When Ford unveiled the 1600E, it pulled off the biggest trick going: it took a mass-produced car and made it a statement of individuality, says Keith Moody

These days we take it for granted that every middle-of-the-road family car will have a sporty (but affordable) sibling. The everyone’s-got-one (even my wife) Ford Focus has the hot ST and, of course, Volkswagen’s tedious Golf has an older brother sporting those three little letters we just keep falling in love with.

This, friends, is the dark art of product planning – a concept dreamed up by money-grabbing, Chablis-drinking marketers to make dull cars more appealing by taking a run of the mill family machine and making it very exciting indeed. The theory being that few people can afford £25k for the stonking 210bhp GTI and so opt for the £15k 1.2-litre Golf S believing that somehow the GTI magic will have rubbed off, making your sensible buy a hugely capable dragger at the lights (it isn’t by the way – it’s still cheaper and quicker to catch the bus).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, you can trace the origins of this automotive black magic back to devilish Dagenham. Not content with selling more Cortinas than there were people on planet Earth (well, almost), Ford came up with a way to make us want another one: by launching the 1600E.

And it was brilliant. Those canny Essex lads noticed that boy racers all over the UK were butchering the exhausts on their Austin A40 Farinas and plastering an assortment of dials (oil pressure! Ammeter!) across their dashes in a bid to stand out from the crowd. So what did they do? They took the best-selling, most mass-produced car in the world and made it a statement of individuality. You’ve got to take your hat off to them.

SMOKE & MIRRORS
But here’s the thing: Ford’s ‘executive’ Cortina wasn’t just a Halford’s special. No, the new 1600E was the best handling Cortina going, thanks to a trick suspension and warmed over engine. It was the missing link between the inappropriately badged De Luxe and the awe-inspiring, marriage-destroying Mk II Lotus Cortina. It was, in short, genius.

No-one saw the 1600E coming when the Mk II Cortina was unveiled in October 1966 – not even Ford. For once, the boys at Dagenham had taken their eye off the ball and were losing crucial company car sales.

The reason? Rover and Triumph’s ‘executive’ 2000s. Ford reacted quickly with the 2.6-litre Zodiac Executive and followed through with the Corsair 2000E.

The idea was simple: take one established model and give it a vinyl roof, a wooden dash and plusher seats, and decorate with the letter ‘E’ on the end of its badge – plus a few hundred quid extra on the sticker price. But someone somewhere got a bit carried away and modified the sluggish gearbox – with its horribly low second gear – by fitting sportier, closer ratios. It was nothing that modifiers hadn’t been doing already, but it finally meant that Ford had built the Corsair everyone wanted.

Its success was instant and is the sole reason for the 1600E Cortina. The very first prototype 3036E (as it was known to the design department), was developed in spring 1967 and used Cortina GT mechanicals, Lotus Cortina suspension and wheels – but the switch to those distinctive Rostyles was the moment it came to life. Best of all, Ford could move quickly on its new E model – all of the parts were in common use and were proven performers.

SKIN & BONES
The Ford Cortina 1600E has been called many things, mainly a four-door GT with Lotus Cortina suspension in a party frock – but that’s a bit wide of the mark. Based on a Cortina GT, it benefited from the re-designed Kent engine that now boasted a crossflow cylinder head, increased capacity and a longer stroke. The hike from 78bhp to 88bhp meant that the new 1600E was a near-100mph car.

Underneath the four-door saloon bodyshell was a mix of Cortina GT and Lotus Cortina. The back axle and engine were pure 1600GT (literally in the case of the rocker cover, which still carried the 1600GT legend) coupled to the uprated ’box from the 2000E. The new model sat on the shorter front struts, lowered rear leaf spring suspension and stiffer spring and damper settings from the Mk II Lotus Cortina.

According to author Graham Robson, the official Ford parts book listed several different sets of springs and dampers in the time that the 1600E was in production – some of which were Lotus Cortina, and some of which were not. Most examples these days seem to use the Lotus settings (well, you would, wouldn’t you?) for maximum squat and better handling.

Which is one of the most obvious ways of noting a 1600E going the other way on the A1. Spotters will also tell you about the black, Lotus Cortina-type grille, extra Wipac driving lamps and automatic reversing lamps. Inside, the instrument layout changed little from the GT – but the matching speedo and rev counter dials were now tucked away behind the new steering wheel (complete with light alloy spokes, circular holes to reduce weight and a padded faux-leather rim).

MONEY, SUCCESS
All of this wouldn’t have been worth a penny if Ford had got the price wrong. But, seriously, when does Ford ever make that mistake? Sure enough, the 1600E was right on the money at £982 – more expensive than the £890 1600GT and cheaper than the £1098 Lotus Cortina. Perfect.

