Having just spent a couple of nights in the Ferry Terminal carpark at Calais it is apparent that quite a few vehicles have been abandoned there, some in fact had already been ticketed by the port authorities prior to removal.
These are mostly over ten years old, UK registered and not displaying a licence disc.
I assumed that these had been bought cheaply with little tax or MOT, taken over on a cheap day-return ticket, used as holiday transport for a couple of weeks, and then dumped, the occupants returning as foot passengers.
However the difference between day-return and long-stay rates is not that huge so maybe there is a more prosaic (or sinister) explanation?
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soon, each will be worth £2k off cost of a new car in the UK
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If thats the way they ended up there then the owners should be traceable from the outward journey... they should then be sent the bill for clearing them up...
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Most of them will be totally illegal but people with property in France and other countries will travel over as foot passengers and then use them to get to their properties and then as a runaround.No tax,no insurance,no MoT,no French registration-the car parks(especially if they're free)at many French airports are full of them.
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Reminded me of that story earlier this year about luxury cars abandoned at Dubai airport by ex-pats fleeing the downturn.
Can't think what Calais might have in common with Dubai though. I prefer the explanation above!!
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Reminds me of a crown court case I was involved in which involved three particularly violent men from Manchester.
They turned up for sentence in an Easyhire Merc A-class. I know this because we used the same car park.
Each man got locked up, leaving the Merc abandoned in the car park - I had to visit the same court two days later and it was still there.
Nothing is certain at court, but these men more or less knew they were going to prison, so turning up in a hire car just illustrates the 'couldn't care less' attitude of many criminals.
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Nothing is certain at court but these men more or less knew they were going to prison so turning up in a hire car just illustrates the 'couldn't care less' attitude of many criminals.
Hey dont be so judgemental. A: they turned up and b: they shared a hire car.
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Parked on the amalfi coast road near Positano, there is a 1973/4 UK registered mk 3 cortina estate. It clearly has no engine as the springs are way up, and it looks like its been there for at least 15 years
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Engine/gearbox(and many other parts) were common with the Taunus which was sold in Italy.Austria for some reason preferred LHD Cortina to the Taunus.
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Brother had a three-door Taunus while stationed in Germany with the RAF.
Wasn't it just a lefthand drive Cortina?
Yet another Ford in my family which did many, many, trouble-free miles.
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Brother had a three-door Taunus while stationed in Germany with the RAF.>> Wasn't it just a lefthand drive Cortina?
Mk4/5 were more or less identical, Mk3 running gear the same, but lots of body/trim differences, in fact from memory I dont think they shared any panels or lights.
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Think it was a Mk4/5 - the one after the 'Coke bottle', so more or less identical would be about right.
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RHD/LHD Cortina were built in the UK(and a few other places in the world-mainly as CKD).The Taunus were built only in LHD.Mk. IV(Taunus and Cortina) and it's facelift were basically the same car but there were detail differences mainly because of component sourcing.They had different engine ranges as well.
Edited by jc2 on 13/04/2009 at 13:28
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The Taunus were built only in LHD.Mk. IV(Taunus and Cortina) and it's facelift were basicallythe same car but there were detail differences mainly because of component sourcing.They had different engine ranges as well.
>>
Sorry....your so wrong!
Taunus was a model range started in 1948!
up until 1970 there was little or nothing in common with the British range of cars, but with the coming of the Mk3 Cortina the 2 ranges started becoming one!
tinyurl.com/d5jprc (link to wikipedia)
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Don't necessarily believe all you see in Wikipedia-one of it's biggest problems is that anyone can feed it info.The two ranges-(1970+)-never truly became one.The original Taunus were a range of small FWD cars.Their bigger brothers were RWD and were codenamed "Hummer"-you never see any in Germany-I'm told that this is because they were so tough the gastarbeiter from Turkey took them home.
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Don't necessarily believe all you see in Wikipedia-one of it's biggest problems is that anyone can feed it info.The two ranges-(1970+)-never truly became one.
I DONT believe all i read in wikipedia - BUT I used that link because I KNOW that info to be (mostly) correct.(I was working for Ford at the time - still have some Parts Fiche somewhere....)
You stated >>The Taunus were built only in LHD.Mk. IV(Taunus and Cortina)>>
that is as written incorrect..It reads that Taunus didnt exist until the Mk3 Cortina/Taunus which WERE very similar, but as I stated, >>Mk4/5 were more or less identical, Mk3 running gear the same, but lots of body/trim differences, in fact from memory I dont think they shared any panels or lights.>>
Oh... and the Taunus only used FWD from 62-70 not from model launch...
