FORD CORTINA 1500 SUPER ESTATE
Year of manufacture 1963 Recorded mileage 45,472 Asking price £12,950 Vendor AR Cars, East Sussex; tel: 07860 726219; www.arcars.co.uk
WHEN IT WAS NEW Price £785 19s 7d Max power 60bhp Max torque 82lb ft 0-60mph 17 secs Top speed 82mph Mpg 27
This rare woodie is one of the first batch of 35 cars built for the model’s launch, and is very well preserved. Originally two-tone grey, it was repainted in around 2010 and is still clean and sharp, though now with one or two small bubbles in the finish, plus small dings in the left front wing and the left sill. The bumpers have been rechromed, with some polish marks visible, and the fake wood trim is all there, refinished with new Fablon. There appears to be no rot in the structure: the strut-tops, floors and chassis legs are very solid, with one crossmember showing a little jacking damage. There’s no rust in the door bottoms, and the tailgate has been replaced with a new-old-stock pressing. The exhaust is new and stainless steel, the wheels are chrome 51/2Js with well-treaded Uniroyals, and a modern slim spare to fit in the cradle.
Inside, the vinyl is incredibly well preserved; the seller had a small repair done to the driver’s seat, but you wouldn’t know. Some of the original red is beginning to show through in places but it could easily be re-coated. The door cards are all good, with some of the plastic chrome trim flaking off. Tiny cracks in the dash top are hardly worth mentioning on a 55-year-old car. There’s a period Les Leston wood-rimmed steering wheel plus remote gear linkage, but the original gearchange and handbrake are included. A temperature gauge and later stereo are the only other deviations from standard.
The engine is a fairly recent replacement, running an ignitor within the new distributor, plus alternator. The coolant is full and greenish, the oil brown and to the maximum mark. It starts instantly with no tappet noise and drives very nicely, with a smooth clutch, no slop in the steering and firm brakes – discs on the front are reassuring. It gets down the road very well, with slick gearchanges and good synchros and, though it’s typically low-geared, this is a car you could go places in – but the fuel gauge doesn’t work. Temperature sits below 80ºc.
It is sold with the owner’s handbook and a history file containing paperwork confirming the car’s origins and rarity, plus an MOT until October.