tried for a top speed run out the back of Quambatook. Or….
A mate at college had a Sunbird hatchback. That’d really be a rare beast these days.
Nun Attax – “White Cortina”
Once again I learn something new. A six in a little Cortina? That would have been nice. This generation of Cortina is my favourite and I almost swung that way when car shopping back in 73/74. But then I decided to get a hatchback Vega GT. Go ahead and sneer but that car did me well for a few years. I often wondered how reliable a Cortina would have been through numerous Canadian winters.
I enjoyed the comments about the father-in-law teaching some mechanical skills. Mine did as well and his encouragement and enthusiasm helped me to continue to learn and work on my cars over the years.
I really can’t comment on how the Cortina would have handles a Canadian winter. Of course we don’t have winter as you know it here, though it seems to have coped OK in Britain. I think it would’ve come down to the parts and service backup Ford could have provided.
Doing my own mechanical work came in really handy during the college years.
Yes once they were no longer imported here it’s like a year or two later Cortinas disappeared from the Canadian landscape with the exception of the west coast where old cars seem to flourish for decades. In fact a few years back (2000) when my son and I made a trip to Vancouver, we spotted a very nice Lotus Cortina. You know, that’s probably the last time I saw one on the street.
Pete, they did and didn’t cope in Britain. They rusted (like any car of that era, although not nearly as badly as Japanese or Italian cars), and were obviously not great in snow.
I have strong childhood memories of housewives out in the street, pushing, & trying to slide doormats under the drive wheels of, Marinas, Vivas and Cortinas. Our “family car” was a Fiat 126 so no problems there! Lots of problems, but not with snow 🙂
It’s interesting how what is considered a classic or desirable car differs between regions. Due to rust, MK3 Cortinas were quite rare here by the late 90s and definitely considered classics, especially a 2000E or GXL. It helped that it was the car everybody’s dad had, or if your dad had a Marina or Avenger you wished he’d had a Cortina.
It’s just funny to me that it would be at its peak of undesirability as late as 2007. Funnily enough, values increased here right about that time, as a Cortina starred in a hit TV show called “Life on Mars”. Maybe you could have exported it to Blighty. It would probably be considered “almost rust free” here.
I just knew sooner or later someone would mention that show!
Pretty much all my thoughts have been echoed above by others but that was a great read and wonderful history, thanks for sharing it and I am looking forward to the next one. Midweek COALs, whatever will Paul think of next!
Fantastic story Old Pete. Was contemplating a TC wagon around 2007, but wasn’t looking too hard. Thanks for the headsup on the 250; I had one in my XA Fairmont and would have probably bought one till this. If a nice wagon popped up, I reckon I’d still be tempted.
Thanks, Don. Back in the day a mate had a 200/3.3 with a three speed manual in his TD wagon. The torque of even the little six in that light bodyshell made changing down almost optional. Around town he never seemed to take it above 2000rpm. Still nose-heavy though. Even as a passenger you were aware of it in the corners. Mine seemed super sporty by comparison – especially after I’d played with things a bit. :).
Thanks for the great story Pete.
Like Scott, my family had several Cortinas in NZ – mostly MkII’s with the little 1300cc engine, bought used and half clapped out. But my father’s first ever new car was a MkIII station wagon in white with the 2000 ohc engine. I can’t now remember whether it was manual or auto (manual would be my pick), but it was a class or two above anything else my family’d had before. I remember decently punchy performance and being “taut” to drive – which may not be saying much when comparing it to the mostly old bangers that I was used to.
I can’t remember how long my Dad had that car or what replaced it, but I think it had to go when he left the accountancy practice he was part of. I think he may have suffered from a medical condition that forced his semi-retirement at a little over fifty, but he never talked about it. At the same time my parents moved to Rotorua – never to return to Auckland.
At that time (the 1970’s) English cars still ruled the road in NZ, but not for long as cars from Japan were already becoming popular. My Dad had a Toyota Corona about this time as well – although I can’t remember if it was before or after the MkIII Cortina. The only car I owned in NZ (other than those I notionally shared with my brother) was a 1964 Morris Oxford with floor mounted gear change. Bought in 1978 I loved that car. Drove it all over the North Island and only sold it when I moved to Melbourne in 1985 – where I still am 30 years later! I too tend to keep cars for a long time and might have owned the Morrie for as long as you had the Cortina if I had not left to seek my fortune elsewhere.
Best wishes for your ongoing recovery.
