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My dad had a MK1 Ford Consul Cortina - blue with a white roof ( very Avant Garde in them days), blue interior with the strip speedo - very modern in those days. My great uncle had an Airflow model with circular instruments. Both owned from new..funny the things you remember a neighbour had a green airflow version, the registration number bore my mother's initial. They were badly made "grey porridge" cars but nonetheless very modern features.
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It's a shame that Plymouth chap has ruined it though - surely the idea is to keep it looking "standard". Minilite wheels, sump guard, instrument binnacle, steering wheel, door mirrors........
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>> I think it's kinda cool.
Certainly not over-decorated. All in decent taste. The Lotus half bumpers are fine.
My father had a very cooking 1200. Quite stark, but a nice light cabin and terrific American heating and ventilation, plus that unparallelled gearbox.
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>> It's a shame that Plymouth chap has ruined it though
>> - surely the idea is >> to keep it looking "standard".
>> Minilite wheels, sump guard, instrument binnacle, steering wheel, door mirrors........
>>
I agree. It looks a bit of chav job with Lotus front bumpers and a rorty exhaust
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sounded like a V6...and it was auto
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>>Minilite wheels<<
Fort I recognised them - I'd like to drive the critter, just to compare it with today's rolling stock.
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If you're going to muck about with a 1960s Cortina - this is the way to do it.
www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C283113
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I ran a MK1 Cortina in the 60's - not a bad car for the time, except for all the rust holes in the box members not many years from new. How can anyone still have such a rust box after 50 years?!
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James Taylor made mention of a MK2 he exported to the states - and it led to a song...!
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LHD, and fitted with winter tyres! I can actually hear that engine = wonderful stuff.
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Ah - but did you ever see Jim Clarke drive a Lotus Cortina?
I did and it was awesome.
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>> ever see Jim Clarke drive a Lotus Cortina?
>> I did and it was awesome.
Me too. Clark, Graham Hill and three other F1 drivers of the day, two Cortina teams, one with green stripes and one with brown, all lifting a front wheel at Brands Hatch's Paddock Bend closely followed by 20 or so jostling Minis, then the hoi polloi...
They drove other cars then instead of modelling underpants and stuff...
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>>Ah - but did you ever see Jim Clarke drive a Lotus Cortina?<<
Wot, like this m8 ~ www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWp-0TuY4Sk
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>> >>Ah - but did you ever see Jim Clarke drive a Lotus Cortina?<<
>>
>> Wot, like this m8 ~ www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWp-0TuY4Sk
At the time my dream car was a Ford Anglia fitted with a 1600 cc engine, similar to those shown in that race, but sadly all I could afford was a 1952 Phase I Standard Vanguard.
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Drool. And a snip at 47 grand :-O
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I was regular at the Crystal Palace circuit and saw all the top drivers of the day. It was mere short bus ride away for me.
Those were the days: Jim Clark and Graham Hill in saloons and the next week they were in a Grand Prix race somewhere. They didn't need to model underpants, show off flashy watches or have contractual interviews. I could just wander into the pits and see them - easy. Did it at Brands too.
Memories.......
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The view from the driving seat
Stirling Moss (here a mere 79) at the wheel of Lotus Cortina
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJgrTfV8n5k&feature=related
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There was a young lady who used to visit our local pub now and again.
When she laughed she sounded like a Mk1 Cortina starter motor on a cold winter morning.
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>> she sounded like a Mk1 Cortina starter motor on a cold winter morning.
A smoker's chuckle... an aunt of my ex-wife had an African grey parrot that imitated her cough with total accuracy.
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Oh gosh - those 60s saloon car clips take me back!
I raced my 970s at Brands, Cadwell Park, Mallory Park & Snetterton, in those far off days, Brands was only a dozen miles from my home and I wa a regular there, to see Doc Shepherd, Chris Craft, John Whitmore and all the best saloon racers of their day.
I once was overtaken, at a minor meeting oop north, by Gerry Marshall and John Fitzpatrick; one either side of my car, leaving me for dead - but they did have works cars!
I can tell you that a ten lap BRSCC race at Brands left me feeling shattered because of the sheer concentration needed. I have sincere admiration for anyone doing this at whatever level.
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When I was a child, our next door neighbour was an elegant old lady who was by then a widow of a Church of Scotland minister who's parish had been in Africa somewhere. She had returned to Scotland to live out her years and had brought an African Grey parrot with her. She was terribly posh but for reasons which we chidren never questioned the parrot could and often did utter an almost perfect rendition of a copy of a two octave, 15 second, astonishingly loud f...t
This amused us more than was given at the time to be seemly and we encouraged an encore whenever possible. She used to fly the bird in her garden but it always came back.
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Mk1 Ford Cortina restored. - R.P.