On the road, it’s a lot livelier than other Mk II Cortinas, with the 1.6-litre crossflow happily pulling right through the rev range thanks to its longer stroke. And, thanks to the sportier gearbox, you can really make the most of it.

But it’s the cornering that really delights with this car. It’s confidence-inspiring, with the quick steering offering you plenty of feedback. Several road tests have complained about the 1600E’s harsh ride, but the one we’re testing today is perfectly civilised.

And, of course, you can appreciate all this from one of the most comfortable cabins going. The seats hold you in without becoming uncomfortable and I just love all the dials and gauges set into the wood-finish dash.

IS THIS IT?
Unlike so many fancy models that start brightly and fade away, the 1600E was a match winner, with production figures growing steadily year on year. In fact, the two highest months of production were June and July 1970 – shortly before the entire Mk II range was replaced by the coke-bottle styled Mk III of Life on Mars fame. All in all, 58,582 1600Es were made from a total Mk II Cortina run of 1,159,389.

Ford, believing the E phenomenon had passed, never replaced it, leaving enthusiasts to make do with a new 2.0-litre Pinto engined car available in sporty(ish) GT and luxury GXL trim. Eventually, there was a poor-handling 2000E, but by then the moment really had gone… and the 1600E’s place in Ford folklore was assured.

Meet The Owner
Self-employed painter and decorator John Chapman has owned this 1969 Ford Cortina 1600E for 27 years. Originally finished in blue, it was fully restored several years ago. Since then, its been used sparingly and covers about 700 miles a year – used mainly for shows and sunny days.

‘I’ve always liked them,’ said John. ‘But I could never afford the insurance. I finally got one from a salvage yard. I took it to my dad’s and put it in his garage for a few months while I got it sorted and repainted. I went to get it the next morning, I opened the garage to find it had been nicked – the cops eventually found it burnt out.’

That wasn’t the end of the story, though. John bought it back off the insurance company, determined not to let his hard work go to waste. ‘I’d just rebuilt the engine and that hadn’t been too badly damaged, so I swapped it into another car I was doing. After that, it became my own personal crusade to own another 1600E. ‘I saw this one by the side of the road with a for sale sign on it. It had just failed the MoT because of rust.’ So how bad was it? ‘It was quite bad,’ said John. ‘There was rust on most of the panels at the front, plus the sills and rear quarter panels. I stripped everything – every last nut and bolt – and sent it to be sandblasted. That soon showed up what was what.’

From there, John cut out all the old metal and got the new panels in place and gripped up. Then a mobile welder came round and did the business with the new panels. ‘I did all the engine work myself – they’re simple four-cylinder over-head valve engines with pushrods, quite nice to rebuild.’

Everyone knows that a restoration project is never really finished and, after 27 years, John’s is just the same. ‘There are a few things on this car that aren’t 100 per cent – that’s why I decided to do another.’

Another 1600E? ‘That’s right,’ says John. ‘It’ll be my fifth…’

FACT FILE 

FORD CORTINA 1600E
Engine  1599cc/4-cyl/OHV
Power (bhp/rpm) 88/5400
Torque (lb-ft/rpm)  96/3600
Top Speed 100mph
0-60mph  13.1secs
Consumption  25mpg
Gearbox  4-spd man
Length  14ft 2in (4.32m)
Width 5ft 5in (1.65m)
Weight  2154lb (978kg) 

VALUES
A mint 1600E can fetch £12k and up while even the tattiest project will be over a grand. A tidy runner that doesn’t need too much work should be about £7k – but demand is growing for these fast Fords

THINKING OF BUYING ONE?
The bodywork isn’t the only common Cortina fault – but it’s the one most likely to cost you time and money because finding original panels is getting tricky. Check every panel – inner and outer – from the headlamps, back along the arches, door bottoms and rear quarter panels (not forgetting the boot and bonnet). And then check it all again.

Next, have a good poke about underneath – floorpans can rust, jacking points dissolve, main members above the rear axle can go, and so can the spring and shock absorber mountings.
Thankfully, the Cortina’s Kent powerplant is cheap to maintain and easy to overhaul should the worst come to the worst. If it’s noisy, suspect worn rockers, cam followers or even the camshaft (which is housed in the block). Blue smoke from the exhaust suggests worn piston rings and/or stepped bores.

Worn synchro on second is the first sign that the gearbox is about to give up the game, along with the transmission jumping out of gear. Hopefully it’s just a broken spring in the gearchange fork rod; if its not you’ll need to spend £350 on a replacement unit. If your test drive is accompanied by the sound of clonking as drive is taken up, suspect an unbalanced propshaft and worn universal joints.

Finally, don’t underestimate the cost of tarting up a tatty cockpit – decent interior trim is virtually impossible to get hold of.

Published in the October 2010 issue of Classic Car Mart.

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