Back in 1962, Ford in the UK introduced the Cortina, a car designed to be an inexpensive, reliable and cheap-to-run vehicle for the working family.

Available in a variety of models, from two-door to five-door wagon, the Cortina proved to be a massive hit for Ford and across the course of its 20-year production life, nearly 3 million Cortinas were sold in Britain.

While it was built as a family car, there were some rather nifty sporty versions of the Cortina over the years. Most famous was the Lotus Cortina – a highly modified version of the car that was available from 1963 and which had an illustrious racing career throughout the decade.

In Australia, where the Cortina was assembled for the local market, a Cortina GT was driven to victory at the 1963 Armstrong 500 (the first year the ‘great race’ was held at Bathurst) by motorsport legends Harry Firth and Bob Jane. Jane won again the next year, also in a Cortina GT, and in 1965 a Cortina was once again on the top of the podium, this time in the form of a GT500 – a beefed up racing version of the GT developed by Firth.

The Cortina has plenty of history then, and there are some smashing examples of this classic, in all its versions, still cruising around. Like this one.

A 1969 Mark II Cortina 220, this example is owned by Mark Armatys, Area Manager with MTA Queensland.

Bought in 2013 from a Brisbane local, the Cortina was already in good condition when Mark bought it, but a fair amount of work has been done to give it better performance and a GT-like appearance.

“It was pretty well completed when I bought it, but I have changed it to give it more of a GT spec look with the dash and so on,” says Mark.

“It also has a 2-litre Pinto engine and a whole front cross-member that has been grafted from the Escort. So, it has rack and pinion steering as well. I also changed the carburettors to twin Weber copies from AJS as I wanted them to be brand new and reliable.

“A lot of people might have put GT badges on the side, but I decided to pay homage to the 220 and put those badges on instead. The paint and the interior was as you see it when I bought it.”

A mechanic by trade, Mark started his career in automotive in the 1970s as an apprentice at Stillwell Ford in Adelaide. That experience gave him an appreciation of the Cortina and other Ford models of the time – even given their shaky reputations for needing lots of maintenance. It’s an appreciation that hasn’t diminished over the years.

“I’ve always had an interest in the early 4-cylinder English Fords,” he says. “Everybody does the V8 thing these days, but I worked on the early Cortinas and Escorts, and my first car was a Mark I Capri. I wanted something just for a bit of fun and that was a bit different.

“Working on the Cortina has been, and will be, an ongoing project,” he adds. “You’re always doing things, modifying and tweaking and so on and, being an English Ford, there are always things to do – it’s probably left some oil on the ground as we’ve been talking! But I love it.

“I love tinkering with these cars much more than new cars that seem to require you have a degree in electronics to make sense of them!”

A true and knowledgeable enthusiast, Mark likes to drive and enjoy his Cortina and as a member of the British Ford Club of Queensland, has taken it on plenty of trips to shows, meetings and the like. While he does, on occasion, show the car in competition, it is not, he says, with the expectation of winning trophies.

“I use the Cortina as my stress relief,” he says with a smile. “I’ll drive it during the week sometimes, but definitely on weekends. I don’t keep it hidden in the garage that’s for sure. As a member of the British Ford Club of Queensland I go on regular runs and there are events such as the Cortina Nationals, the annual British Car Show and the Ford Show at Willowbank. There are a lot of events and I get to as many of them as I can.

“While my Cortina does get a good reaction, there are plenty of others out there that are absolutely beautifully prepared. And I don’t often enter competition because to the purists, and people who do the judging, this car is a ‘bitser’ – it’s a bit Cortina and a bit Escort because the engine and the steering and so on has been changed.

“Actually, I don’t believe the interior is correct either – I don’t think they were ever built with a white interior. That does mean that judges, who often like things to be period correct, don’t go for it.”
Not that winning trophies or satisfying the wishes of the purists is what interested Mark when he bought the car.

“I got into the automotive trade because I loved cars, loved tinkering with cars,”
he says. “And with this I one, I wanted a car that I could enjoy now, and I am really happy with the result. It’s a keeper.”

A ‘keeper’ it may well be, but there are, said Mark, a couple of other models from the Blue Oval that he wouldn’t mind getting his hands on down the track.

“I have a few on my wish list,” he says. “A V6 GT Capri would be one, and a Lotus Escort . . . there are a few of the limited production vehicles they produced in the early days that I wouldn’t mind owning! We’ll see what happens. But this Cortina was an excellent buy. It drives very well, is very capable and has good performance and I have fallen in love with it.”

Source: Motor Trader E-Magazine (November 2018)

9 Nov 2018