The first time I ever clapped eyes on a... Mk 3 Cortina was

[cros]

...in 1970 coming over the bridge into Oundle on the A605. It was a brownish colour and looked OK but disappointingly like the then current Victor. A while later I hitched a lift in one from a slipway onto the M1 and the driver bemoaned how awful it was. It wallowed about plenty and the dials set deep into the sloping dashboard looked cheap.

I think Ford improved the car and the Mk 3 I looked at the other day with the improved interior quite appealed.

 

First time I saw a Sierra was in a street in Cologne, don't remember the exact location so I've already let the thread down. It was a blue 2 door 1.3 with plastic coloured grill and the Germans seemed to be calling them moon cars; they did look pretty odd but people soon got used to them.

[fordperv]

When I was a little lad of around 5 around 1989 my mum and dads elderly neighbour frank was always tinkering, he had this lovely 1.6 white low spec mk3 cortina, there wasn't a mark on it, i will always remember going out in it, I cracked my head falling over and had a massive lump on it, my dad was at work so frank volunteered to take me and my mum to the hospital and stayed with us to bring us home, he really was an old school gentleman

[Six-cylinder]

Within a few months of them coming out I would guess 1971, our assistant scout leader got one. He worked for a house alarm fitting company and it was a J reg base 1300cc 4 door in white. The reason I remember it is he took a group of Scouts out and indicated over 100 mph down hill on the duel carriageway from High Wycombe towards Marlow!

 

I can't remember our Scot leaders name or him really but his car, strange things I remember so well.

[lisbon_road]

There were so very many Mk3 Cortinas, and classically Ford, some very pov spec and ghastly and some were not bad at all.

 

I can't remember when I first saw one.  I have three memories: when I was a student, a fellow student had a green 2000E which was fast and comfortable.  It had a highish ratio rear axle which meant it could cruise in a reasonably relaxed style.  At just a few years old, huge amounts of welding had been done and it kept needing more.  I can't imagine it lasted that long.

 

I had a girlfriend whose father had a lower spec one and I recollect him giving me a lift home in it.  I said 'this is nice' meaning that it was decent of him to give me the lift, but it came out as though I was saying 'this is a nice car'.  Which it wasn't.

 

And the scrapyards.  There just seemed to be vast numbers of them all mouldering away but never any Minis.  Why was that?  

 

Picture of the 2000E attached.  Can't remember what the owner was doing or why there appears to be an oil slick, but I reckon that was my woolly hat and overalls.

[cros]

Within a few months of them coming out I would guess 1971, our assistant scout leader got one. He worked for a house alarm fitting company and it was a J reg base 1300cc 4 door in white. The reason I remember it is he took a group of Scouts out and indicated over 100 mph down hill on the duel carriageway from High Wycombe towards Marlow!I can't remember our Scot leaders name or him really but his car, strange things I remember so well.

You should have got a badge for achieving that's speed in a 1300.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I would have been 6 when the Mk3 came out and I still remember calling them New new Cortinas, my dad had a 1500 pre-X flow estate SFK470F and we called Mk2s the new Cortina to differentiate from the Mk1 .

[Six-cylinder]

You should have got a badge for achieving that's speed in a 1300.

It is a long down hill duel carriage way!

 

I have been stopped and warned about speeding on that hill myself a few years later, doing 92 mph in a 1972 Capri GT MK1 1600 cc belonging to a friend and yes it was the holy grail with the XLR pack.

[John F]

The first Mk 3 Cortina I had much to do with was the first car I really bonded with at all... PUG 541P, my dad's Cortina 1.6 GL, bought new in 1976. He traded it in against a beige Mk 4 1.6L, FWX 19T, in 1978.

 

PUG 541P survived until just 1984 - a lifespan of just eight years.

FWX19T did a bit better, it lasted until 1991 so managed 13 years.

[mercrocker]

Now this has thread made me think....I can remember all kinds of "firsts" from 40 odd years ago.   First "F", "G" "H" and "J" reg cars I ever saw (old 60's suffix plates, naturally) and the first time I noticed a Mk1 4 door Cortina (now that is a feat of memory - I was about 3 and a half).   

 

Yet, I cannot remember the first Mk3 I saw.   Probably because it happened at the same time I was starting senior school in September 1970 - an event so traumatic that only Racquel Welch getting out of a Lamborghini Marzal wearing a crochet mini dress would have actually registered with me. 

[Six-cylinder]

I have never owned a MK 3 Cortina but have driven quite a few as I started driving in 1976.

 

The first one I wanted was when I was at school I am guessing it was about 1973 and my friends neighbour had a pre facelift 1600 cc XL without vinyl roof but with steel sports wheels in solid maroon, I wanted that car. The photo is a close match apart from the wheels.

[Pete-M]

I had a Cortina 2000E. JLV832P, if memory serves me right. I've still got the wooden door cappings from it. Took them off to refurb them and someone bought the car before I had the chance to get them back on.

