SEVENTIES STALWART
If you’re a fan of the Ford Cortina, Pete Crompton’s 2000 GXL MKIII is probably already well known to you. Star of the Cortina City Youtube channel, this is a labour of love that’s taken him more than two years of hard graft to get it where it is now. It’s a stunning Silver Birch example that turns heads wherever it goes. And on a cold morning in March 2021, that was a deserted runway somewhere near Peterborough to meet the Parkers team as well as the publication’s 2022 Car of The Year, the all-electric Škoda Enyaq.
Pete’s car looked a lot different when he first got hold of it. It had been abandoned in the undergrowth and was brought to the attention of the Mk3 Cortina Owners’ Club (cortinamk3club. com). It was here that Pete first heard about the car and he knew that he was going to have to have it. ‘It’s very rare – being a twodoor GXL with red interior it was too good to miss,’ he said. ‘What was even more fascinating is that underneath the yellow paint was the original rare Silver Fox paint,’ he added.
This was one very complete restoration.
The car was completely dismantled, the paint stripped off and every spec of rust eradicated when the body was dipped. However, it went much further than that, with the car receiving a new roof skin, inner and outer sills, new floorpan, bulkhead, scuttle, boot floor, rear quarter panels and wings. ‘I also needed to make extensive chassis repairs,’ said Pete. ‘I wanted to keep the maximum amount of original metal in place as possible.’
As Pete said: ‘It was an exhausting experience, but I’m so glad that I saved the car and brought it back to a condition and spec well beyond what it was when new. It’s an absolute motorway cruiser, whisper-quiet and very, very smooth. All the toys make it a pleasure and a privilege to drive.’
Toys, you say? Yes, although the Cortina looks standard, Pete has upgraded it extensively. But it’s been done very cleverly so it looks standard but can be used every day in modern traffic. It has a fourspeed automatic gearbox from a Sierra for quieter high-speed cruising as well as a fully re-built 2.0-litre Pinto engine from Jem Racing engines and steering is appreciably lightened by the fitment of a power-assisted rack.
Driver aids including cruise control (also taken from a later Granada), rain-sensing wipers and heated washer jets make cold days more bearable, as do the heated seats. The in-car stereo is a Blaupunkt Hamburg that’s been retro-fitted with Bluetooth music streaming and hands-free Alexa assistance. You can even make hands-free mobile phone calls while on the move.
In short, this is a very special Cortina that’s been enhanced massively – and a potent reminder of the value of community because its restoration was part-funded by the Patreon subscribers to Pete’s Youtube channel.
We’ve only touched on the surface of this car’s amazing restoration – you can see much more of it online.
■ tinyurl.com/2p952tf4