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[CortinaD]

Source: Wheels July, 1973

This article was typed an submitted by Matthew Woolard

What’s the Cortina Six really like? Our six-month test is designed to tell it all. So far our enthusiasm for the 250 four-speed Six has been tempered by its teething troubles.

IT’S HISTORY now: WHEELS, 1972, Car Of The Year award was withheld and the Cortina Six was one of the cars that didn’t win it.

Source: Wheels July, 1973

Living with a Cortina

This article was typed an submitted by Matthew Woolard

What’s the Cortina Six really like? Our six-month test is designed to tell it all. So far our enthusiasm for the 250 four-speed Six has been tempered by its teething troubles.

IT’S HISTORY now: WHEELS, 1972, Car Of The Year award was withheld and the Cortina Six was one of the cars that didn’t win it.

The Six was one of the real favorites for the award even before its release: the concept had everything going for it. And our initial impression of the car suggested, as we wrote, that it fulfilled its promise - combining six-cylinder performance and smoothness with stylish appearance in a practical size package. It seemed a winner.

But our subsequent high-mileage road tests revealed dubious roadholding on rough surfaces, and misgivings were raised about its quality control and long-term durability when things began falling off or going wrong.

One result of this was that we didn’t have a COTY winner; another was that Ford, believing we’d done the car wrong, offered us a Six for extended test.

And that’s how we come to have LLC 857, a red 250 four-speed with GS pack, for six months of tell-it-like-it-is motoring.

Ford put its faith in the car on the line by imposing no conditions or loopholes, giving us an absolutely free hand. For our part, we’re using the Six no more or less severely than our personally-owned cars. It’s serving as a daily commuter, an office hack and week-end tourer … a fairly hard life but an honest one and fully representative of a wide range of operation conditions.

Now, after some 1800 miles, LLC is getting to be like one of the family. The more we drive it the more we like its many qualities and dislike its short-comings. Its faults at least show that Ford played straight and supplied is with a random example.

The company could easily have arranged a better-than-average unit by putting more than usual care into the building and pre-delivery phase. But it soon became obvious that LLC had received no special preparation.

We picked up the Six from Ford’s Broadmeadows plant outside Melbourne, for an easy running-in trip home to Sydney, and noticed that the oil pressure was reading very high - up near the top of the gauge even at idle. Everything else checked out okay so we departed, keeping an eye on the dial to see if the pressure did anything peculiar.

It didn’t … but about 100 miles along the highway we realised that the fuel gauge hadn’t budged from Full. Fifty miles further on and the needle still remained at the top of the scale.

The odometer was showing about 220 miles and we were planning a refill stop at the next town when LLC stopped anyway. Out of petrol. Since the Six had to be giving over 20 mpg at the moderate cruising speeds involved the 12-gallon tank couldn’t have been full at the outset. The immediate problem was resolved by borrowing some fuel from an accompanying car, and thereafter we adopted the habit of zeroing the trip meter and refilling every 170 or so miles.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful and so were the next couple of hundred miles. But we’d noted that the handling was twitchy and the rear axle skittery on rough surfaces. It then became evident that the front suspension was deteriorating, becoming less and less effective in coping with harsh bumps.

For example when hitting a familiar neighborhood pothole at 20 to 25 mph the suspension bottomed with enough force for water to be ejected from the windscreen washers nozzles.

Measurements taken at the wheel arches revealed the nearside front suspension had sagged 0.75-inch. This, together with the faulty fuel gauge and suspect oil gauge, was reported when LLC was put in for its 1000-mile service. Other items were also included - the foot pedals were each at different heights , the brakes pulled to the left, the engine idled roughly, a reeking smell of petrol sometimes occurred when the engine was turned off, the nearside front courtesy light switch didn’t function, and water found its way to the nearside front floor in rain.

Due to a tight schedule we asked if the service and rectifications could be completed in a day. The dealer said he’d do his best and received the car at 8 am. We picked it up at 5.30 pm and found that the engine idled satisfactorily and that the fuel/oil gauges and courtesy light switch were working. But there hadn’t been time or whatever to rectify the brake pull, the petrol smell, the water leak, the pedals and the suspension.

The brake pull subsequently cured itself, but the fuel gauge, after working for a week or so, reverted to its old tricks and will have to be seen to again when the next service (3000 miles) arrives.

The floor-wetting hasn’t been a problem of late due to the dry spell. That’s fortunate because - in common with many other cars - it’s inconveniently difficult to remove the Cortina’s carpets for thorough cleaning and/or drying.

Up to this point LLC had led a relatively easy life - seldom taken over 3000 rpm in gears and cruised at an easy 65-70 mph in the country.

