The 66

My Story

Previously I had never been a true fanatic of all English Fords. I always had a love for Japanese cars such as Toyota and Mazda because these car were so sleek, reliable and easy as well as cheap to fix.

When I was in High school the guys used to only talk about their dream cars. My dream car was'nt a Ferrari (although I am a huge fan), Lamborghini etc. It was a Lotus Cortina. Why did I like this car so much - because this car was made in 1964 and could do 0-100 kmph in around 9 seconds and all this from a 1500 engine. The best thing about this car was that it could do 180 kmph in the 60's - remember at this time the only cars that could do those speeds were these Italian sports cars with V12 engines etc.

45 years on and till today there is hardly any 1500cc full sedan cars that can do a 0-100 kmph in 9 seconds as well top out at 180 kmph.

This will tell you that the Lotus Cortina was 45 years ahead of its time.

Sadly, these cars werent imported into South Africa and I have only seen 1 example in my entire life. However, in South Africa we did get the Cortina GT which also was a killer in its day. The 1500 engine was developed by Cosworth and was very powerful for its time - 58 kW.

So this is why I set out to find a Cortina GT. The sad part of this was that there werent alot of original GT's around. Most of them had engine transplants and tons of rust.

I did manage find this one that I have right now. I bought it from a gentleman who was a die hard Ford Cortina fanatic. He had about 3 of these cars and sold this one here to me for R13000 ( around $1300). It came with the engine/drivetrain setup below. I must admit that had its problems but after alot of work and money spent - I managed to get it in tip-top condition.

After sorting out most of the problems I left it with a friend who is a panel beater. He decided to do the body up for me and the car stood at his shop for over 1 year 3 months. In this time the car was only started about 10 times. Its unbelievable that this car always started on the turn and the motor is still in good condition after all the time of it being idle. In any case, the time waited for the body to be done was well worth it. My friend Rekey, the panel beater is a legend when it comes to restorations and body kits. He managed to bring the car to this condition as you see it now. Its too bad that I dont have pictures of this car when it had all the rust etc. The car was badly rusted everwhere - it even had a big hole in the roof. It also had about 1/2cm of spray-on body filler all over the place.

Any other Panel Beater would have lost hope in this car. When Rekey showed me the condition of this car after he had stripped the paint - I instantly lost hope. I knew in my heart that it would be impossible to restore a car in such bad condition. However, this guy has a gift from god and he proved me wrong.

All rust was removed and he used a MIG welder to plate all areas that had been rusted. Minimal body filler was used. I cannot mention the amount of work that was put into doing the body. Only Rekey himself knows.

Specifications on the car:
Ford 3.4 V6 Essex
Motorcraft Electronic Ignition
279 Degree Cam Shaft
38 Weber Downdraft
4 Speed Bullet Box
3.08 Ratio Differential
Braking system standard except for a BMW 2002 remote brake booster