Ford Cortina GT

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Another desirable old Ford comes out of the woodwork to be auctioned at Turners Palmerston North, and this time it’s a Cortina, a MK2 GT no less. Now, there will doubtless be talk of the number of doors and whether it’s a real GT etc. So, to be clear, the GT came with 2 and 4 doors and the chassis code confirms this car was built in Dagenham in 1966 as a 4 door GT with the 1500  engine as the 1600 was not introduced until 1967. With it’s credentials established, maybe you want to buy it? Read on...

The mark 2 Ford Cortina was launched to the British public in October 1966 and by 1967 it was Britain’s largest selling car. It was also very popular in NZ and we even had our own luxury/sport version that was not available anywhere else. Badged the 1600 GTE, it had wood trim on the dash, a vinyl covered roof and go-faster stripes. It was only available as a four door saloon and was the car that separated the regional sales manager from the territory sales rep. However, before the launch of the NZ assembled GTE your options for a sporty version of the mk2 Cortina was the British assembled GT or the very rare Lotus twin cam version.

So, the car here is a UK assembled four door GT with the earlier 1498cc Kent engine and 4 speed manual transmission with the shift mounted on the floor (other models were column change), a gauge pod on top of the dash, a rev counter and a centre armrest. This car was built in October 1966, which was actually the month the mk2 Cortina was launched. It was first registered in NZ in January 1968.

These old Fords are very collectible, and while the mk2 is possibly a bit less sought after than the mk1, it’s still a very desirable car today and likely to remain so. The auction is taking place online from the 12^th April. More details here.