FORD CORTINA GT

My passion for the Mark 2 Cortina has always been there – I tried living without them, but I just can’t do it. You might as well cut my arms off.’ Rich and his very understanding wife, Joan, came to Australia a little over 11 years ago from the UK. Rich was first to arrive with Joan tying up the loose ends back home. The plane ride must have been hell for him because no sooner had he landed than he was already on the hunt for a Cortina to get him around his new home. It took just 24 hours to secure the purchase of a 1968 two-door Mark 2.

Joan wasn’t surprised that he had managed to acquire a Cortina, only how quickly it had happened. Rich wasted no time planning a custom restoration for his new acquisition, but the priority was to ensure the car was mechanically sound first. However, spare parts were relatively scarce in Australia at the time.

Rich spent many a late night on the phone to his wife Joan, back in England, instructing her where he’d stashed spare parts around the house and garage. ‘Go up the ladder, turn to your right, third box on the left.’ Joan, ever supportive of his passion, shipped the parts out to Australia allowing him to continue working on the car.

Rich built it up to a GT spec that paid homage to Cortinas of the era through subtle nods and mods – if you know what to look for. But the ultimate goal for him was to find an Australian-delivered Cortina Mark 2 GT and go to work on that.

Rich learned his skills restoring pushbikes as a young lad. ‘Chopper bars, long forks and freaky paint jobs, then motorbikes and cars came along soon after.’

‘In the village where I grew up, you either became a farmer or a mechanic. My grandfather used to own the local garage and I was always up there with him tinkering around. It was pretty clear what my path was going to be.’

Richard’s obsession with these cars began 39 years ago when he was 15 and fell in love with his neighbour’s Jet Black Mark 2 GT. His first car was a two-door 1600 GT in Burgundy Black Cherry and other than for brief periods in his life, he has always owned at least Mark 2. After settling in Australia, he shipped out two Cortinas he previously restored while living in England because he felt he had to hang onto them.

The Cortina was the replacement to the Ford Consul Classic which ceased production in 1963. It went through five generations before being replaced by the Sierra in 1982.