The Cortina GT was cooked up after the standard cars had their design settled, and so was released a little later in April 1963, available in two and four-door form, a two-door costing £749. No estate version was available, unless you were a member of the Kenyan police force (as Dave Barry might say, I am not making this up). With basically the same mechanicals as the Capri GT, the GT's engine was developed by Cosworth. The 1500 was boosted up to 78 bhp at 5200 rpm, with the help of a double-barrel Weber carby (for a nice sound), a new camshaft profile (a high lift Cosworth number), a reworked head with larger inlet and exhaust valves, special pistons, a tubular exhaust manifold, and a compression ratio increased to 9.1:1. To go with this the engine was fitted with stronger pistons and copper lead bearing shells. This engine was good for pushing the GT up to 95 mph, while still capable of achieving over 25 mpg.

"Up front you've got pure Ford fire, neatly packed into the race-bred, oversquare engine, carefully modified to put out 83.5 horsepower all day at 5200 rpm!"

A new gearbox with a 'remote' gearchange was used, but it still had the standard Cortina ratios, with second a bit low, and a large gap between second and third. A heavy-duty clutch was used, and a larger diameter driveshaft. The braking combination was 9.5" front discs and 9 x 1.75" rear drums, as used on the Lotus-Cortina. Underneath the car had revised spring rates. Wheels were still steel pressings, with 4" rims wrapped in 5.60 - 13" crossply rubber, 0.4" wider than the standard cars. Radials weren't available. Many cars were fitted with wider steel rims not long after being bought (and radial tyres, no doubt), with Boreham offering 4.5" rims and 5.5" Lotus-Cortina rims. Some owners also purchased an 'uprated second' gear ratio kit from Boreham, which lifted the top speed in 2nd from 42 mph to 50 mph. These ratios never became a part of the production line Mk.I GTs.

The interior was based on the Cortina Deluxe. Until the autumn of 1963 the GT had a tacho mounted in a pod on the steering column, while the oil pressure and ammeter gauges were located in a severely un-ergonomic place, a centre console mounted on the transmission tunnel, which also doubled as a means of hiding the remote gearchange mechanism. Appearance-wise the GT didn't look a whole lot different from the standard Cortina. When the car first appeared, the only means of identification from the exterior was the slightly wider tyres, and 'GT' badges at the ends of the rear quarter panels.

 

Pat Hayes road tests the Armstrong 500 winning FORD CORTINA GT 'Australian Sports and Automobiles', November 1963

The Cortina GT revealed itself to be a bit of a goer in rallying, at least after a few modifications, such as new tyres and gear ratios, but had problems with getting its undersized 8 gallon fuel tank all banged up, and Ford's engineers also found they'd been a bit keen with minimising bodyweight, when the early two-door GTs started to, uh, get wrinkles and creases in their body after only a few events. This was remedied by Ford making cars with 'export specification' body shells available through a new 'Special Vehicle Order' department.

"To fit all the new bits and pieces to a Cortina without going to the extent of expensive retooling has meant that instrument layout leaves much to be desired."

The first series of Cortina GTs were produced up to September 1963, at which point the interior was redesigned. Through the remainder of 1963 and into 1964 the tacho was flush-mounted in a new dash, along with the auxiliary instruments. From October 1964 onwards GTs rolled out with yet another dashboard, along with the new wide grille and 'Aeroflow' ventilation that came with the standard range. The speedometer and tacho were now mounted behind the steering wheel, with the auxiliary instruments in a row in the middle of the dash, resulting in both the most functional and good looking dash to land in the Mk.I. 'Cortina' replaced 'Consul' on the bonnet lid, and a 'Cortina GT' badge was added to the boot lid. The GT was also fitted with twin radius arms to locate the rear axle. A Super GT model for export markets was also being produced at this time, which was basically a GT with the trim from the Super Deluxe. By this time a two-door GT cost £750, and a four-door £768.

CORTINA GT - Barry Cooke reports on the off-the-hook GT model 'Modern Motor', September 1965

When production wound up in autumn 1966, it is estimated that 100,000 to 120,000 GTs had been built, making the car a great sales success. Ford's records are very poor, and this is the figure estimated by well-known sporting Ford researcher Graham Robson. An interesting statistic is that about 70% of the two-doors produced wound up in export markets, whereas the four-door was a lot more popular domestically.

