The Ford Cortina is a medium-sized family car manufactured in various body styles from 1962 to 1982. It was the United Kingdom's best-selling car of the 1970s.
The Cortina was produced in five generations (Mark I through to Mark V, although officially the last one was only a Cortina 80 facelift of the Mk IV) from 1962 until 1982. From 1970 onward, it was almost identical to the German-market Ford Taunus (built on the same platform), which was originally a different car model. This was part of Ford's attempt to unify its European operations. By 1976, when the revised Taunus was launched, the Cortina was identical. The new Taunus/Cortina used the doors and some panels from the 1970 Taunus. It was replaced in 1982 by the Ford Sierra. In Asia and Australasia, it was replaced by the Mazda 626-based Ford Telstar, though Ford New Zealand, which built the sedan until 1983 and the estate car until 1984, did import British-made complete knock-down kits of the Sierra estate for local assembly from 1984. Cortinas were also assembled in South Africa until 1984, with the pick-up version remaining in production in that country until 1987.
The name was inspired by the name of the Italian ski resort Cortina d'Ampezzo, site of the 1956 Winter Olympics. Several Cortinas were driven down the Cortina Olympic bobsled run at that resort, a publicity stunt which Ford called "Cortina Auto-Bobbing."Cortina Auto-Bobbing FordHeritage YouTube channel. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
Mark I (1962–1966)
Using the project name of "Archbishop", management at Ford of Britain in Dagenham created a family-sized car that they could sell in large numbers. The chief designer was Roy Brown Jr., the designer of the Edsel, who had been banished to Dagenham following the failure of that car. The Cortina, aimed at buyers of the Morris Oxford Farina and Vauxhall Victor, was launched on 20 September 1962.
Also from 1962, it was manufactured at the Ford factory in Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
The car was designed to be economical to buy, cheap to run, and easy and inexpensive to produce in Britain. The front-wheel drive configuration used by Ford of Germany for the new Ford Taunus P4, a similar-sized model, was rejected in favour of traditional rear-wheel drive layout. Originally to be called Ford Consul 225, the car was launched as the Consul Cortina until a modest facelift in 1964, after which it was sold simply as the Cortina.
The Cortina was available with 1200 cc and (from early 1963A More Zestful Cortina. The Times, Friday, 18 January 1963; pg. 3; Issue 55602) 1500 cc four-cylinder engines with all synchromesh gearbox, in two-door and four-door saloon, as well as in five-door estate (from March 1963). The saloon model featured large, round, 'Ban the Bomb' taillight clusters. Standard, Deluxe, Super, and GT trims were offered, but not across all body styles. Early Standard models featured a simple body-coloured front grille, earning it the nickname 'Ironbar'. Since this version cost almost the same as the better-equipped Deluxe, it sold poorly and is now very rare. Options included a heater and bench seat with column gearchange (shifter). Super versions of the estates offered the option of simulated wood side and tailgate trim. In an early example of product placement, many examples of the new Cortina featured as "Glamcabs" in the comedy film Carry On Cabby.
Two main variations of the Mark 1 were produced. The Mark 1a possessed elliptical front side-lights, whereas the Mark 1b had a redesigned front grille incorporating the more rectangular side-light and indicator units. A notable variant was the Ford Cortina Lotus.
The Cortina was launched a few weeks before the London Motor Show of October 1962 with a 1198 cc, three-bearing engine, which was an enlarged version of the 997 cc engine then fitted in the Ford Anglia. A few months later, in January 1963, the Cortina Super was announced with a five-bearing, 1498 cc engine. Versions of the larger engine found their way into subsequent variations, including the Cortina GT, which appeared in spring 1963 with lowered suspension and engine tuned to give a claimed output of ahead of the claimed for the Cortina 1500 Super. The engines used across the Mark I range were of identical design, differing only in displacement and setup. The formula used was a four-cylinder pushrod (overhead valve) design that came to be known as the "pre-crossflow" version, as both inlet and exhaust ports were located on the same side of the head. The most powerful version of this engine (used in the GT Cortina) was 1498 cc (1500) and produced . This engine contained a different camshaft profile, a different cylinder-head casting with larger ports, tubular exhaust headers, and a Weber 28/36 DCD twin-choke carburettor made under licence by Ford.
Advertising of the revised version appeared at the London Motor Show in October 1964, it made much of the newly introduced "Aeroflow" through-flow ventilation, evidenced by the extractor vents on the rear pillars. A subsequent test on a warm day involving the four different Cortina models manufactured between 1964 and 1979 determined that the air delivery from the simple eyeball outlets on the 1964 Mark I Cortina was actually greater than that on the Mark II, Mark III, or Mark IV. The dashboard, instruments, and controls were revised, for the second time, having been reworked in October 1963, when round instruments replaced the oblong speedometer with which the car had been launched. Twelve years later, however, the painted steel dashboard, its "knobs scattered all over the place and its heater controls stuck underneath as a very obvious afterthought" on the 1964 Mark I Cortina was felt to have aged much less well than the car's ventilation system. Also in 1964, front disc brakes became standard across the range.