 

Great car. Went well, had the usual rust issues - rear valance and one arch were the first bits I'd replaced on it.

[17-Coffees]

The first Mk3 Cortina I even remember seeing, that I actually took note of at least, would have been the one on 'Life on Mars' 10 years ago. Not bad considering I'd have been 12/13 when the show came out! 

First time I remember seeing one in the metal, would have been the 2007 NEC Classic car show. 

 

I'll have likely have seen them before hand at the local shows and such, but being younger I was more into the latest sports & supercars.

How things changed alot since then... 

[HH-R]

You should have got a badge for achieving that's speed in a 1300.

 

The badge could be a picture of an engine block with a rod through it

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Right more Mark 3 memories.

1977 my Da was loaned a maroon 1600XL with beige seats when his Granada GXL auto box failed.

1982 a mate had an early 2000GT with black pvc tombstone front seats, when everyone else at 17 had mk2 Cortinas, Avengers etc it was like a rocket hip and he drove everywhere flat out. It got T-boned by a Renault 18 Turbo.

1984. I had an orange 2000E with a leaky Webasto roof, the first time Mrs N and me were, er, ummm... Intimate was in that 2000E. I swapped it for a Renault 17 Gordini ( which blew up 2 weeks later)

 

I also remember scrapping a lot of 2.0 Mk3s after engine raping them for Escorts.

The most memorable one , was paying £30 for a 2000E estate that had already had the interior swapped over.

Driving it home I booted round a roundabout - the drivers seat fell over as it hadn't been bolted in , I thought the car was rolling! It wiped out a keep left bollard a smashed into a lamppost, then got stuck on the verge. We left it and buggered off.

[danthecapriman]

I wasn't born until 1984 but I remember mk3's from the late 80's and 90's. They were older cars then of course and some looked ropey as hell but they were still pretty common and I always liked them even then. Mk5's were the most common I remember seeing and I loved them too, they weren't all that old then either.

My taste in cars hasn't really changed since, I still love them now and believe it or not I think the mk3-5 Cortina is one of the nicest looking cars of their generation, but I'm weird like that.

The early dash and dials are my favourite, proper american inspired styling.

 

I used to go to watch banger racing with my dad and these were easily the most common cars used for it, the mk3 was able to take a right beating before they finally expired. I remember seeing some of them still running with the boot so caved in you could see the rear axle and diff!

[richardthestag]

I am going to say 1975! though the year is vagueish I can name a spot to the metre

 

Stonechat Avenue in Gloucester.

 

Purple four door with brown vinyl roof, no idea of the reg I was probably 7ish

 

mums friend had just got it and was loading kids in for the school run, there were so many of us in the back that the rear n/s door popped open as she went round the first corner and her daughter fell out. No real injury but a lasting memory.

[danthecapriman]

I am going to say 1975! though the year is vagueish I can name a spot to the metre

 

Stonechat Avenue in Gloucester.

 

Purple four door with brown vinyl roof, no idea of the reg I was probably 7ish

 

mums friend had just got it and was loading kids in for the school run, there were so many of us in the back that the rear n/s door popped open as she went round the first corner and her daughter fell out. No real injury but a lasting memory.

Shit!

My mates mum had a Y reg Sierra 1.6L when we little and we used to sit in the front passenger seat with one seat belt around 2 or 3 of us kids.

I remember going in loads of cars without any seat belts too, people (mostly anyway) would dream of it these days.

[wuvvum]

By the time I was old enough to know what a Cortina was (probably about 1983), the Mk3 was already approaching banger status.  There were still loads around though.  I remember a yellow one which lived somewhere in my street.

[captain_70s]

The first Mk3 Cortina I even remember seeing, that I actually took note of at least, would have been the one on 'Life on Mars' 10 years ago

What he said.

 

Funnily enough I didn't give a toss about 70s cars until that point and was obsessed with 40s/50s stuff. I remember getting a copy of Craptical Plastics with a buyers guide for both a Mk3 Tina and a Mk3 Zodiac and the Cortina utterly failed to hold my interest, back then you could pick up a good'un for £2k!

[Tamworthbay]

I remember them around when I was a kid but the first I went in was a green estate owned by an ex girlfriends grandad. I think it's still around but one village over. I keep thinking of leaving a message under the windscreen wiper but have never got around to it.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

1972, and twice. My Dad worked for Plessey Electronics and had a 1970 Mini 1275GT. But for some reason he had one of the company pool cars, a Daytona yellow 2000L (base model) and one evening he took me for a ride out in it. Did 70 or 80 along the road between Somerton and Langport, great fun when you're 4 or 5, Airbags? ABS? Kiddie seat? Isofix? Bollocks.

 

That year my eldest Uncle bought a reg J plate 1600L, had it for a year or two and sold it to my (younger) uncle. They were just everywhere in the seventies. In the eigfhtires scrapyards were full of then, stacked three or four high. I was never bothered. I was far more concerned to see Series 1 XJ6's and E3 BMW's in scrapyards tbh. I always wanted one, but they're not £500 now so I shan't be buying one. I had loads of Mark 4 and 5's though, same sort of thing.