Extract from... CLASSIC CORTINA - Peter Simpson looks at one of the most significant post-war cars. 'Popular Classics', October 1987

As discussed elsewhere in this site (obviously I can't remember where), Ford USA was keen to lift its image, and this was to done through the development of performance cars and through competition success. Ford of England, producers of some spectacularly stodgy machinery, responded with the Cortina and its performance offshoots, the GT and Lotus-Cortina. Just to prove they were serious, in 1963 Ford set up a 'competitions department' at Boreham airfield. The grand plan was to use Lotus-Cortinas for racing and rallying, but it was always suspected the Lotus-Cortina wasn't up to rallying (which proved to be correct), so while the Lotus-Cortina was used for racing while it was figured out how to beef it up for rallying, Boreham got left with the GT to play with. Team Lotus and Alan Mann Racing set up the Lotus-Cortinas for Ford.

The GT was announced in April 1963, and was homologated, along with some helpful parts, into Group 2 pretty quickly, in fact so quickly one was raced by Pat Moss in the Tulip Rally before the end of the month. The white Boreham rally GTs didn't take long to be a success, and was soon kicking Sunbeam Rapier butts off the winner's dais, racking up lots of class victories. The first notable successes were 4th in the Acropolis Rally and 2nd in the Touring category of the Alpine Rally at the hands of Henry Taylor. He then took a Lotus-engined GT to 4th in the Spa-Sofia-Liège Rally.

In 1964 the GT was homologated into Group 1 with goodies like twin Webers, a second fuel tank behind the rear seat, and Lotus-Cortina gear ratios. In a famous victory for the GT, a new set of six white cars were entered in the 1964 East African Safari. Four of these cars finished, giving Ford the Manufacturer's team prize, and with Mike Armstrong's car coming 3rd outright, and Peter Hughes of Kenya driving KHS 600 to outright victory. All this had gotten a bit too exciting for Vic Elford, who defected from Triumph, and he quickly got into the action in a new red car, and won the Touring category of the Alpine Rally outright, and finished 3rd outright in the RAC Rally of that year. He would have probably finished first if he hadn't been so keen and kept running off the track.

"Bumps and potholes are felt through the firm suspension but at no time does the car feel off-balance or cause occupants any alarm."

Not all the success lay with the works GTs, however. Roger Clark made a dramatic entrance to rallying as a privateer in his own GT, winning the 1964 Scottish Rally, the 1965 Scottish Rally, and the 1965 Gulf London Rally, plus a 3rd on the 1965 Circuit of Ireland. Needless to say, Ford signed him up. Also in 1965 a GT won the Canadian Winter Rally.

Ford by this time had incorporated as many Lotus-Cortina bits into the GT as they could without calling it a Lotus-Cortina, and the cars were now putting out around 120 bhp, a fair whack more than the 78 bhp of the factory showroom version. Nevertheless, a bona fide Lotus-Cortina could be made to pull around 150 bhp, and when the chassis was finally made solid enough to take rallying, it took over.

As stated in 'Ford Heritage' Summer 1995

Engine
Type: Ford Kent
Capacity: 1498cc
Bore/stroke: 80.96 x 72.75 mm
Compression ratio: 9.0:1
Max. power: 78 bhp at 5200 rpm
Max. torque: 91 lbs/ft at 3600 rpm
Specific output: 52 bhp per litre
Cylinders: 4, in line
Cylinder head: Cast iron
Block: Cast iron
Valve gear: Two valves per cylinder, operated by pushrods from single camshaft in engine block.
Carburettor: Weber DCD twin-choke, downdraught

Transmission
Type: Front-engine, rear-wheel drive
Gearbox: Ford, four-speed manual, all synchromesh
Internal ratios: 1st - 3.543:1, 2nd - 2.396:1, 3rd - 1.412:1, 4th - 1.000:1, reverse - 3.963:1
Final drive: 3.900:1

Suspension
Front: Independent, by McPherson struts with coil springs and integral shock absorbers, anti-roll bar.
Rear: Semi-elliptic leaf springs with telescopic shock absorbers. GTs from October 1964 have rear trailing arms.

