Fans of the Ford Cortina will have already seen plenty of celebrations take place this year as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. Just this week, the BBC television programme ‘The One Show' broadcast a feature about what was once one of the most popular Ford cars for sale.
The Cortina went out of production over 30 years ago and, during its time, it became one of Ford's most popular vehicles in the UK Ford with it managing to notch up 4.3 million sales across the world, with the MkIV even available in over 32 different versions.
The One Shows feature was presented by the comedian and actor Alexei Sayle who, back in 1982, hosted an hour long special for the arts show Arena called ‘The Private Life of a Ford Cortina'. The One Show was following one part of the Cortina's 50th year celebrations: an epic journey that was organised by a Ford Cortina club that would see them travel from Italy to Ford's Dagenham plant.
It might seem easy to dismiss the Cortina as just another discontinued Ford model but, without it, modern cars would be very different. Even though you won't find the Cortina at your nearest Ford car dealers, you can certainly take a test drive in any of the vehicles that the Cortina has helped to craft.