Edited by the swiss tony on 13/04/2009 at 14:28
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the taunas cortina had very little in common with the mk3 cortina,even the engines were different as quite a few had the 2.3 lump which i assume was the cologne lump
they looked like corsairs on the front
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the taunas cortina had very little in common with the mk3 cortina even the engines were different as quite a few had the 2.3 lump which i assume was the cologne lump they looked like corsairs on the front
you been drinking BB? the 70-76 Taunus looked nothing like a Ford Corsair!
it looked like, and indeed was, a squared-up Mk3 Cortina.
tinyurl.com/cgav6q Link to Ford Corsair picture...
tinyurl.com/cyxytq Link to Mk3 Cortina picture
tinyurl.com/dkonmv Link to Taunus 70-76 picture
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I can remember an embarrassing comparison between the Taunus and the Cortina. Back in the very early '80s I worked for the British subsidiary of a Swiss owned company. It was the height of the onset of company cars in the UK while they remained very scarce in Switzerland. In fact I seem to remember being told that they were not even allowed in that country at the time other than as pool vehicles.
Anyway, I was a a very junior management trainee with the British firm. I was posted to the head office in Switzerland and took my UK registered brand new 2.0GL Cortina with me to use during my time there.
I remember my first day clearly as I parked outside the main building. A slighty tatty 1.6 basic Taunus pulled up alongside my shiny new Cortina in the car park. Noticing the UK reg the driver of the Taunus came over to me and introduced himself as he clearly knew who I would be. He commented on my obviously brand new car and admired it.
He turned out to be the Swiss MD. In other words, my boss's, boss's, boss's, boss's boss.
Um.....Morning sir......Whistle......
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 13/04/2009 at 16:11
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While living in Switzerland, from 1976-1980, I remember seeing a list of all the cars sold there that year. (Can't remember which year though)
Alongside X thousand Taunuses, Ford managed to sell FOUR Cortinas!
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tinyurl.com/dkonmv Link to Taunus 70-76 picture
looks half way between a mk3 and mk4 cortina
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I think bell boy was referring to an earlier Taunus when he said it looked a bit like a Corsair. From the sixties. It was quite a lot faster than any British Ford, Lotus Cortina and specials aside, at the time too (or the top model was).
Edited by Lud on 13/04/2009 at 16:21
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The original line-up of the Mk.III Cortina was 1.3 OHV,1.6 OHC(1v & 2v GT) and 2.0 OHC.The engine line-up for the equivalent Taunus was 1.3 OHC,1.6 OHC(1v & 2v GT) and 2.0 V6(Lc& Hc) and 2.3 V6. 2.0 OHC was available to special order-much more powerful than the V6 but not as smooth.
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I should add that the Taunus was available as a 2-door fastback coupe as was the Consul/Granada in Germany.Never offered in Cortina.
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I had a MK111 1.6 OHC GT 2 door.
Did that count as a coupe?
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I had a MK111 1.6 OHC GT 2 door. Did that count as a coupe?
Could be... but from memory only the fastbacks were know as 'coupes' the 2 doors were just '2 doors'
the fastbacks were lovely looking cars, especially the Granada.... theres a classic Id love to own!
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the fastbacks were lovely looking cars especially the Granada.... theres a classic Id love to own!
www.granadazone.com/ipw-web/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f...4
or not fastback
www.granadazone.com/ipw-web/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f...2
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jc2 said:
>The original line-up of the Mk.III Cortina was..
Cortinas built in South Africa were also available with 2.5L and 3.0L V6s. I owned three of them. A Mk III 3000GT, a Mk IV 3.0S and one of the first Mk V XR6 Interceptors.
henry k said:
>the fastbacks were lovely looking cars especially the Granada....
The South African Granada Coupe had a 5.0L V8 option. A true Grand Tourer, perfect for long distances in the days before cheap air travel.
A 5.0L V8 conversion was also available for the Capri called a Perana Capri. It was a bit of a handful according to a workmate who'd driven one.
Kevin...
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A 5.0L V8 conversion was also available for the Capri called a Perana Capri. It was a bit of a handful according to a workmate who'd driven one. Kevin...
a bit like the car that bit you that you feed then
never heard of this car was it cosha ford then or a hot tin roof bodge up
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>never heard of this car was it cosha ford then or a hot tin roof bodge up..
It was an 'approved' conversion by a Co. called Basil Green.
Kevin...
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It was an 'approved' conversion by a Co. called Basil Green.
Just Googled and there's a great V8 sound on this YouTube clip:www.youtube.com/watch?v=au8VBL6f8vY
As suggested earlier, must have been an absolute nightmare to drive - I has a 2Litre and that was bad enough.
Edited by Bill Payer on 14/04/2009 at 22:05
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South Africa also put the 3.0 V6 in the German Hummer body-not as heavy as a Granada-it made a nice car.Later on there was a Sierra with a V8-badged as an XR8-Suffolk Police had a couple as high-speed pursuit cars-ended their days as Panda cars.
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Try this site to see what a Taunus Fastback looks like.
www.taunus.nl/
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There's still quite a few early-70s style Taunuses around in Argentina, including fastbacks. Not surprised they didn't use the Cortina name there - it means "curtain" in Spanish!
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Shouldn't we have a new Taunus/Cortina thread?!!
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