Whether Ford Australia’s public relations team organised to have its test cars especially tweaked for the media, I can’t say. Launched locally just months after the HQ Holden, at first sight the new TC Cortina seemed to represent an automotive dream come true. Its counterparts in Europe included the Fiat 1300/1500 and the Peugeot 404. Even as a 12 year-old, when the Cortina went on sale, I knew exactly what ‘orthodox’ meant, and this new Ford defined automotive orthodoxy in 1962. The first Cortina effectively defined the new international medium-sized sedan with an overall length of 14 feet and a choice of 1.2-litre or 1.5-litre four-cylinder engines driving the rear wheels. The Cortina soon established itself as Britain’s best-selling car and effectively countered the radical front-wheel drive technology chosen by the British Motor Corporation. While ‘Consul’ harked back to the early 1950s when it was used on the four-cylinder version of the Zephyr, ‘Cortina’ was straight homage to Europe, specifically the Italian ski resort Cortina d’Ampezzo, home to the 1956 Winter Olympic Games which were held at just about the time the Ford product planners were beginning to contemplate how they would eventually replace the then newly released Ford Consul Mark Two.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |