Ford Corsair

Ford Corsair
Manufacturer	Ford of Britain
Production	1964–1970 310,000 made
Successor	Ford Cortina
Body style(s)	4-door saloon, 2-door saloon, convertible, estate car.
Engine(s)	1.5 L Straight-4, 1.7 L V-4, 2.0 L V-4
Wheelbase	101 inches (2.56 m)
Length	177 inches (4.50 m)
Width	64 inches (1.63 m)
Curb weight	2180 pounds (990 kg)

The Ford Corsair, manufactured by Ford Motor Company in the United Kingdom, was a midsize car available as either a saloon or estate from 1964 until 1970. (the early model had styling cues from the 61/62 Ford Thunderbird.) There was also a convertible version built by Crayford, which is now very rare and highly sought after as a classic. The saloon was available briefly as a 2-door model in some export markets. The Corsair had unusual and quite bold styling for its day, with a sharp horizontal V-shaped crease at the very front of the car into which round headlights were inset. This gave the car an apparently aerodynamic shape. The jet-like styling extended to the rear where sharply pointed vertical light clusters hinted at fins. The overall styling was clearly inspired by the early 1960s Ford Thunderbird, though in transferring the look to a British family car, the overall effect is something of an acquired taste. Originally offered with the larger 60 bhp, single carburettor, 1.5 L Kent engine that was also used in the smaller Ford Cortina, in standard and GT form. In 1964 twins Tony and Michael Brookes and their team in a Kent engined (straight four engine) Corsair GT set 13 World Speed records at Monza in Italy averaging over 99 mph for 15000 miles in the under 1500cc class. The range was revised in 1965, adopting new V4 engines that many say spoiled rather than enhanced the car, as it was rough at idle and coarse on the road. This was available in 1663cc form at first, but later in 1966, a larger 2.0 litre L version was offered alongside. The marketing tag line for the V4 models was "The Car That Is Seen But Not Heard", which was a real stretch of the ad man's puff, given the inherent characteristics of the engine! An estate car by Abbott was added to the range in 1966 and in 1967, the Corsair also underwent the Executive treatment like its smaller Cortina sibling, giving the 2000E model with dechromed flanks, unique wheel covers, a vinyl roof and upgraded cabin fittings. The Corsair's performance was underwhelming, with a top speed in its 2.0 L V4 version of about 95 mph (153 km/h). While some enthusiasts increased performance, a popular story was that if the car was driven at over 80 mph (129 km/h), the wedge-shaped nose generated so much lift that the car became seriously dangerous. It is likely that this story is an urban myth. This story was completely damned when the Corsair set the World records at Monza (see above) running at over 100mph for hour upon hour with not the slightest apparent effect on the steering. The Corsair was replaced by the Mk 3 Cortina in 1970, at which time the enlarged Cortina became Ford's midsized car, and a new smaller model, the Escort filled in the size below. The new Ford Capri took on the performance and sporty aspirations of the company. Over its six-year production, 310,000 Corsairs were built.

Australia

Between 1989 and 1992, the Corsair name was used by Ford in Australia for a restyled version of the Nissan Pintara (known in development as 'Project Matilda'), under a model-sharing scheme known as the Button Plan. Available as a sedan or hatchback, it was intended to replace the Mazda 626-based Ford Telstar, which was imported from Japan. The two were sold side-by-side in the Ford range for a few years, with the Telstar only available as the high-performance TX5 hatchback. When Nissan closed its Australian plant in 1992, the Corsair was dropped and the imported Telstar once again became Ford's offering in the medium size segment, until being replaced by the Mondeo in 1995. The Corsair was available in a 2.0L model (CA20E) and a 2.4L model (KA24E) in GL and Ghia forms.

External links

• Corsair web pages
• antrx.com ~ An Australian Based UA Corsair enthusiast club. Actually it is/was a Nissan Pintara TRX club, but accepts members with other nissan pintara U12 models and Ford Corsair UA models.