Here follows the story of the big adventure of the summer of '96, the trip to ENGLAND made by a few members of the Swedish Cortina Club, and here written down from my point of view.

The preparations for this event of the year took began during last year (1995) when travel arrangements and contact with the English clubs was made regarding a jubilee meeting for the MKII. Before beginning the story it is in order to give a big thanks to Susie Bloom and Pär Engström for all the work that they have put in, in order to make this trip possible.

For me the trip started on the first of July in Myckle, Skellefteå, in the northern part of Sweden, and the first day's trip was 220 km to a small village called Hattsjö, outside the town Örnsköldsvik, where I stayed with a friend. In that village the greatest stroke of lightning in Sweden was registered, at least that was what the sign said. I noted that the stroke of lightning had cracked the flat rock and made two ditches down from the mountain, so I can imagine that there was quite a bang when it happened.

The next stage of the trip was somewhat longer, 550 km from Hattsjö to Enköping, where I picked up my travel companion. Day 3 was spent with good friends in Enköping. On day 4 my 1600E was directed towards Alingsås, to meet Bertil Hedlund. We stopped at a fuel station in Alingsås and awaited Bertil’s arrival. Bertil arrived, and just when we were going to follow him home, a small accident happened - I ended up in the back seat of the car when I sat down. I first suspected that it was the catch in the back support of the seat had that had failed, but it proved to be much worse than that. The steel frame of the back support of the driver’s seat had broken right off. That evening we amused ourselves taking the chair apart and welding the frame into a frame again, or more correctly said, Bertil welded it together. We also went to see Sven Öhrnberg that evening to coordinate with the departure of the ferry the next day, and also went for a trip in Bertil’s Sierra to make acquaintance with the surroundings of Alingsås, and Bertil’s stock of parts for British Fords - very interesting. The evening was rounded off with us grilling some meat, sitting down and chatting, and then, at last, sleep.

It was at last time to go to the ferry. As usual, at least for me, we were met with a rainy sky when we got closer to Gothenburg. This fact has made me wonder if it always rains in Gothenburg, but I suppose that assumption is as incorrect as the assumption that it never rains in England, which is also acquired by experience. I suppose that quite a few people will protest against these assumptions. Anyway, the caravan from Alingsås to Gothenburg consisted of me and Peter Sundström in my red two door 1600E -70, Sven Öhrnberg and his friend (whose name I have forgotten) in Sven’s extremely fine two door 1600E -69, and Alf Dahlgärde and Kent Svensson in Alf’s Lotus -70. For the first time on the journey we travelled in a group of Cortinas, which felt very much OK, and this after having driven 1100 km, but we were at least now on the way to the ferry. At the ferry berth the rest joined the party, and these were Martin Hallén and Hans Olsson in Martin’s somewhat modified white MK1 deluxe, Atle Ramberg and Bente Hagen with their youngster in Atle’s very fine red rally converted MK1 deluxe, and Pär Engström and Mats Hallqvist in Pär’s fine white GT from 1965. Our chairman, Martin Johansson, and his friend Stefan Treutiger, found it appropriate to go to a Cortina meeting in a saab, but I believe they must be excused since Martin’s Cortina was undergoing restoration at the time.

Here we stood awaiting the ferry in a rainy Gothenburg very well aware of the fact that the journey through Denmark would have to be more or less somewhat like race, since we did not have very much time to travel from Fredrikshamn to Esbjerg. Then it was announced that the ferry from Gothenburg was at least one hour late. This made us wonder if we were going to be in time for the ferry from Esbjerg to Harwich. We did have a computer calculated route through Denmark that said that we could make it even if it was tight. So, all we could do was wait for the ferry, which finally took off about 1.5 hours late.

When we came closer to Fredrikshamn our chairman Martin talked to the personnel on the ferry about our problem, and he had been promised that because of our lack of time, we were to be let off the ferry first to increase our chances of getting to Esbjerg on time. Unfortunately it should be noted that the promise from the ferry personnel that Martin had talked to either had been forgotten or it was totally ignored, which meant creeping out from the ferry with a number of slowly moving traffic modules such as transport lorries and caravans. I would hereby like to address a great ingratitude towards the ferry personnel for their incompetent handling of the situation, which caused great irritation amongst us in the club.

