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Mk 3 Ford Cortina GT

   The Cortina was indroduced in 1962 and changed the face of british motoring. it was a risk Ford took and one which payed off, in 1963 the Cortina became the market leader, a trend it kept up for the next two decades.

     The first generation of cars now known as the mk1 was built between 1962 and 1966 it was replaced by the mk2, both of which had great racing and rally success, with both marks having full ford support. The cars also recieved attention from Lotus with them changing suspension and fitting the legendary Lotus Twin Cam engine .

     In 1970 ford introduced the mk3, it couldn't have been more different from it's predecessors. Technically it was almost all new, while the styling was much more transatlantic than anything that had gone before. The car has a 3.5" longer wheelbase than the mk2 giving a larger cabin, but was the same overall length. though it is 2" wider and 4" lower giving it a bigger look.

      The mk3 was the first collaboration between Ford of Britain and Ford of Germany, the mk3 and the Ford Taunus were developed together under the umbrella of Ford of Europe sharing the same platform and inner structure. Both cars were released in autumn 1970 with styling influences from Detroit, they had a "cokebottle" look to them similar to the American Pinto and LTD models. The mk3's instrument panel wasn't to everyones tastes with it's heavely cowled clocks and "boomerang" steering wheel, the GT and GLX versions had additional instruments built into the centre console, this layout was changed in 1973 with the facelift model to a design which was then carried on through to the mk4 and mk5 models.

       The only components carried over from the mk 2 were the "kent" engine and its gearbox, everthing else was new including a new engine that would power millions of fords thoughout the world, the pinto.The car was a bold step for Ford, swapping from the usual suspension setup of other models struts front and leaf springs rear for a wishbone front suspension and coil springs with trailing and semi-trailing arms.

       The 2litre cars all got the pinto engine as did the 1600cc GT and GLX while lower spec 1600cc cars and all 1300cc cars got the kent engine, GT and GLX models recieved 4 lamp front grills and better trim, the GT had uprated suspension.

       The facelift in 1973 saw the GLX model dropped in place of the very plush 2000E this was the flagship of the Cortina range. The new facelift models got twin rectangular "halogen" headlamps as well as the new dash.

        In 1976 the mk3 was replaced with the mk4 a lot boxier design drawing on all that was good from the old model and restyling the bad. This car lasted until 1980 when it was replaced by the Cortina80, most people call it the mk5 but the Ford name was 80. This car had a bigger glass area, larger front and rear lights and wrap around bumpers. this car was replaced by the Sierra in 1982.

         In total there were 1,013,391 mk1's. 1,024,869 mk 2's.1,126,559 mk 3's and 1,131,850 mk4 and 5's giving a grand total of 4,296,669 thats a lot of Cortina's, no wonder so many people come up to me and say my dad/brother or I had one of those!

        The Cortina lasted 20 years and made Ford a lot of money, but this is also a car that brings back memories for lots of people in so many different ways.

A lot of the above information came from a book titled "Cortina, The story of Ford's   best-seller" by Graham Robson well worth a read.

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