By the early 1960s, Ford had carved a very specific niche for itself in the UK. Having built low cost, entry-level cars like the Anglia, in Great Britain since the 1930s, Ford had a dependable—if not somewhat stodgy—reputation for reliable, but basically bland offerings. On September 20, 1962, Ford UK launched a newly designed, entry level family car that featured unibody construction and was driven by a 1500-cc, inline 4-cylinder engine utilizing the “Kent” block developed, in 1959, for the Anglia. This new model was dubbed the Ford Consul Cortina, carrying on the Consul name from its earlier line of Zephyr-based British Fords and adding on the Cortina name, as a “sporty” reference to the Italian ski resort, which had just hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics. Interestingly, the new Consul Cortina was designed by Roy Brown Jr., recently “relocated” to Ford’s UK headquarters at Dagenham, after the disastrous reception for his previous design…the Edsel!
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