Marking 60 years of the family favourite Ford that was ‘more car between the wheels’ with our top Cortina pick from each generation
WORDS ANDREW ROBERTS PHOTOGRAPHY JOHN BRADSHAW
On 20 September 1962, the Blue Oval unveiled a new model designed to bridge the gap between the Anglia 105E and the Classic. The original plan was to use ‘Consul 225’ badging but, just before its debut, management decided to name the new car after the host resort for the 1956 Winter Olympics. Within just a few years, ‘Cortina’ would be less associated with Italian ski resorts and more with commercial travellers, luncheon vouchers and the driveways of Wimpey-built semi-detached villas across the UK as it came to define a market sector.
With help from the magicians at Lotus, it swiftly became a legend on track, too. Looking at Brian Harvey’s 1964 Lotus Cortina, it is impossible not to immediately conjure images of Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and John Whitmore three-wheeling the circuits of Britain. A Ford Cortina powered by a twin-cam, 1558cc version of the ‘Kent’ engine was as remote from the average Dagenham output as Billy Fury was from Max Bygraves, but such a model could only add lustre to the range. Ambitious drivers could contemplate applying a green side stripe and ‘ACBC’ badges to their modest 1200 Standard, complete with column gearchange.
In the early ’60s, Ford’s Dearborn head office tasked PR guru Walter Hayes with developing a programme to promote the brand in British motorsport over the following five years. At the same time, Lotus suffered a combination of cash-flow and capacity problems, so in summer 1962, Dagenham sent a grey De Luxe to Cheshunt as a development car. The resulting ‘Consul Cortina developed by Lotus’ was shown to the press on 23 January 1963. On 5 September, the RAC issued the car’s homologation papers.
Before autumn 1964, all models were Consul Cortinas – hence the slightly incongruous bonnet badge on Harvey’s car. He came by CNO 510B in 1978, and it underwent extensive restoration between 1984 and ’96. “It has the Lotus-designed rear suspension with an A-bracket,” he explains. “This was replaced by leaf springs from 1965. It also has various parts that were fitted for the pre-’65 saloon-car championships of the 1980s and ’90s, such as rate-adjustable shock absorbers, stiffer springs – height-adjustable at the rear – uprated suspension bushes, a strengthened rear-axle casing and competition-spec brake linings.”
As a result, CNO is not the quietest of vehicles on the road. “But the noise of the carburettors – and t