Steering
Type: Recirculating ball, 14.3:1 ratio
Turning circle: 33.9 ft

Brakes
Front: 9.5" discs
Rear 9 x 1.75" drums
System: Hydraulic

Wheels & Tyres
Wheels: Pressed steel, 4J x 13
Tyres: 5.60 x 13

Body / Chassis
Type: Pressed steel monocoque
Dimensions:
Length: 14' 0.3"
Width: 5' 2.5"
Height: 4' 8.4"
Wheelbase: 8' 2"
Front track: 4' 2"
Rear track: 4" 1.5"
Weight: Two-door - 1910 lb, four-door - 1952 lb.

Performance & Economy
Max. speed: 95 mph
Acceleration: 0-60 mph in 13.5 secs
Fuel consumption: 25-28 mpg

Price
Two-door - £749, Four-door £767 (March 1963)

The Armstrong 500 was, in those days, an endurance event for Australian-assembled production cars, with classes detemined by showroom cost (the GT was £1182). In its first ever competition outing, the GT cut a swathe through the field to score a win in the 1963 Armstrong 500, driven by Harry Firth and Bob Jane (future tyre peddler), giving the S4 EH Holden, amongst other cars, a whippin'. Cortina GTs came 1st and 3rd in Class C and outright, although outright victory was not recognised until the 1965 race. 100 GTs had been frantically registered previous to the event to meet the elegibility requirements.

 

BATHURST WINNER - Bathurst's first Champion: 1963 Cortina GT John Thomson, 'Australian Classic Car Monthly', October 1995

BEHIND THE WHEEL - Barry Collerson drove a Fiat 770 in the recent Armstrong 500... This is his own story with Mike Gilmore behind the camera. 'Australian Sports and Automobiles', November 1963

1964 saw Ian Geoghegan win the Australian Touring Car Championship in a GT, and the GT won at Bathurst again in 1964, driven by Bob Jane and George Reynolds. Cortina GTs came in 1-2-3 in Class C and outright.

 

Neither mud nor icy winds can stay the Armstrong 500 from its appointed rounds... FORD STRONG-ARMS THE ARMSTRONG 'Wheels', December 1964

Lotus-Cortinas were being used successfully in other touring car races, but import limitations and race restrictions meant that Ford had to do a bit more homework for the 1965 Bathurst, and to fend off cars such as the HD Holden X2 and Mini Cooper, they cooked up the GT 500. The GT carried on, receiving a few updates along the way, such as a revised dash layout (the same as the GT 500), and trailing link type floating arms (for which no one makes any damn bushes) on the rear axle. By 1967 the GT was pulling 83.5 bhp at 5200 rpm, with a top speed of 110 mph and a standing quarter of 18.6 seconds ('Sports Car World' Dec. '67).

I'll leave the rhetoric to an Australian copywriter from 1966 (this is for real... I'm serious):

Cortina GT - The world's most winning car in motor sport and everybody's favouite. She'll purr quietly through the suburbs... quiet, smooth and docile - with careful regard to economy. But push her - just a little - and she's off to prove she can tear strips off competition, regardless of size, breed or reputation.

Up front you've got pure Ford fire, neatly packed into the race-bred, oversquare engine, carefully modified to put out 83.5 horsepower all day at 5200 rpm. Thrust has been lifted to 97 lbs/ft of torque at 3200 rpm. The speed is 100 plus with 0-60 in less than 13.0 seconds. If you think a red-hot performance car should ride like a dragster, forget it. The ride's firm - but it's velvety firm. Controlled, but supple. The specially lowered suspension incorporates enough shock dampening and spring stiffness to give you a degree of comfort unmatched by the plushest aristo-cart. Inside, everything's laid on for complete driver and passenger comfort. Niceties include fully-fitted carpeting, armrests on all four doors, dash padding, Aeroflow ventilation and beautifully resilient Glove Grain upholsteries. But full instrumentation, bucket seats and sports shift equip the cockpit for action.

And there you have it. Compact, yet spacious. Fast, but quiet and docile. Completely equipped and superbly appointed. The result? A very sophisticated form of transportation with loads of potential. And a name that's built on success. $2436 (£1218) tax paid.

