martinreyland wrote:
MG600 wrote:
Not the greatest car of the 70's, but then neither were Cortina's and everybody thought they were the bees knees back then.

Dad's 1.3 Marina van would leave a 1.3 Escort van from the lights for dead, just it wouldn't go round a corner or stopsmiley: laugh


IMHO the Cortina is/was a way better car than a Marina, I have owned several of both.

Yes wouldn't disagree with you on that, but I think the Cortina (especially mk 3 onwards) was overrated. Good responsive engines and gearboxes, great marketing and model range, but poor handling and steering (Escorts were way better in that respect), average reliability and rust at best (Pinto cam belts). Does anyone remember seeing mk 2 Cortina's driving round in primer as the metallic paint flaked off? Give me a mk 1 Cavalier instead of a mk 3,4 or 5, any day! 
BTW, not biased, the Cortina mk 2 1600E was one of my all-time favourites - a brilliant example of product planning