ARS ON THE ROAD TO EXTINCTION
years ago they were st popular motors on ad with millions of wners.
oduction ended in a few hundred still ginal Mini was 0 and I wonder till out there. ng Cortina almost 0s and 1970s. It was the on-the-road home for thousands of sales reps besides racing and rallying superbly.
It also featured in an Ian Dury song lyric “I Had a Love Affair with Nina in the Back of my Cortina”. Dury is no longer with us and, sadly, neither are most of the four million Cortinas built between 1962 and 1982.
I’m really upset about that. We were both born in the same year.
Have you got one of the critically endangered cars? Email us at mirrornews@
mirror.co.uk MORE than 1.5 million were made but only 478 are now registered. The Metro, meant to replace the ageing Mini, limped on as the Rover 100 until 1997. ALTHOUGH its recent rate of decline is not as alarming as that of the Sierra, which is disappearing despite selling in huge numbers, there are now only 829 Victors left, compared with 1,050 on the roads a decade earlier. IT replaced the much-loved Cortina in 1982 and 3,470,524 were built up to 1993. There STUNNER This was raced by Jackie Stewart, inset DESPITE being slammed as outdated, outclassed and a poor performer, the car’s lack of technical sophistication meant it was keenly priced. It was the No2 UK bestseller in 1973 and was assembled with varying degrees of popularity around the world. More than 809,000 were built. In 2005, 550 were left. Now only 294 remain. were 67,817 left in the UK in 2005 but that figure has plummeted to 3,900.
ONLY 3,814 Cortinas remain of the 4,154,902 produced. Not only was it Britain’s bestselling car in the late 1960s and 1970s, the saloon was also a hugely successful racing car. A 1965 model raced by Sir Jackie Stewart is expected to make up to £120,000 when it goes under the auctioneer’s hammer at Goodwood racecourse, West Sussex, on March 18. Painstakingly restored by its present owner, it carries the racing number 36, as it did in its heyday. It has a black leather interior and a rebuilt engine from Ford of Germany.