Yes, a name built on success. Just remember that when you overtake a fast/docile/velvety firm Cortina GT in your plush aristo-cart, and wave to the person sitting in it, who's enjoying the velvety ride, the glove grain upholsteries, and the knowledge that this is a sophisticated form of transportation. Wave, because it could be me...

The GT was introduced to the US market for the 1964 model year, in two and four door form. The two-door was $2225, and the four-door $2289. Like GTs in other foreign markets, such as Australia, the car had the side chrome trim used on the UK Super model. There are conflicting reports as to the output of the models available in the US, some say 78 bhp, some say 84 bhp. US figures have the GT's performance as 0-60 mph in 12.3 seconds, and the quarter-mile in 18.7 seconds. The different size American gallon means a GT did 27 mpg.

"A ventilation system that can change the air in the car every 40 seconds, even with the windows closed. A nearly kid-proof interior of washable vinyl. And a 20-cubic-foot trunk capacity, because your wife overpacks."

The 1965 model (or 'Airflow' model) was introduced to the US market on September 1, 1964, and for this model only a two-door GT was available, with a drop in price (!) to $2162. Meanwhile, bhp was agreed all round to be 84, The greater output (and albeit greater weight) is reflected in the better 0-60 mph time of 12.1 seconds, but mileage decreased to 25 mpg.

For 1966 still only a two-door GT was available at $2122, another price drop (!!), but Jody Fonseca has written saying, "I recall reading in Road and Track's Misc. Ramblings column ca.1966, that the Cortina GT "was now available in four-door form by special order". Four-door GTs are VERY rare in the US." He also offers an insight into why the four-door Mk.I GT was only sold officially for one year: "The idea of a four-door performance car 'just ain't Amurricun'. " So they just sold badly and were dropped. The Mk.I GT sold through until mid-February 1967.

Anyway, here's some more advertising copy - I love this stuff...

Ford's Cortina: our lowest priced total performance car
Unknown magazine, 1966

It won't cost you much. It gives you up to 30 miles to the gallon. It has lubed for life fittings. Disc brakes. It's built to last. And it's fun to drive. That's what our lowest priced total performance car is all about.
It belongs to the family of cars that has proved its ruggedness and durability in over 300 race and rally wins. (Like the grueling 1300 mile Canadian Winter Rally and, toughest of them all, the East African Safari.)
All Cortinas have a four cylinder engine, with a five bearing crankshaft.
The GT's come equipped with tuned exhaust, heated intake manifold, high performance cam, and a dual chamber Weber carburetor. Quite a mouthful, but take our word for it, it's quite an engine. You can shift for yourself with the standard four-speed all-synchromesh transmission, or choose the optional three-speed automatic available on 2-dr., 4-dr., and station wagon.
Inside, Cortina holds five people without having to shoehorn them in. It has foam-padded bucket seats, safety-padded instrument panel, windshield washers, a heater/defroster, turn signals, front and rear ashtrays.
Also, wall-to-wall carpeting underfoot. A ventilation system that can change the air in the car every 40 seconds, even with the windows closed. A nearly kid-proof interior of washable vinyl. And a 20-cubic-foot trunk capacity, because your wife overpacks.
And all this comes in for $1765.49* in the Cortina 2-door Deluxe, $1884.93* in the 4-door sedan. The four-door station wagon costs only $2102.10*. The sporty Cortina GT, $2121.58*. The Cortina modified by Lotus, hottest performer of them all, $3419.70*.
See them all at Ford's Cortina dealer nearest you.

Pictured below, from top to bottom:

1. Cortina GT interior - finished in all-vinyl, with foam-padded bucket seats, safety-padded instrument panel, center console, full instrumentation.
2. Cortina Deluxe interior - completely equipped as above except for console, ammeter, tachometer.
3. Trunk capacity - 20 cubic feet on all Cortinas.

Manufacturer's suggested retail prices, at East Coast P.O.E. Destination charges from P.O.E., other optional equipment and state and local taxes and fees if any, are extra. Car shown is the Cortina GT. White wall tires shown $24.21. Overseas delivery available at substantial savings.

In the gallery check out the two pictures from a 1965 Ford dealer brochure, sent in by Ron Bruner. He noted that the brochure strangely contained pictures of an Anglia van, which wasn't sold in the USA.