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| Ford
Cortina GT - 1966 model |
Broadcast
date : 28th January 2007 |
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In the early 1960's South
Africa, along with the rest of the world was gripped by
motoring fever, with performance cars and motorsport achieving
cult status.
A company that was very much at the vanguard of this movement
was Ford, and the model that brought performance motoring
within reach of the family man was the Cortina GT.
GT stands for Gran Turismo, previously hallowed ground
populated by the likes of Ferrari and Maserati. The upstart
Cortina began a controversy that raged for years about its
legitimacy to the title, and Car rode that emotional wave for
all it was worth.
It’s taken Ford over forty years to match that euphoria
created by the original GT, with its Focus ST. Car Magazine
rated it as their performance car of 2006, and enthusiasts
agree.
A dedicated Ford ST club has been formed in Gauteng, and STs
are mopping up at legal street-race events all over the
country.
Just as the modern ST has distinct styling cues to identify
its prowess, the Mark one Cortina GT was also recognised by
the informed enthusiast.
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The chrome strips down the side,
the GT badges on the flanks, and the lowered suspension were
cues that this was a Ford to be treated with respect.
This 1966 model is owned by Cape Town racer Malcolm
Uytenbogaardt, and it’s a road-race classic, fitted with
twin side-draught Webers, a cross-flow Kent motor, and
rock-hard suspension that makes it demanding on the road.
Malcolm has added all the period go-faster items like a
wood-rim steering wheel, but left the rest of the interior
stock, as many racecars were back in the sixties.
That Koos Swanepoel signature on the dash is the most
important piece of equipment for arch enthusiast Malcolm.
Koos Swanepoel became a national hero, winning the very first
SA Saloon Car title in a Lotus Cortina, an even more
specialised Ford that was only available here for racing.
His victory put him in the company of the likes of Formula one
master Jim Clark, who won the British saloon car Championship
that same year in 1964.
Koos raced for the Cape-based Meissner team, and its inventive
head Willie Meissner set about turning the South African Lotus
Cortina into the fastest Cortina in the world, Lotus or
otherwise.
Willie Meissner was rated, along with Johannesburg-based Basil
van Rooyen, as the tuning supremo at that time.
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The late Willie Meissner also
played a big part in developing Car’s road test programme in
the 1960s, when the rather cumbersome fifth wheel devices were
used to accurately measure speed.
Car used to test on roads similar to this one in the wheat
fields north-west of Cape Town although, presumably, the roads
were a lot smoother then.
That original Cortina was rated at 83 horsepower or 62
kiloWatts. It wasn’t the fastest car on sale, but on a
bang-for-your-buck basis, it was king.
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The blacked out grille and wide
wheels on Malcolm’s GT were all styling cues that emulated
the Lotus Cortina raced by Koos, and every GT owner with any
kind street cred carried out these mods to his baby.
Half a century into Car’s ever-evolving quest to tell it
like it is, road-testing equipment is now GPS based, and makes
life for its test team a lot easier.
Speeds have moved up more than a notch too.
Just for the record, the original Cortina GT accelerated to 60
mph - just shy of a 100 km/h - in 12,9 seconds.
Top speed was 92,5 mph - or a 148 km/h.
Malcom’s modified GT is a lot quicker, its 100 kilowatt
motor giving it a sub 10-second 0-100.
But it’s still not in the Focus ST league, which in the
hands of current Car test team member Sudhir Matai, recorded a
7,5 second 0-100, and a top speed of 237 km/h.
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