Anyway, we got off the ferry and started our journey according to the travel plan, only to lose Pär, Mats, Alf and Kent on some sidetrack shortly after starting - we thought they were lost. The rest of us continued, and after a short while we stopped at a petrol station, just before the point where we should turn off the motorway. Here me and my friend chose to continue after the planned route, while the others started to discuss whether to take the motorway all the way or follow the planned route. The others chose to take the motorway. A short while after we had left the motorway, Pär, Mats, Alf and Kent showed up in my rear view mirror, so we finally became three Cortinas on the planned route, and three Cortinas and one saab on the motorway. Sven Öhrnberg had a little accident when his car boiled over due to the high speed, and he opened the radiator cap a little too fast and burnt himself with hot water. However, that didn’t prevent him from continuing the trip. Those of us who took the planned route arrived at the ferry berth in Esbjerg over an hour before the others and well on time, and if my memory serves me well, I believe that the ferry had to wait a short while on their arrival.

On board the boat we found our cabins and left our luggage there. We then made acquaintance with the boat before we enjoyed dinner in the nice company of Cortina friends. We had a nice evening with a sauna, and later in the evening after the dinner we moved to the pub on the boat, where we had a drink or two. Then we went to bed, ready to awaken in England.

In the morning I took a shower, and then we went to get some breakfast. After that there was only to await arriving in Harwich. In comparison to the weather in Gothenburg, I noted that the English coast greeted us with a warm sun in the sky. Well ashore, we gathered at a gas station near the harbour, filled up our cars with British petrol, and discussed how we should drive in order to get to the hotel in Corby. We started off and took the motorway (A14) towards Bury St, Edmunds, where we stopped for some food. Since I was driving last in the contingent I had a good view of the reactions of the people pointing and screaming when they saw our Cortinas. I must especially mention the guy who came running out from a garage in Bury St who screamed something that I thought sounded like "excellent " and "splendid" or something like that - the funniest thing was that he did the same thing all over again when we returned and left the town. We took a walk in the town, paying a visit to the smallest pub in the world, and I found a model of a Capri MK1. After the stop in Bury St, Edmunds we went on following the A14 to an intersection where we took the A6116 to Corby, where we had made reservations for the night. We carried our stuff to our rooms and gathered later in the hotel’s pub. We could now taste the British beer, and had some small dishes as a snack. The evening was mostly spent in the pub, and after that we went to bed.

It was Saturday, the day of the meeting, and I think that I can say that most of us looked forward to the event with great interest, as we were going to an English Cortina meeting, which, at least for me, was the first. We loaded our gear in the cars, and went from Corby down to Northampton, where Hans Skoog and his son David were already waiting for us. We accommodated ourselves in the hotel and talked with each other, and decided to go to the Billing Aerodrome where the meeting was to be, and make ourselves known to the Englishmen and see what the meeting was like. We went and we saw quite a few Cortinas and met some people from both the 1600E owners’ club and the Cortina MKII owners’ club, who arranged the meeting. It was explained to us that the meeting was not really until Sunday, the Saturday being mostly for preparations. We were parked there for a while, and our cars got quite some interest, especially with our two two-door 1600Es, because this model was never sold in England and was only for export markets, they said. I met a guy from the MK1 owners’ club and got the chance to see his very fine MK1 estate there. He had a lot of stuff for Bertil Hedlund, which we arranged to get to Alingsås for him. We chatted about this and that. In the evening we went to a place called Fisherman's Friend for a beer and some more chat and then back to the hotel for some sleep before the event on the Sunday.

The Sunday started off as usual with a shower and breakfast, and the some of us started to clean our cars before the meeting. I went to a car wash to wipe off the worst, since my 1600E was in great need of some work to become a display car. We went to the meeting and were pointed out a spot to park our cars. There was about 200 Cortinas, and most of them were 1600Es, all four-doors, except Sven’s and mine. There were also some very interesting cars present, namely a Savage model, which has a 3 litre V6 engine from the Zodiac, and also one specimen of a Crayford-converted cabriolet Cortina, also with a 3 litre engine. We took a look at all the cars, and then took a few rounds of the market beside. Also present was the Granada club, and an Escort club who seemed to have a meeting as well, so if you got bored of Cortinas, you could always take a walk over to their displays and take a look at their cars as well. Anyway, we presented a gift to the clubs and we all got a mug each from the 1600E owners’ club as a momento. I got prize for furthest distance travelled to the meeting and that was fun; I should also mention that no one even came close to my distance.

In the evening we went back to the hotel and rested before the event of the evening, which was to dine in the hotel’s restaurant. There wasn't much more to do that evening, so we went to bed. The meeting didn't really stand up to my expectations, but it was of course nice to see so many Cortinas at the same time, but in my experience it all seemed a bit confused. However, I haven't been to another meeting in England so I really don't have anything to compare it with. The next time I think we should bet on the MK1 owners clubs meeting, as there all the other Ford clubs are invited, and it would surely be interesting to see some other English Fords as well. In the afternoon Sven took the opportunity to change his generator which had ceased to be - he had got hold of a new one at the market.

