Spain’s star Cortina keeps it in the family
A 1962 Ford Cortina 1200 Deluxe that’s been owned by one family from new and spent 43 years in a garage was the unlikely star of the Benidorm to Bust banger rally, earlier this year.
Classic car enthusiast, Tony Falder, who drove the Cortina 2800 miles with his brother from Watford to Benidorm, found the Cortina stuck in a garage after responding to an advert in January of last year.
He said: ‘ The seller was the son of the original owner. He’d inherited the car and said that he’d driven it into the garage, where it ended up sitting from 1974.
‘Bodily, the car was in great condition, but the engine was completely seized.’
The Cortina needed a complete mechanical rebuild; only the gearbox and back axle were kept. Having completed the work, Tony and his brother Graham decided to take part in what they thought was a classic car rally – Benidorm or Bust 2018.
3‘You might call it a thorough shakedown of the running gear, said Tony. ‘We were the only people there in a classic car – everyone else used 20-year-old bangers, so we were a bit out of place.’
With the Ford stickered up in ‘flower power’ livery (‘We went as hippies,’ said Tony) the Cortina tackled the run without a hitch. Now safely back in Watford, it’s up for sale for £7900 via the Classic Car Weekly classifieds. Tony said: ‘ The flower power wrap is optional. It can come with or without – dependent on the buyer’s preference!’