Ghille, you are so right about the Mk111 wagon 🙂 ..back in ’75 my uncle bought me one brand new to drive as a company vehicle (it was an OHC 2000 with 4 speed floor change – bright cherry dark red with black and dark brown plastic interior) and remains one of the nicest things I have ever driven ..taut as you recall ..with the most delicious gear change ..and smooth ..and powerful ..and it gave 38.5 miles per gallon while being ‘run-in’ 🙂 after it was run in I drove it all over NZ from Whangarei to Invercargill ..and it was the most fun car!!
Nothing ever came close to it as replacement company vehicles, not even the GM Statesman 308 was as ‘nice’ . .
Perhaps I am thinking that FoMoCo Seaview was going through a period of engineering and built quality excellence back then, as they were NZ assembled.. even as early as ’63 our family had an early Mk1 sedan with the 1198 non-crossflow engine. It too was brand new, and it too was a ’10/10′ car with the performance of a 2.6 Velox at the time
I recall dragging one off at the lights by slipping the clutch in 2nd gear and holding until just before valve bounce ..and the Velox couldn’t keep up ! The car’s performance was quite exceptional and the garage owner who did the then regular valve grinds used to comment that it was a ’10/10′ example of good luck where every major component was the best of the bunch and the assembly of them was also fluked to be perfectly aligned to the last fraction of a millimetre as with a hand built car like the Marcos or Gordon Keeble
My friend’s mother had a 1198 Mk1 ‘Aeroflow’ ..and when I drove it I couldn’t believe it was the same car in essence ..it felt and drove completely differently ..it was like a damp sponge ..just like my aunt’s 998 Anglia! Where was the power??
Why did it wallow?? What’s wrong with it???!!!
Well, BJ3341, that French blue Mk1 Cortina with fawn plastic interior was around Auckland for a few years after they sold it for a Mk1 Triumph 2000 ..at least until 1970 ..that was the last I saw it
Dad (an NZMC dealer mechanic at the time) always said our MkIII wagon was a 10/10 too – lovely to drive, great performance and economical. He vastly preferred it to the MkIV and V wagons he and Mum had after it. It was a 1975 2.0 4-speed in harvest gold (which looked cream to me) with brown vinyl interior (and the black plastic dash).
Thanks for this. My father’s metallic blue 1600 XL, also with an auto box was the first car I drove after I got my license in Israel in 77. It was a reliable car and quite popular in Israel at the time (as were the Mk 4 and 5). Later when living in the UK I had a South African P100 ute which is really a Mk5; this had the 2000 and the 5sp. I did a l o t of rust repairs on it and then painted it. A very useful vehicle and easy to maintain as well. In the end my boss offered my the use of his Escort XR3i so I sold it… I was thinking of converting it to a 2.8 L V6 and a 5 sp box from a Sierra but was offered good money for it, so it went.
For anyone wondering what I’m talking about:
… and there was a Mk 3 also. Later ones were Sierra shaped and built in Portugal.
Fun fact: the MkIII ute used the 2-door saloon’s front doors and IMO look a little disproportionate with the long doors and short tray. The Mk IV/V/Sierra utes used the related 4-door sedan’s shorter front doors. We never got them new but there’s a completely gorgeous black MkIII ute locally that comes out every annual Ford day, and a local handyman had a diesel Sierra ute in the 90s.
Theres a nice MK3 Cortina ute around here that looks very factory, I often wonder if it was one of these imported, must have a look one day I know roughly where its hidden these days.
Thank you , Old Pete!
It was really nice to get to know you a little better by way of this story. I wish and hope that both you and your Cortina will be restored to full health.
Yes, I totally wish for that too! 🙂 🙂
Wow! I never expected to see this make a reappearance. Thanks Paul.
When I wrote this I fully intended follow-ups of my other cars (few as they are; I’ve only ever owned four), but my mind isn’t as sharp as it was, more like a fishing net than a steel trap. Now that I think about it, this was hard enough for me to write back six years ago. These days I only write fiction. Easier for me to invent a story rather than to marshal checkable facts into some semblance of order. Then there’s the body; neuropathy in the legs, cataracts… Enough!
But has he built a model of it, you ask? Alas, no; there isn’t a kit. I did toy with the idea of converting something else, but too many times I have started something like that only to have it languish unfinished ten, twenty, thirty years later. But this HO scale diecast is pretty close; just need to repaint the roof grey, modify the grille to the base two-light configuration….. Not going there! 🙂
Great story Pete, it certainly was a Car Of A Lifetime, I love the bronze wine colored XL with the GS pack, imagine trying to find those wheelcovers today.