[Asimo]

I don't remember the car, but I remember Dad pointing a Mk3 out and saying it was a backward step compared to the Mk2 'cause it didn't have McPherson Strut front suspension.

Never driven one but done many hitchiker miles in them, they all seemed knackered.

In Custom Car 1970's stylee I long fancied a big Yank engine / 2speed auto in a yellow Mk3 Estate........

[alf892]

1971 and I would have been 10.

 

Alf senior had a small country garage and looked after cars for a local farming family. They were very well off and used dad to supply new and used vehicles. In those days even small places could supply a new car.

 

Anyway the mark 3 was a 1600 GXL which had been bought for the farmer's son. It was in the workshop with the bonnet up and the mechanic, father Alf and the pump attendant ( who remembers them) were all discussing the new fangled engine with the overhead cam.

 

I remember my mum nagging dad to get one and eventually he did.......a 2000 xl auto estate WCT275K in Daytona yellow with a vinyl roof.......as soon as we got it dad fitted twin headlamps and a GXL grille. Quite a bit of kit in its day.

We didn't keep it long.....seemed to be jinxed as kept getting crashed.

 

One I remember in particular when it had just returned from a crash repair ( it had to go away for repair as mum had done quite a job on it) and it was used to deliver one of the farmer's car back. Just exiting the yard at the farm and Alf senior boot it and we slid on some pig shit......a big slide into a gatepost making a mess of the n/s wing. Home and straight into the workshop for a wing replacement.....

[Bren]

A 1300 cortina would not do 100 mph. If it was launched into space it still wouldn't do 100 mph. The speedo must have been a bit optimistic.

 

My dad had WED519J - a white 1300. It killed its engine on the A562 in Penketh. It limped over to Robert Lightfoot's rover dealer in Runcorn where it was chopped in for an FE victor. This was in 1979.

[Pillock]

My grandparents had one, in a dark green colour. I remember it was an M reg, and it had Ns in the first half of the plate (which probably makes it a Nottingham -NN reg, as they always bought local) but it got chopped in for a Cortina '80 on the 1st August 1982, when I was three years old, so I don't remember much of it.

 

Apparently it turned up years later parked outside their neighbours. A decorator was doing work there, he'd brush-painted it red.

[Rocket88]

Mate of mine had one .seemed to spend 89.684% of his free time doing rear axle void bushes..............

[Noel Tidybeard]

mkiii memoirs

 

bezzy mates dad had

1600gt tudor daytona yellow with black tombstones- followed by

2000xl mordor purple velvet tan (beige) trim- GON203N

 

bloke accross the road 2000E met green

another buddy's dad had xl auto in brown

 

bil had a bronze tudor 1.6 auto which "became" a 2.3v6 manuel in signal ORANGE- that was a hoot to drive and sounded good with our "custom made" zorst

[sheffcortinacentre]

can't remember the first time but rember my dad getting a red 1600L 4dr saloon in 73 was a year old he traded a green 2000GT corsair for it at brookshaw ford Sheffield this was traded in in june 81 for a dove grey 1600L the only new car he ever bought (I still have it now) as for last ime I saw one ! few mins ago.

my mate says now days you don't see many cuz I've got most of them (cheeky git I only own 4 mk3's).

[Tetleysmooth]

My first Mk3 was a 2.0GL manual bought from a salvage yard in the early eighties.

Someone had poured brake fluid over the bonnet.

Turned out to be a cracking car though.

 

2nd MK3 was a 2.0GXL auto. Red with a black vinyl roof. Rostyles with chrome trim rings.

Another excellent car. The only car I've ever had which sold for more than I advertised it for.

Wish I had it now.

 

Ex father in law had a 2.0 GT, as did my ex brother in law.

Brother had an immaculate 2000E.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Moar Mark Trees.

 

Scout leader had one around 1980, J or K reg 1300 4 door in pale grey. Resprayed it black, rough as a bears arse.

 

Mate's dad had a J reg 1600 in that very pale blue. Ended up at Roly Smiths scrapyard around 1982.

 

Cook at school had a tawny 2000 XL Estate that he let us sit in. He also has a read P reed CX2000.

 

Another cook had a white M reg 1600L facelift, Pinto powered of course. 

 

Headmaster had an M reg facelift 1300 Decor 4 door, beige with rotten wings*

 

Nearly bought a two door L reg Mark 3 with no engine from George Toomey in Newbury, behind what was Nias.

 

Caretaker at school had a white M reg 2000GT facelift, filthiest car I have ewer seen. Also had a J reg 1600L four door. Wings from this went onto the heads' 1300 above. Sprayed outdoors.

 

Local hotshoe had a K reg 2000GT 4 door in maize, written off spectacularly and replaced by an orange red 2000E.

 

Mate's dad has a 2000E in black over silver. Reg was SBH???M, incredibly shiny. It had been painted in cellulose, several coats, flatted with 2500 and polished.