". . . a Spitfire and a Cortina 1600E. These were considered real performance cars . . ." Really?
Yep! When you were a 17 or 18 year old in the early/mid 70s and had just passed your test most of us had Mini 1000s, Escort 1100/1300s and the like... a 1600E or Spit was considered "performance" for those of us on a budget... they were faster than the standard stuff and cost more to insure... granted there were "Lotus" versions, etc, but they were well out of the "normal" kid's reach...
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This got me wondering, and doing some Googling.
In the late 60s I was driving a self modified morris Minor with a 1.5 (Riley 2 xSU carb Series B) engine that was seen to be quick - altho looking at the publicised performance figures for the donor car of 0-60 of 18.9 secs-. Ok it got quicker after I replaced the self destructed differential with one from a minor van, but the top speed was then limited to about 60mph!
A subsequent very modified Hillman Imp (with a cam that made it almost undriveable around town), achieved something around 13s for 0-60 and was genuiely quick in its day, but spent a lot of time being retuned. I remember I could get the whole engine out quicker than I could change the No4 Spark plug!
A friend had a a proper Lotus Mk1 Cortina and that was the real thing, and the couple of times I borrowed it I was probably lucky that I didnt kill myself. Published 0-60 of 9.2secs.
All looks pretty sick against modern small cars, which also have better handling and braking.
p
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Spitfires were considered to be poof's cars in the mid seventies. (Of course we are not allowed to say that now, we have to say hairdresser's cars)
Real boys all wanted an Escort Mexico or Dolomite Sprint.
My father was really proud of his Capri 1600 GTXLR, bought new in 1969/70.
Quicker than an MGB, according to him, which I suppose was quite fast in those days!
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And you've picked on 2 of the nicest looking cars of their day Oily, i used to be green with envy at the Cortina 1600E's, Ford really know how to make their cars look proper.
As Roger says, i don't think they were particularly quick, but looked the part of their day, much like many cars today where badging and sporty stickering is still used to create the impression, and of course the olbigatory huge wheels with elastic bands wrapped around to shake the teeth from anyone inside.
There won't be many mainstream models from today remembered quite so fondly, as the lookalike industry wasn't so established back then and the cars were somewhat rarer, it seems if you look for a particular sporting model (eg BMW M5 or Leon turbo for example) in the usual sites, many of the cars that come up are not the real thing but have been badged up to lookalike, to me one of the saddest things to do with a car.
S'funny but we somehow could tell when something wasn't quite the real thing back then, often there were subtle differences where now even the manufacturer is only stickering/wheelarching/bigwheeling their more sporty models (often the same puny engine as the plainer offers) so are a simple copy job.
All show and no go i think we used to call it..;)
Each generation has their wish cars from their younger (sometimes not so younger but raising families often forbade such things) days, we have the Sierra and Escort Cosworths and Turbo's along the way, even oddities like the Maestro turbo, Pug 405 Mi16's and 205 gti's etc.
One of my desired cars from back then was a Ford Anglia that a chap nearby had lowered, wheeled and suspension/brake sorted before he slipped in a Lotus cortina 1500 lump, there wan't much around at the time that could get anywhere near that. pocket rocket.
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I very nearly bought an Anglia with a 1600 x-flow as my first car,it had flared arches and 6 1/2 J steel rims,went like er,grit off a shovel.Commonsense prevailed and I bought a 1200 Super,still considered quick in its class,Heralds could not keep up(apart from the Vitesse) and Moggies did not have chance.A complete contrast to a 1200 Beetle I had later,I recall grinding up a hill in first gear,four up,with a line of cars behind.There was nothing wrong with it,that was it's performance level.
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I had a 1600E, it would beat a MGB from the traffic lights, I used to love seeing the faces of the B drivers in my mirror.
The 1600E replaced a Vauxhall Viva SL90. The Viva was a terrible car, rusty after 6 months and always going wrong. It has put me off Vauxhalls for life.
I was young and single when I had the 1600E and the best thing on the car was the reclining front seats. One yank on the lever and the seat-back was down, I took my future wife out in this car for the first time and many times later.
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I was young and single when I had the 1600E and the best thing on the car was the reclining front seats. One yank on the lever and the seat-back was down I took my future wife out in this car for the first time and many times later.
Should this be a new thread?
Remember "You can do it in an MG."?
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>>I had a 1600E, it would beat a MGB from the traffic lights, I used to love seeing the faces of the B drivers in my mirror.
>>I too had a 1600E and IIRC the MGB was slower of the mark but a higher top speed.
I will look up the original road tests on the 1600E a little later.
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> 2 of the nicest looking cars of their day, I used to be green with envy at the Cortina 1600E ..
As has been said in another thread, (most) beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I never saw a Cortina as anything more than a shoddy imitation of a Yankee battle tank. But there you go ...
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I never saw a Cortina as anything more than a shoddy imitation of aYankee battle tank. But there you go ...
Maybe we were a little more down to earth in those days, we knew unless we won the pools (i typed polls then, i suppose as a fully expensed politician that such things could have come my way..;0) that Astons/Ferrari's/even Shelby Mustangs were never to be for us, but something like the 1600E's could be ours if we saved enough.
Loans and like were just not part of our world, so we only had what we could afford, hence the more attainable practical car desires maybe?
If it comes to it i suppose a Shelby Mustang would still come well up my list of cars to die for, and one of those would still give more modern cars a run for their money, at least on the straight bits in the dry..;)
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One of my desired cars from back then was a Ford Anglia that a chap nearby had lowered wheeled and suspension/brake sorted before he slipped in a Lotus cortina 1500 lump there wan't much around at the time that could get anywhere near that. pocket rocket.
Sounds very like one I bought from a dentist in 1971 - Cortina GT engine stage 2 tuned, Lotus box. Probably the most fun car I've ever had - till it threw a piston ring which attached itself to the top of the piston, hammering the head loudly! Enjoyed repairing it but eventually met its maker on the delightfully twisty A65 by Gargrave at 2 in the morning on a frosty January night. A stream had run across the road and frozen at a corner - those were the daze............
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When I was minicabbing in the seventies, colleagues with Cortina or Corsair 1600s could out-accelerate my 1725cc Singer Vogue estate, despite its low axle ratio and chromed cylinder bores. It really used to annoy me and force me to go round corners faster than they usually did to compensate. 'I seen you on FREE WHEELS at Vauxhall Cross yesterday,' one said to me disapprovingly in the office to my great pleasure and satisfaction. They thought it was bad form to hurl the punters about in the back like that, but most of the punters loved it.
We were a popular firm in local (Clapham) lumpen and pre-yuppie circles... No nonsense, turn up quickly, wham bam, get you there briskly.
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>>chromed cylinder bores
Whatever happened to that idea?
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