Just wondering about the grey vinyl roof, was it just faded and maybe originally a light tan?
I ask because I had a bronze ZH Fairlane with a similar colored roof that looked the same as yours but I’m sure mine would have been tan when new.
I did find enough of those wheel covers in a wrecking yard once to make up a set, but they were too battered to use. Nowadays they’d be fixable.
I have seen others with the grey roof, but not many. I gave it a thorough cleaning when I got the car, but it remained grey.
I am unfashionably late – in truth, I am generally unfashionable – but never is better than not, as some irritating person once must have said. A great tale, well told.
The Cortina was unquestionably a beautiful tart, so nice to behold until the mouth opened. It does not rank amongst the pantheon of the good (let alone great) except for that skin-deep allure.
It’s a bit of a puzzle why that should be. A wishbone front end, rack steering, decent-seeming location for the coil rear end, there’s no obvious cause for those elements to work any less than they did on, say, an Alfa Guila, but by the blessings of an English mystery that might rival the Consecration for impenetrability, it sure didn’t. One could even say the result was an unholy (driving) mess.
That said, I know they can at least be made to handle, though, like you said, not ride. I’ve driven several sixes that had bogan fat wheels and stiff springs, and I’ll be damned if I couldn’t wrestle the things to decent speeds over very twisty roads.
The brochure mentions two things I bet about 0.0003% of Aussies have ever seen – a 1600 engine, and a bench seat, and guess what? I am amongst those revered few! A friend had one such (it must have been a ’71), and, lolling about in vast acreages of benchness and enjoying very little acceleration, I actually drove it. Miracles CAN happen. Whether or not they are the miracles sought is another thing.
I can’t help but imagine your flinty farmer flock in the north west of Victoria must have in one sense approved of their priest driving a frugal oldie, but in another, wondering why on earth their man was turning up in a paddock-basher (old farm-only vehicle for CC’ers). I mean, was this man frugal or a broke gambler?
I’m a bit saddened to hear of your woes, Fr Pete, as I reckon this piece somehow bespeaks of a person who would have done your job job really well, and that’s from one long lapsed in such things.
To your health.
May it at least take a pause in its current path, and hopefully stay paused that way.
Thanks Justy. Don’t think you were around when this first ran. I was wondering what you’d make of it.
As you say, the basic suspension idea was good in theory, but somehow things never quite worked. Especially when you go adding about 200 pounds to the front end. The steering was great – except for chewing out universals every three or four years – but the suspension was not. It would drift nicely on gravel roads, but got thrown off line something terrible over corrugations, which made if feel like a giant paint shaker. And where do you most often find corrugations? Bingo!
The 1600 was only in the range a short time. The 2000 was an $85 option, and so few folk got the smaller engine that it was axed (I think) then the sixes became available. The bench seat stayed available for a bit longer, but it was a rare find. The reclining buckets seemed a strange choice in an L; theoretically they would have been an option, but since mine was built in the last month of assembly before the new model, I reckon they were using up parts.
The ‘frugal oldie’ went down well with the old time Scottish Presbyterian farming folk, even when they all drove something newer. A nod for choosing a popular car, easy to fix. Knowing machinery, some were intrigued (shall we say) by the mods to mine. A few had interesting cars ferreted away on their property (early thirties Austin Seven, XY Falcon GT – no, not an HO, but still….) and gave hints, advice and leads.
At one church, the previous minister had owned a Cortina just like mine – well, a 250XLE, not a 2 litre L, but same colours and all. Just the totally opposite end of the range. Apparently several folk turning up to church that first day and seeing my car thought the visiting preacher hadn’t made it and Colin had come back!
As to my job, I gave it all I had for as long as I could. Did my best. Now I’m having a rest. 🙂
Australia was lucky getting the 1600 base model, in NZ the early Mk III base models came with the Escort’s 1300, albeit with bucket seats… Didn’t last long and I’ve seen exactly one. The 1600 then became the base engine and in original or Pinto form was available (although rarely ordered) until 1982ish. Hope the rest is providing rejuvenation.
Thanks, Scott.
I cannot imagine how sluggish that would’ve been with the 1300 for ‘motivation’. Would be okay on the flat if you were patient, but just about immobile in the hill country, so pretty much useless for much of NZ I reckon.