Description
By: Russell Hayes .
When launched in 1962 the Cortina rocketed to the top of the sales charts and stayed there for 20 years. To mark 50 years since the Cortina's introduction, this exhaustively researched history tells the car's story in more detail than ever before.
With first-hand accounts from key people and evocative period photography, some previously unseen the design and development of all five generations of Cortina is charted. Each chapter is punctuated with perspective gleaned from new interviews with former Ford managers designers, engineers and press officers who shaped successive Cortinas. Key interviewees include Sir Terence Beckett, 'father' of the Cortina, Dennis Roberts, who designed the first bodyshell and stylist Patrick Le Quement.
Many unusual angles of Cortina history are explored along the way. Documents from Ford's American archives reveal in new detail the tortured development of the Ford Cardinal - at one time a potential in-house Cortina rival. The unique six-cylinder Cortinas of Australia and South Africa are covered, as well as the related. German Ford Taunus. A full chapter is devoted to the Ford Corsair - a car developed from the Cortina Mk1 in its own right.
As the Cortina was a crucial part of Ford's worldwide dominance of motorsport in the 1960s, its development as a rally car and track racer is traced through the evolution of the Cortina GT and the Lotus Cortina. Russell Hayes wrote for UK magazines such as What Car? and Complete Car before freelancing for national newspapers, BBC TV's Top Gear and Channel 4's Driven. He is the author of two titles in the Haynes 'Classic Makes' series: Lotus, The Creative Edge and 7VR, Ever The Extrovert.
Smartly designed and containing over 250 fascinating photographs, this important book will be essential reading for both Cortina enthusiasts and anyone with an interest in Britain's motoring past.
Other Details