Ford Cortina Lotus was offered only as a two-door saloon in white with a contrasting green side flash down each flank. It had a unique 1558 cc twin-cam engine by Lotus, based on the Cortina's Kent OHV engine. Aluminium was used for some body panels. For a certain time, it also had a unique A-frame rear suspension, but this proved fragile, so the model soon reverted to the standard Cortina semielliptical rear end.
Mark II (1966–1970)
The second incarnation of the Cortina, designed by Roy Haynes, was launched on 18 October 1966, four years after the original Cortina. It had some styling elements in common with the third-generation US Ford Falcon. Although the launch was accompanied by the slogan "New Cortina is more Cortina", the car, at long, was fractionally shorter than before. Its of extra width and curved side panels provided more interior space. Other improvements included a smaller turning circle, softer suspension, self-adjusting brakes and clutch, and the availability, for the UK and some other markets, of a new five-bearing 1300 cc engine.
A stripped-out, 1200 c version running the engine of the Ford Anglia Super was also available for certain markets, where the 1300 cc engine attracted a higher tax rate. The 1500 cc engines were at first carried over, but were discontinued in July 1967, as a new engine was on its way. A month later, in August, the 1300 received a new crossflow cylinder head design, making it more efficient, while a crossflow 1600 replaced the 1500. The new models carried additional "1300" or "1600" designations at the rear. An 1100 cc crossflow engine from the Escort was also offered for markets such as Greece, where higher engine capacities were taxed heavily. The Cortina Lotus continued with its own unique engine, although for this generation it was built in-house by Ford.
The Cortina was Britain's most popular new car in 1967, achieving the goal that Ford had been trying to achieve since it began creating the original Cortina in 1962. This interrupted the long run of BMC's 1100/1300 range as Britain's best-selling car.
Period reviews were favourable concerning both the styling and performance.Driving & Leisure, 1970, p34-39
Again, two- and four-door saloons were offered with base, Deluxe, Super, GT, and later, 1600E trims available, but again, not across all body styles and engine options. A few months after the introduction of the saloon versions, a four-door estate was launched, released on the UK market on 15 February 1967: much was made at the time of its class-topping load capacity.
The four-door Cortina 1600E, a higher-trim version, was introduced at the Paris Motor Show in October 1967, a year after the arrival of the Cortina Mark II. It combined the lowered suspension of the Cortina Lotus with the high-tune GT 1600 Kent engine and luxury trim featuring a burr walnut woodgrain-trimmed dashboard and door cappings, bucket seating, leather-clad aluminium sports steering wheel, and full instrumentation inside, while a black grille, tail panel, front fog lights, and plated Rostyle wheels on radial tyres featured outside. According to author and Cortina expert Graham Robson, the 1600E would be the first Cortina recognized as a classic.
For 1969, the Mark II range was given subtle revisions, with separate "FORD" block letters mounted on the bonnet and boot lids, a blacked-out grille and chrome strips on top and below the taillights running the full width of the tail panel marking them out.
Export markets
Ford New Zealand developed its own variant of this model called the GTE, since the GT and Lotus Cortinas were not assembled there. The four-door only GTE had a wooden dash, a vinyl roof, a blacked out tail panel, semi-high back front seats, centre console with floor shifter and clock, Australian Capri full wheel trims plus special stripes and badging.
A 3.0 L Essex V6 engined variant was developed privately in South Africa by Basil Green Motors, and was sold through the Grosvenor Ford network of dealers as the Cortina Perana; two similar models (fitted with 3.0 L and 2.5 L Essex respectively) appeared later in Britain and were known as the Cortina Savage and Cortina Cheetah, which were available with 1600E trim in all three body styles, while their South African stablemate was offered only as a four-door saloon initially with GT and later E trim.
The Cortina was Canada's second-most popular imported car during the 1960s, second only to the Volkswagen Beetle. Canada had two- and four-door sedans, the higher-performance GT sedan, and a DeLuxe wagon. The Lotus Cortina was also available, albeit in limited numbers.
Ford United States imported both the Mark I and Mark II Cortina models. The Mark II was sold in the United States from 1967, achieving 16,193 cars sold in its first year. Sales of the Mark II in 1968 were 22,983. Sales in 1969 reached 21,496. Sales slumped in 1970, to almost half their 1969 peak, at 10,216 units. Ford USA dropped the model in 1970 and was effectively replaced with the introduction of the US-produced 1971 Ford Pinto subcompact. Ford sold 352,402 Ford Pintos for model year 1971 and no more English Fords were sold in the United States thereafter.
TC Mark III (1970–1976)
In the late 1960s, Ford set about developing the third-generation Cortina, the Mark III, which would be produced in higher volumes than before following the merger of Ford of Britain and Ford of Germany into the modern-day Ford of Europe. The car marked the convergence of the German Taunus and British Cortina platforms with only minor differences between the two, hence the car's internal name TC1, standing for Taunus-Cortina. It was also the last European car engineered by Harley Copp as vice president of engineering and head of Brentwood, before he returned to Detroit.
Ford UK originally wanted to call it something other than Cortina, but the name stuck. Although the Mark III looked significantly larger than the boxier Mark II Cortina, it was actually the same overall length, but wider. Within the overall length, a wheelbase lengthened by more than also contributed to the slightly more spacious interior.