The Great Cortina Hunt. A sad true story.

[warren t claim]

About 15 years ago I owned a MK1 Cortina estate in a permanent state of restoration. One day a passer by started a conversation about a white saloon version in a garage close to where I lived in a posh area of Wirral (I was it's poorest resident). The gist of the story is this...

 

A local doctor buys a brand new white Mk1 Cortina from his local Ford dealer at the end of the road. He drives it back home with his wife and puts it in the garage so they can have dinner before going out that evening. He unfortunately passes away that night of a heart attack and his widow leaves the garage locked so she never has to see the car again. I don't know exactly where she lives but I was told she never sold the house and was still living there 15 years ago.

 

I'm thinking of making some discreet enquiries as to this lady and finding out if she is still alive and living in the same house. Christ knows what state the car would be in after 45 years of hibernation even with one mile on the clock and to be honest I don't really know what I'd do with it if I managed to get hold of it. The man who told me the story had only seen it through a very dusty window at the side of her garage and couldn't tell me anything about its general condition as he could only see a little part of it.

[scoobypete]

No harm in trying,good luck with the search

 

Hope it has a happy ever after ending

[mattblack]

Good luck, but sounds like one of those BS stories that do the rounds...

[boobydoo]

Hmmm, sounds intriguing!

 

Heh, heh, imagine if it was a Lotus Cortina!!

[Alexg]

Like all these stories it'll probably end up being an 80k Mondeo, but good luck!

[Lankytim]

Deffo worth making some enquireys. I seem to remember a similar story I read about a MK2 Jag, this one was left on a driveway for many years, so ended up completely rotting into the ground!

[scoobypete]

And ive heard a few tales about a tiny garage in deepest darkest cornwall that so say houses a gen1 subaru pickup in showroom cond.....

Apparently a customer ordered it and then didnt collect so its been sat in there covered up since.......

 

 

 

Hmmmmm

[trigger]

I knew a bloke who brought a brand new white K plate Mercedes SL320 back in 1992, He died the next day and as his wife couldn't drive this Merc sat in the garage for at least 5 years untouched and maybe even longer. God knows what happened to it in the end.

[Alexg]

I knew a bloke who brought a brand new white K plate Mercedes SL320 back in 1992, He died the next day and as his wife couldn't drive this Merc sat in the garage for at least 5 years untouched and maybe even longer. God knows what happened to it in the end.

probably got bangered

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Yeah that seems likely, 1990s Merc SLs are always being sent round the ring.

[Formula Autos]

Postlethwaites, a Ford dealers in Seascale, used to have (until about '99, when they lost the Ford franchise) an unregistered Mk 2 1980 Escort Ghia in biege in the showroom. Vinyl roof too, FTW.

 

Rumour has it that the guy who ordered it didn't collect, and as they were a small garage and the Mk 3 had just been launched, Ford wouldn't put it 'back in the system'. Attempts to sell it for somewhere near what it owed the garage came to nought, and it was stuck out the back for a few years, before being wheeled back out to take pride of place in the window for over a decade.

 

Another rumour has it that Ford eventually bought it back (only took them about twenty years), to be used in a museum/ as a publicity tool.

 

I suppose the point of my tale is that sometimes, just sometimes, these things do turn up. It's well worth pursuing this line of enquiry, as you never know your luck.

 

Though as others have said, it'll probably turn out to be a knackered Mondeo.

[barrett]

Hey, no one here thought that you could find a solid unmolested Porsche forgotten in a garage.... until it happened.

 

Be interesting to see if you turn up anything, but 15 years is a long time - I would've been hunting for it as soon as I found out!

[Alexg]

Yeah that seems likely, 1990s Merc SLs are always being sent round the ring.

Since that Xk150 did last month I would expect to see anything

[morris_ital_lover]

Yeah that seems likely, 1990s Merc SLs are always being sent round the ring.

Since that Xk150 did last month I would expect to see anything

What!?!?!

 

m0rris

[Station]

Like all these stories it'll probably end up being an 80k Mondeo, but good luck!

 

Do this bloke give you the address? I beg to differ on the poorest resident of the Wirral. About this time I was stealing and eating raw boiled pasta off my housemates around that time, starting either one accusing each other of stealing their food.

[Alexg]

Yeah that seems likely, 1990s Merc SLs are always being sent round the ring.

Since that Xk150 did last month I would expect to see anything

What!?!?!

 

m0rris

check the Grumpy Old Men thread a few pages back...

[trigger]

Don't start that one off again, I was taking to a lad at work about that, he's a Marshall at Foxhall stadium and said that bloke just doesn't care, He has more money then sense and does it for the reaction.

 

I was reading about this garage earlier after seeing the link on the Practical classics forum.

 

http://jalopnik.com/5632032/the-mystery ... dealership

[warren t claim]

Don't start that one off again, I was taking to a lad at work about that, he's a Marshall at Foxhall stadium and said that bloke just doesn't care, He has more money then sense and does it for the reaction.

