HOMEBUILT HERO: Cortina 2000E
At first glance it may look like a beautifully restored 2000E estate, but the Signal Orange paint should be a warning. There’s more to this Cortina than meets the eye…
Rare, and superb Signal Orange estate.
In today’s world of ubiquitous SUVs, it’s easy to forget that the estate car was once the default answer for families who occasionally had big stuff to carry. Four-door saloon not quite substantial enough? Graft a tall glasshouse onto the rear, and a whole new world of possibilities opens up. You can get three kids in the back plus a couple of dogs in the boot, or if the whim takes you to shove in a wardrobe or a washing machine or a sofa, fill your boots. Can you stuff a race car inside an estate car? Well… that’s a weird question that not many people have asked, but the answer is yes, kind of, as Lee Pullen’s Cortina 2000E proves.
OK, it’s not an actual race car smooshed into the back, but more of a conceptual notion. You see, with many years of racing under his belt, it was a no-brainer to fit a flame-spitting stock car motor to his unassuming wagon. Unexpected? Most certainly, but as we delve into Lee’s backstory, it all starts to make a lot of sense. “I’m a car mechanic by trade so doing this stuff should be easy… but the Cortina was far from easy,” he laughs.
“My dad, Nigel, has a Mk3 Cortina 1.6L saloon that we’ve been restoring for 15 years, but that was put on the back burner when I started racing... and now we’re starting to finish it — hopefully in time for for next year so that we can go out driving and to shows together.”
It all started when Lee was a youth, getting a Fiesta 1.1L at the age of 17. The car had been sat in a garage for 14 years, and the process of recommissioning it and getting it MoT-ready really gave him a taste for wrenching on old Fords. By the time he was 21, Lee was daily-driving a Capri 2.8i, and after a year of sliding about he commissioned Tickover to fit a turbo to it. “That made it undrivable in the wet,” he recalls with a smirk. “Caught me out a few times for sure, leaving me facing the wrong way. I deeply regret selling that.”
Yes, we all have cars we regret letting go, but Lee certainly didn’t allow the high-octane lifestyle to slip through his fingers; he later got into oval racing, and spent a full 11 years pounding the tracks before changing series to race Sierras with the Invicta Kent Autograss Club. “I loved the fast racing and sideways driving,” he says. “I had a three-door Cosworth-style racer with the whaletail first, then built a Sapphire Cosworth-style car. After winning the championship in 2012 I quit racing; I really wanted a Mk1 Escort, but even with the money I had from selling my racing stuff I just couldn’t afford one.”
Little did he know, however, that fate would soon drop something even more exciting into his lap. Lee has a friend, Frank, who travels around Europe collecting and delivering cars, and in 2014 he spotted a Cortina 2000E estate in a barn in France — a 1976 model, surely one of the last off the line. The story went that the owner had brought it out there from Birmingham back in 1982, and after a fair amount of gentle persuasion Frank convinced the owner that after all those years of inactivity, perhaps it was time to let the ’Tina go.
“AS SOON AS THE GARAGE DOOR OPENED I LOVED IT AND SAID I’D HAVE IT”
First refusal
“Frank has a number of classic Ford projects on the go, and he called me for first refusal,” says Lee. “So I decided to go and look at it — and as soon as the garage door opened, I loved it and said I’d have it! I thought it was a great car, although after having it for couple of months I started stripping it and found that there was nothing but rust from the front seats all the way through to the slam panel. There were alloy plates riveted in the inner wings, and wall-to-wall filler in the footwells under the wet carpets.”
Disheartening indeed, and Lee opted to dump the rotting hulk in his parents’ garden for a few months while he considered his options. He was still deeply enamoured with the old wagon though, and before long found himself collecting all the parts and panels ready to rejuvenate the ’76 and let it breathe again. The stripping, welding and fabrication began in earnest, and with the Cortina fighting back every step of the way it eventually began to resemble less of a teabag and more of a complete and solid
automobile. With the shell perfected, it was treated to a fresh coat of Signal Orange, owing to the fact that it had originally been orange but, due to being a 1976 car, it was hard to find a paint code and impossible to make a match. Signal Orange is eminently appropriate however, as its racy heritage gives those in the know a clue as to what’s now under the bonnet…
“I bought the 2-litre Pinto off a mate,” he explains. “He had it in a short-circuit National Saloon Stock Car, knocking out 165 bhp. It’s a 205 block with injection head, oversize pistons, super-lightened flywheel, jetted-out 32/36 Weber carb, and a full competition Ashley system with a fourbranch. I swapped out the race cam for a Kent FR32 to make it a bit more roadfriendly! It was making 158 bhp on the rollers but there was a flat spot, so now we’ve got it dialled in at a nice 139 bhp and 149 lb.ft.”
Classic sleeper
You wouldn’t think the estate was such a tearaway, would you? And this element of stealth (aside from the vivid orange hue, obviously) was very much the point. Original aesthetics, but all subtly and artfully upgraded. Look at the wheels, for example: the original 5.5 inch 2000E steels have been banded to 7 inches for a more robust contact patch. Behind them lurk adjustable GAZ dampers, and Capri 2.8i brakes up front. And recently Lee has swapped out the 2000E’s gearbox for a Type 9 five-speed, along with a Quaife LSD out back. Fun and frolics are this car’s USP, hidden within a subtle veneer of practicality.
“I don’t normally use the car if it’s raining,” he says, “although damp weather is very entertaining with the LSD fitted! I’ve done a few meets and shows, and the car gets lots of attention as you generally don’t see any Mk3 Cortina estates these days — let alone a bright orange 2000E. And of course I’ll be at Ford Fair as well as a few other shows.” Well, naturally. It’s all about the fun factor for Lee — this car has been built to be enjoyed, and after five years of bloody knuckles, that’s precisely what he’s doing. After all, it’s a sensible estate car with a race car hidden inside, and what could be more amusing than that?
“THE CAR GETS LOADS OF ATTENTION AT SHOWS AND MEETS”