Cortina Capers. What are yours?

[Steveb]

Father had a mark 2 1.3 WMY 713G. Used to tow our caravan with it in the 70’s. Caravans must have been a lot lighter then! I bought a 2.0 GL mark 5 in 1986-SMS 519X I think. was starting to rust at 4 years old. Went well and was comfy. Cousin had a mark 5 2.3 Ghia S auto at the same time- OMD 947X- went well, no rust and even had factory fitted cruise control. He chopped it in for a 3 year old XJ6 (he was a publican!)- B660 WOU.

[cuntbuster]

73 2000E auto. Already over 20 years old so quite rare by then. Part exd by previous owner at the local BMW agent for a brand new E34!!!! Paid them 50 quid. Thought that the box was on its way out but in the end it was the engine that gave up first. Bent crank I think.

[BusmansHoliday]

Dad had a Mk I, two MkIIs, Mk III and a MkIV, so here goes.

MKI..Red, GWE792C, bought new. Remember going to collect it from Brooke Shaw's in Sheffield when they had their place between the town hall and the Moor. Except we got there too late and it had shut for the day. Their place was like one of those toy garages with the ramp in the middle to the top floor. It was sat their winking at us through the window, and the Anglia (257DVN) got a days reprieve which pissed my dad off as he hated it. He'd part exd his Mk6 rat (6307WA) for it a year before (growing family ) but it constantly kept failing. His farther gave him some money when his mother died so he bought the 'tina. His dad hated the colour being slightly* right of centre politically wise. I think it was this one that constantly pulled to the left no matter what Brooke Shaws tried. Eventually his mate, who worked for them at their body shop in Attercliffe had a word and dad dropped it off there. With the aid of a piece of string he found the problem. Back springs were different lengths ! Once replaced it was OK. I seem to think, might be wrong, it had a bench seat and column change.

[Jerzy Woking]

My parents traded up from a Ford Anglia estate (LHK 601C) to a white, D reg Cortina Mk1 Estate in around 1970. I loved that car as it felt so roomy and posh compared to the Anglia. Sold as my eldest bother and two sisters moved out, so they did not need an estate car, so they bought a brand new brand new Mk1 Escort in 1972.

My Cortina history goes:

1963 Consul Cortina (19 COO) 1200cc, bought for £120 when the Rover P5B I bought literally fell to bits in about 4 weeks. Bought the Consul because it had RS 4 spoke 13 inch alloys, sports steering wheel, remote gear change. I didn't buy it for the rotten front wings and sills, the slipping clutch, or its 20mpg economy. I then got a reps job with a medical company, so sold it for about 70 or 80 quid, and the new, local owner said he was going to fix it up, but never saw or heard of it again. probably terminal rust.

1975(P plate?) MkIII four door 1600GXL in orange, with brown interior and vinyl roof. My first company car, but a hand me down for my probation period. Felt really quick, but some what wallowy through the country lanes near my house. Only had it a couple of months before I got another hand me down from a sacked rep.

UNY 578S a MKIV 1600L estate in dark blue. Had about 30,000 miles on it, and I did 30,000 in a year in it. I ripped the side out of it on where the A604 joined the A1 in Cambridgeshire. A Land Rover pick up with a crane in the bed was recovering a car that had slid on something and went off the road. I hit the same bit of road, but the Land Rover stopped me going off of the road. Opened it up like a can of sardines. It was reliable, but the gear change was sloppy and it burnt quite a lot of oil, and felt saggy. Later found out that the rep before me mini cabbed in it, disconnecting the speedo every night he worked in North London and the West End.

Next was FBY 241T, a light blue metallic 1600L estate, another hand me down, but only 1200 miles on the speedo. I took it to just over 85,000 mile in 27 months, two engines, a gearbox, and a few clutches.

Next was my boss old car, as he had been given a 2.0L Granada to test, and my Cortina had broken down yet again. I was given his V plate MkV(?) 2,3 GLS estate in red. I could get the tyres to chirp between 1st and 2nd, and 2nd and 3rd if gunned hard enough. Handling was really front heavy, so I used to load the back with promotional display material to make the front lighter. Only drove it for a couple of months before I handed in my notice, and mover to a job with a motorbike company where my company vehicle was an old 1100cc Escort van.

So, it was somewhere around the start of 1982 that I drove my last Cortina. Subsequent company cars were MkII Cavaliers, which were so much better that the Cortina's for me.

[Hooli]

Next was FBY 241T, a light blue metallic 1600L estate, another hand me down, but only 1200 miles on the speedo. I took it to just over 85,000 mile in 27 months, two engines, a gearbox, and a few clutches.