 

I was reading about this garage earlier after seeing the link on the Practical classics forum.

 

http://jalopnik.com/5632032/the-mystery ... dealership

So you go there, and knock on doors and eventually a nice old gent in a faded suit agrees to talk to you and sell you one of the cars. You find him nice, old-fashioned, really, and very much in the know about his MoPars. So you start talking about the price--it's shockingly reasonable, but not crazy--he knows what he has here, but he knows it's hard for people to buy cars these days, especially these big gas users. So you sign on dotted line, he hands you the keys and some temp tags, shake hands, and off you go. You're going to take it to a mechanic, of course, but it seems to be perfectly sorted as is. It rolls along, all floaty and smooth. And then you notice there's a problem with the steering--it's pulling way too hard to the right--OMG, there's a pedestrian there!--you wrestle the wheel and manage to straighten her out and stop. A little rattled, you start off again and in the next block, it's a guy with a briefcase. WTF? you think. You turn down a side street, take the lonesome road. Once or twice it playfully lunges at a tree or a sign post. You can never relax; you have to keep your hands gripped like death itself on the wheel.

Now you're thinking, I want my money back. You wrestle the car back in the direction of the dealer. Strangely, now the car seems happy to cruise along without trying to hurl itself at anyone. An hour later you are at the dealer's corner. Only there's no dealership. The glass is broken, weeds growing inside the cracked showroom floor. No cars. You try to get out of the car, but the doors won't unlock.

You drive a block further on. Still can't get out. Sweating, you scream, "This is what you wanted, isn't it? To go back?" Silence, except for the nice rumble of that V8.

You roll a few more blocks, still can't get out, can't roll down a window. A few blocks more. Pretty soon you just give up. It's going to cost a fortune in pumps, pulleys, steering valves and gears--tie rods, too. Not to mention brake jobs every couple of hundred miles.

Idly, you think of taking it to the lake and letting it roll down the ramp, but somehow you know that will never work. You get home, the car door magically opens. You've made a friend for life. Reply

[Station]

That was edge of the seat stuff that!

[trigger]

And that was your 3000th post Station!

[warren t claim]

And I've just rolled over 2000 posts! I must be due my first service!

[morris_ital_lover]

Don't start that one off again, I was taking to a lad at work about that, he's a Marshall at Foxhall stadium and said that bloke just doesn't care, He has more money then sense and does it for the reaction.

 

I was reading about this garage earlier after seeing the link on the Practical classics forum.

 

http://jalopnik.com/5632032/the-mystery ... dealership

Sorry to go off on a tangeant (and I know this is a tricky one), having just done your basic run as much information up through t'internet about our least favorite banger racer, he is a 18 (only just) year old school kid and yet he turned down £2000 for the wings off the car!

 

m0rris

[eddyramrod]

Don't you just hate kids who have too much money?

 

Meanwhile, yes it IS possible to find stuff. Over here I know the whereabouts of a barely-used 1993 Polonez, not garaged, but certainly fixable; and an indoor-kept, brand new, unregistered, zero mileage Caro pickup. FSO heaven! I am, naturally, working on the owner...

[morris_ital_lover]

They are definitely out there (well if you read the classic car mags its seems likeit) my 'rents nearly bought a house when I was 12ish with garage completely with abandoned (and mint!) rover 216, personally I brushed it off as being a crap car! Oh howthings change! If this lead is true, it would be an epic find!

 

m0rris

[Mr Lobster]

It could still be in a garage somewhere, but if her husband died 45 years ago, assuming he was aged around 50, the probability is she'd be dead herself unfortunately and that one of her descendents came along, sold the house and the car got sent over the bridge.

 

But you never know, it could still be out there.

[Alexg]

new, unregistered, zero mileage Caro pickup. FSO heaven! I am, naturally, working on the owner.

.

 

OH MY GOD !

 

You obviously are not working hard enough, I'd be camping outside the front door of that Mo-Fo!

[Mr Lobster]

^ I wouldn't. They were just plain fucking horrible when new. I had the misfortune of working as a salesperson for a few brief weeks at an FSO franchise in about '95 when the new Caro and Caro pick up came out. They were utterly terrible. Garage went bust a few weeks later and I was made redundant which tbh was a relief.

[Alexg]

^ Autoshite extreme only adds more want

[nigel bickle]

I know where theres a nice complete running Bristol 408 just sitting...

 

I bought some Mk1 Renault 5 parts (from the paper) & turned up at this nice house in an expensive south London residential area.

 

Because I was well dressed, in an interesting old car (Standard Companion)the old boy showed me his garage..

 

Bought 1 yr old, it hadn't been on the road in over 20 years, but he runs it up once a year-and rolls it out of the garage (brakes iffy-apparently).

 

He intends to restore it one day- although he's so frail he can hardly walk.

He -and his Mrs can both see reality-but we can all dream-cant we.

 

I left my number...

[AnthonyG]

You can't race a 1990s Mercedes SL as convertibles aren't allowed.