Considering the conditions, we were disappointed to find fuel consumption was mostly around the 19-20 mph mark with a best of 22.3 mpg. The 250 four-speed Six we tested in January 1973, gave up to 26 mpg. Subsequently with harder driving, LLC has averaged 17-19 mpg, and has returned only 15-16 mpg on some occasions.

LLC didn’t quite come up to expectations in acceleration either when we ran the first set of figures at 1200 miles (we’ll be checking it again after the 3000 mile service and tune-up).

PERFORMANCE

FORD CORTINA SIX LLC 857

250 ci engine, four-speed manual gearbox, 2.76:1 final drive.

SPEEDOMETER ERROR:

Indicated mph … 30 40 50 60 70 80

Actual mph …. 29 38 48 57 67 76

ACCELERATION (through gears) LLC 857 Jan 1973

0-30 mph …. 3.4 secs 3.5secs

0-40 mph 5.3 sec 5.5 sec

0-50 mph 7.6 sec 7.9 sec

0-60 mph 11.3 sec 11.0 sec

0-70 mph 16.2 sec 15.2 sec

0-80 mph 22.8 sec 19.9 sec

2nd gear

20-40 mph 3.5 sec 3.7 sec

30-50 mph 3.8 sec 4.2 sec

40-60 mph 4.9 sec 5.3 sec

3rd gear

20-40 mph 4.2 sec 5.2 sec

30-50 mph 4.6 sec 5.4 sec

40-60 mph 5.2 sec 5.8 sec

50-70 mph 7.0 sec 6.7 sec

4th gear

20-40 mph 6.0 sec 6.7 sec

30-50 mph 6.0 sec 6.8 sec

40-60 mph 6.8 sec 7.0 sec

50-70 mph 8.2 sec 7.5 sec

Standing ¼ mile

Average… 17.9 sec 17.5 sec

Speed in gears:

1st… 42 mph 42 mph

2nd … 62 mph 63 mph

3rd… 83 mph 85 mph

4th… 106 mph 112 mph


As the performance chart shows, LLC is quicker up to 50 mph than the earlier test car but tails off at the top-end; three seconds slower to 80 mph, for example, and taking 0.4 second more for the standing quarter mile. The pattern is repeated in the in-gears brackets where LLC has an advantage at low speeds but loses out at high revs. And again, for maximum speeds in gears, LLC is near-enough to the same as the 1972 test car in first, second and third but slower in fourth.

Unlike the previous test car which was shod with radials, LLC has Olympic Wide Ride B78S13 cross ply tyres. This is the tyre Ford claims gives the best all round compromise between ride and roadholding. For normal driving we run the recommended 22psi inflation pressure front and rear. We find the tyres generally satisfactory, at least on dry roads, apart from one peculiarity. After standing overnight they thump annoyingly - as though they’ve flat-spotted - for several miles until they become warm and round.

Olympic says it hasn’t encountered the problem before, and we’ve arranged to have the tyres checked when opportunity allows. Meanwhile, we are bearing with it. Same goes for a gearbox fault which will have to await the 3000-mile service. During hard driving in third, the box has been slipping out of gear on overrun when sharp deceleration follows a burst of acceleration.

Something else to be fixed is the dome light. Switching it on one night, for the first time in its life, it simply fell out of the roof. The retaining clip on one side can’t seat properly because its mount in the roof isn’t square to it. We’ve wedged it into place, with the bulb removed - the sloppy switch was turning the light on (but not off) whenever the car struck a noticeable bump and in the Six bumps are more usually noticeable than not.

This was forcibly brought home to us one day when, travelling in a suburban single-lane queue at 30-35 mph, we hit a deep and unavoidable pot hole with the nearside wheels, as did everyone else in the line of traffic. The difference between them and us was that LLC reacted so harshly to the edge of the hole that the rim of the nearside front wheel buckled and hit against a suspension member, necessitating a wheel change.

That was also the day someone who shall remain unnamed accidentally locked the keys inside. We managed, by means which cannot be publicised, to open a door without breaking a side window. But the basic blame lies with Ford for making it possible to lock the front doors from outside simply by closing them with the snibber button down. Either of the two alternative systems would be preferable - where the door/s can be locked from the outside only with a key; or where the key is not needed but the outside handle must be raised (to keep the snibber down) as the door is closed.

Speaking of snibbers, Cortinas now have clear plastic grommets around the stalks instead of the former rubber rings which just wouldn’t stay put. On the earlier test Six all four rubbers came out. On LLC only the nearside rear one won’t remain in place; a 75 percent improvement?

And that’s the first 1800 miles in the life of our Six. It has its share of flaws, which are mostly minor things, but they confirm that the Cortina needs more de-bugging and quality control. It deserves these attentions, too, because it’s such a sensible and endearing package in many other respects. The biggest annoyance of the problems is that they stand out perhaps more than usual because they spoil what is still a very attractive concept and what could be a damn good car.