Landmark Cars: Ford Cortina Mk I

摘要

It's fitting that we follow the Morris 1100 from the September issue of MIM with the Ford Cortina, since the two cars were launched within months of each other in 1962. The Cortina, or properly, Consul Cortina, although the Consul name was quietly dropped after a few months, was launched in November 1962. Compared with the Morris 1100, there was nothing much technically that justified the Landmark label. Where the Morris 1100 offered front-wheel-drive, front disc brakes and interconnected Hydralastic independent suspension, the Cortina delivered a conventional 'three box' design, rear-wheel-drive, a leaf-sprung live rear axle and drum brakes all round. 'Project Archbishop' began in 1960, masterminded by a young Terry Beckett in the Ford product-planning department. The Cortina's design was the work of a team under Canadian Roy Brown, who had been responsible for the design of the late 1950s Edsel project and had been exiled to Dagenham while the cost was being counted.