On the Monday we got into our cars and went west towards Great Malvern and the Morgan factory. When we arrived we stopped at an inn, where we ate, and then half of the party went to visit the Morgan factory to get the chance to see how they build a Morgan car. I stayed at the inn and mounted the reversing lights that I found at the market on my car, and took the opportunity to relax a while. We found a bed & breakfast which had room for all of us so that we all could stay at the same place. Atle, Sven and Alf had returned home in the afternoon, so we were now down to four Cortinas, 3 MK1s and my 1600E. We went for a drive in the surroundings of Great Malvern, which was a place of great natural beauty. Later that evening we went to a pub in the village to dine. We sat there for a while and talked, and later on we walked to the Morgan pub, where we spent the rest of the evening.

Lovely view in the hills outside Great Malvern. In front are my 1600E, Martin Hallén's Mk.I, and David Skoog's Mk.I. The people are Pär Engström, myself, Peter Sundström, Martin Hallén, Martin's companion, and David Skoog.

On the Tuesday I visited, with the rest of the party, the Morgan factory. It was very interesting to see how a sports saloon of this kind became a car. We walked between different buildings and came at last to an end assembly station. It was really nice to visit a factory where they really used the skill of craftsmanship in their production. Peter and I then left the rest of the party now to go for a trip on our own. We steered our car to the south, towards Stonehenge and Woodhenge, which is situated just north of Salisbury in southern England. After visiting these cultural places we went on further east to a travel lodge for the night.

During Wednesday we paid a visit to Oxford for quick look at the town, and we had lunch there before going on to Chelmsford to pick up a multi-branch exhaust pipe for my Consul Capri GT. After that we continued our journey and stopped in North Ockeldon, where we joined the rest of the party again. We went to a village called Bulphan where we got us some well earned sleep. Thursday would be spent in the Ford factory in Dagenham, and we got excited over seeing the very factory that had made our cars some 30 years ago.

Martin Hallén left his car at the motel since his generator had started to make some suspect noises, so it was two Cortinas and a saab that left the motel. It was now that happened what was not allowed to happen. The throttle linkage of my car broke, and the result was that the engine would only run at idling speed, which is not especially fast. It was now important to think fast, and two tennis shoes were freed of their shoestrings, so you could now "step on the gas" by pulling the shoe string. We now had a car that demanded two drivers, one who pulled the shoe string when needed to, and the other doing the rest. We were delayed but we made it. The Ford factory was something essentially different from the Morgan factory. This place consisted of enormous factory premises with a lot of noise, even if the tour leader bragged over how quiet and fine it was, but I guess that everything is relative, so why not? At this place it was all assembly lines, and that was the valid way of production. I do not remember how many cars the Ford plant produced per week but it was substantially more than the 7 cars a week that the Morgan factory produced! Anyway, we were offered work there, but for some mysterious reason no one took the bait. The factory visit was rounded off with a visit to Ford’s own museum, where they had some cars in unrestored condition, which were clearly so in some cases. After the visit to the factory we headed south towards Gatwick, where we had booked a travel lodge for the night.

The Friday was spent in London. We took the Gatwick express train in to London and paid a visit to Burtons (a nice place in London which has most of the parts you could want for your engine), among other places. Then we went back to the travel lodge for the night. On the Saturday we went to High Wickham and visited a guy that I had met in my work and we went for a bicycle ride in the countryside around High Wickham, and after that we went to a pub in West Wickham. During the evening visit we came across an amusement park where everything was driven with steam. Despite being only merry-go-rounds and other things the hiss from the steam-boiler and some screeches from the mechanical parts could be was heard. It was quite an experience for me. On the Sunday we slept and in the evening we went to Toddington, where we united with those still left. Martin Hallén had returned to Sweden and Hans and David had gone somewhere else so we were now down to two Cortinas and Martin Johansson’s saab.

On the Monday we went to Cambridge, and the day ended at the ferry in Harwich. On the Tuesday raced through Denmark again to the ferry in Fredrikshamn. On the ferry to Gothenburg we met one of the staff who became close to lyrical over our Cortinas and that was quite nice. We said farewell to Martin and Stefan on the ferry, and Pär and Mats after a while on the road, since we were driving faster than them! We arrived in Enköping at about six o’clock in the morning. Thursday became a day in Stockholm, and then I took the 800 km home to Skellefteå.

It was a nice journey together with a nice group of people and I hope that there will be another trip again in the not so distant future!

Written by and © Peter Widelund, 1996