Ford Cortina 1600E | Spotted
A fast Ford that isn't playing too fast and loose with the price? How about a Mk2 Cortina 1600E...
Mk1 Ford Cortinas are definitely my favourite of the breed, but I have a soft spot for the Mk2. When I was growing up you still saw a fair few of these knocking around. They always seemed to be the scraggy ones, owned by blokes who’d clearly passed their test recently and these were a cheap set of wheels. Oh, how times change, eh? This meant they were usually sporting a Cherry Bomb and nearly always various shades on the outside.
More often than not the shade would be grey primer. And that would be interspersed with patches of smoothed-down filler, indicating a longed-for repaint that was, almost certainly, never coming. But they still looked cool. Well, cool to my young and impressionable eyes. If I looked back through my old school exercise books, I have no doubt that there would be more doodles of Cortinas than anything else. Always with a CB radio aerial sprouting from the boot, because everyone who was anyone had one of those back then.
My next-door neighbour, who was a few years older than I, had an H-reg 1600E – the same year as the car featured here. His wasn’t primer-coloured, though. His was red. Well, reddish – it was more than a little faded and sporting a black Everfex roof. It was also forever needing some form of repair, so it was, in any objective sense, an old nail, but I thought it was the chuffing bee’s knees. My God I loved it, and I loved popping out to ‘help’ him do jobs, which, looking back, was probably more of a hindrance. But there I was, pumping the brake pedal to bleed the brakes after fitting a new master cylinder, or assisting with slotting the engine back in after yet another rebuild.
The jobs were many and varied, as you can imagine, and it was a big part of bolstering my already burgeoning love of cars. And if I close my eyes, even now, I can still smell the interior. That special old-car smell; the combination of vinyl and carpet, harbouring 20 years of odours from a life well lived, combined with hints of used engine oil and petrol. It sounds disgusting, doesn't it? But it's probably the best smell in the world.
So I was very happy to see a Mk2 Cortina 1600E pop up in the classifieds today. It’s not my ideal colour, admittedly, and I’d much rather see it sporting a set of Rostyle wheels, but you can't have everything. Especially when it comes to old and rare cars. And Mk2 1600Es are surprisingly rare these days. I thought more would've survived but, according to howmanyleft.co.uk, there are just 466 remaining and only 305 of those are taxed. Does that make £19k for this one seem reasonable? I mean, it’s a fast Ford after all. Admittedly, not one that's actually very quick, but it's fast in name at least. And compared with a Mk1 or Mk2 Escort with any sort of sporting pretence, it’s half to two-thirds the price.
It's a proper classic, too. It’s got spotlights and lots of chrome outside, and inside there’s wood and many dials – including the extra voltmeter that’s tucked away behind the steering wheel. It’ll be an event to take out too because it’s so far removed from today’s anodyne boxes. It also appears to be in good condition, and the advert certainly describes a car that’s been loved deeply by its various custodians over the years. This one even got that respray back in 1990, unlike the many others I remember from my youth.
Specification | Mk2 Ford Cortina 1600E
Engine: 1,599cc, four-cylinder, naturally aspirated
Transmission: four-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 88 @ 5,400rpm
Torque (lb ft): 97 @ 3,600rpm
CO2: N/A
MPG: N/A
Recorded mileage: 44,000
Year registered: 1970
Price new: N/A
Yours for: £19,995
At least, that's what the vendor of the one I went to look at in 1985 said, when my Marina was no longer cool enough for me with my newly-acquired driving licence. He insisted on demonstrating it, too.
I'm not sure what was most scary: not having any seatbelts (he'd removed them) or being able to see the Rhuddlan by-pass beneath my feet through the perforated floor.
"There you go - told ya!" he exclaimed, motioning me to inspect the speedo and forcing me to work out the median between the extremes of the arc created by the wildly-swinging speedo needle.
Put me off them a bit, but the 1600E is a handsome car, made all the netter if you visited Jeff Uren and got a Savage 3.0 V6 conversion done.
The gearstick used to unscrew itself and come out in your hand. After it was stolen once, it happened to the thieves and only got a mile or so away. I then used this as an anti theft device, bringing the gear stick in with me every night, or putting it in the boot if I was out somewhere dodgy.
My neighbour had a very nice 1600E in green (BRG?) but I couldn’t afford one then. And yes, he did borrow my spare keys once and they worked fine.
I suspect most that had these or aspired to one are probably no longer with us, no new enthusiasts really hanker after a Cortina when there is the Escort and Capri, it just doesnt have the Geezer/Motorsport image. There wasnt a Cortina in any of the Fast and Furious films so younger folk may not know what it is either.
I dont see it as an alternative to an Escort, would need to sell to someone who specifically wants a 1600E Cortina, dont think anyone cross shops between them nowadays.
Yes left hand drive but really isn't much of a problem.
Cortinas do things to people that grew up with them.
My Dad has owned a lot of cars and a lot of fast cars, but I've never been more petrified than I was when he bought a 2.3GL MK5 in his 40s. He thought he was 18 again, drove as such and I thought I was going to die in a cloud of corrosion and worn void bushes.
'In-period' he dropped a 2.8 Granada engine into his 1.6L MK5, but didn't change anything else on the car. He had a race with a - then new - MK4 XR3i, which he beat over the first two roundabouts. Unfortunately by the third he'd cooked his brakes and promptly parked the Cortina into a wall. Pulled out his stereo and walked home.
So maybe some confusion along the line.
I ended up with a MK3 2000E in white with, of course, a black vinyl roof and Rostyle wheels (not chromed). It was only 4 or 5 years old when I bought it but it was as rotten as a pear
I ended up replacing both front wings, both sills, both rear wheel arches and a rear valance (the front valance was also rotten but I couldn't be bothered to change that). The running gear was pretty reliable though but I was left stranded once when the oil cooler for the Automatic box burst and the gearbox pretty much lost all of its oil. The starter motor also seized which left me stranded again. One of my friends often drove around in his mom's MK2 Cortina. That was a standard model 1600 and every time I went out with him in that, it reminded me of how much I wanted a 1600E. It never happened and I don't suppose it ever will but I still like the idea of having one tucked away in a garage for pure nostalgia.
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