While our editors traverse the country to find the best content for those magazines, we find other oddities related to the old-car hobby that we really had no place for - until now. With this blog, we're giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what we see and what we do during the course of putting out some of the finest automotive magazines you'll ever read.
As Jeff Koch reminded us recently, this year marks the 60th anniversary of the introduction of the Ford Cortina and the 40th of its replacement by the Sierra, and few vehicles did more with a 20-year lifespan on the market. Over those 20 years and five generations, it became a family sedan, a television staple, a racing saloon and the epitome of British motoring almost from the start -- one of those cars that everybody in its home country had a connection to or a story about.
The car even made its way Stateside for a few years in the Sixties, but it never quite gained the following here that it did in England.
To mark the occasion, let's make the Cortina the subject of our video selection for today. While we've already spent time with the 1982 Arena documentary, "The Private Life of the Ford Cortina," it's worth another watch.
For those of you who already saw it, Ford Heritage has a video of how Ford went about testing the Cortina in 1962, Thames TV has a retro review of the Mark IV from its introduction in 1976, and Goodwood has a thrilling battle between a Cortina and a Galaxie from a few years back. Got a Cortina story? Share it in the comments below.
Re: Reflecting on that "Great British Institution," the Ford Cortina, After 40 Years without One on the Market
08/03/2022 7:40 AM
When I was a junior doctor one of the consultants had a Ford Cortina. I always thought it was a very peculiar choice of car for a consultant, but then he was a very peculiar consultant
Re: Reflecting on that "Great British Institution," the Ford Cortina, After 40 Years without One on the Market
08/03/2022 7:59 PM
I distinctly recall as a 2nd grader back in 1968-9, our very first family sedan... My civil servant dad was a proud owner of a brand new grey Lotus Cortina Mk1.
(Thank you to Malcolm McKay and "Classic & Sports Car" for the photo)
We still were a British colony at the time, and although there were relatively fewer automobiles around, Ford and Holden were the most common... Now, they're mostly Japanese or Korean
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Re: Reflecting on that "Great British Institution," the Ford Cortina, After 40 Years without One on the Market