great reliability there

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Steveb’s assumption that caravans must have been lighter in those days, reminded me about our family holiday to Wales in 1973, around the time that picture was taken, which was possibly taken just after the towbar was fitted. I certainly don’t remember the back bumper being left off permanently.
Anyway, in 1969 my Mum’s parents bought a shiny new 14’ 5 berth Europa caravan and put it on a little plot on riverside site a 40 minute bus ride from their house in Birmingham- they had no car. For 4 years they enjoyed weekends relaxing in their little garden at “ The caravan” Alas the site owners decided they didn’t want tourers on plots and gave them notice to leave. They gave the van to us and my Dad borrowed a workmates Maxi 1750 to pick it up and bring it home. I remember whizzing along in the posh new Maxi with the caravan behind and my Dad saying how nice it would be to go on holiday…
Turns out a pre-XFlow 1500 Cortina estate loaded with a family of, 5 all our crap and the dog struggled a bit with a fully laden 14’ caravan. We realised it was going to be a long journey when one of my Dads colleagues overtook us on the local by-pass- in fucking double decker!
Somewhere in North Wales we got stuck on a hill, a very steep single track hill with a sheer drop to one side. I remember lots of people helping to hold the caravan and turn it round in the road , lots of bits of rock being used as chocks and a very loud posh man in tweed and a cap shouting at everyone like he was in charge. He had a green Saab 96 with Cibies on the front and my Mum had to keep warning my Dad not to lump him.
We had a great holiday but on the way back the Cortina shit it’s head gasket somewhere near Hereford, luckily near a pub. We camped in the pub car park and my Dad made a new gasket out of old lino and cardboard the next morning” Just to get us home” although I don’t remember him ever doing it again.
This meant we needed a bigger car and I went with him to a bomb-site dealer where he’d noticed a Humber Super Snipe for £250, unfortunately it had sold , but there was an Austin 3 Litre and a Vauxhall Viscount both were £300, the Viscount already had a towbar so that swung it. No more hill embarrassment for our family!

[Scruffy Bodger]

My second and third cars were mk5 1:6 Cortinas, I’ve fond memories of both and ran them while at college, a job pot washing and doing the lines (not that type Warren) in the cellar each week payed for running them.

Both were terminally rotten but went well enough. The first even after me getting caught out having just put pure water in it and it getting rather cold. I thought it didn’t sound right, it was the water pump frozen solid causing drag on the fan belt so turning over much slower than normal. It started but then stopped on me a couple of miles later with a diesel like clatter and a puff of steam. It thawed itself out and I carried on my merry way, no harm done whatsoever. The boot was half full of bricks to give me better grip in the snow too, handy living on a permanent building site at times.

It was metallic blue with crazy paving paintwork as it’d had a blow over and the paint had reacted with whatever was underneath.

[Hooli]

doing the lines (not that type Warren)

[mercrocker]

A mate of mine had a Daytona Yellow 2.0GXL.

A few of us spent a fun Saturday getting covered in 'glass, gel and wob 'fixing' the front wings.
It went well enough for the time but no better than my 1.6S Ascona in a straight line and was far worse on bends. Everything else about the Opel was immeasurably superior.

Soon after we'd made it look even more of a shitheap he bought a traded in BMW2500. That chauffeured us all around, he didn't drink, and managed 2 camping holidays to the Lakes. It had a big boot as we proved when we went for fish and chips and shut him in it to stop him babbling on.

Directly comparing a MkIV 2.0 with both a RWD Cavalier 1.9 and a 131 1600TC whilst they were all new and on our fleet at work put the Cortina in a very distinct and quite distant third place.....The Fiat and Vauxhall were completely different to each other but drove so much better in their own ways.

[59Impala]

My Uncle Len bought a new Cortina Deluxe in Lime Green in the spring of 1963, reg 576FLB to replace his two tone grey Popular 100E. Thus my father bought a new maroon 1200 Deluxe in about October 1963, reg 803YKO to replace his Anglia 100E 509PTW, I am guessing that as my parents had three young children under 10 they had decided that the Cortina was rather more commodious and modern. In 1964 we went on holiday to Butlins Bognor Regis which was wonderful to us kids, certainly beat camping. On the way home we were in a line of traffic queuing at traffic lights when for no apparent reason two young people (or yobs as my mum called them) in a Jowett Javelin drove out of a side road opposite straight into my dad's door. They had their ears burnt by my mum's temper. I recall a chap in a Minx pulling up to witness the accident with some glee as the two idiots had forced him off the road prior to assaulting the Cortina. That Cortina was replaced by a used 1964 Zephyr 4 in 1965 but my dad decided to replace it after about six months with another new maroon 1200 Deluxe HLU523C, no idea why. That Cortina seemed to be slower than the earlier one, indeed in one of those motoring coincidences we were on the old A2 near Dartford going to the seaside when our old Cortina came up behind and then overtook us. Again my dad kept that Cortina for about 18 months and replaced it with another Mk3 Zephyr 4 MGT546D which in turn was replaced by a Mk4 Zephyr 4 Deluxe. Which brings me onto his third Cortina and as I was now driving he actually let me see the order and incredibly took my advice. He was buying a new Mk3, said I'll get the 1300 engine until I pointed out that the Mk3 was bigger than the Mk2 and the 1600 was a better bet. Two door or four? Two as much cooler. Colour? Red. Vinyl roof? Oh yeah. Sports wheels? Definitely, should have been Rostyles but it had the first of the 'Tinnylites'. Radio? Yep. So was born his 1600L KMC328K. It looked pretty spiffy and I have never seen one the same. He kept it until he bought, to my horror, a new Datsun Sunny 120Y in glorious orange with the dustbin lid hubcaps. I refused to ride in it for ages, mind you it did help that I had my infamous lurid green bubble arched Anglia for transport. How very 70s.