Video: The LAST Ford Cortina GT Wagon Known to Exist & Other Rare Cars | Barn Find Hunter

Hagerty Video Transcript

I found this one in a barn in Pennsylvania as my eyes adjusted I realized that the gauge pack is completely different than my 66 and the chassis plate confirms that it was so far the one and only left-hand Drive GT wagon wow if you want to be a serious boyfriend

Hunter you’ve got to wear it on your chest every day walk the walk talk or talk if you go to dinner with somebody talk about old cars what I do is go to car shows and Cars and Coffee and so I happen to meet Andy the other day at a

Place called past diners which is on Woodward Avenue in Bloomfield Hills Michigan now we’ve never found in eight years of barn find hunting this program we’ve never seen a Rover sedan can you tell us about this car well I’m surprised you haven’t come across one because most of the most

Of the remaining ones are in Barns or Fields somewhere but they are fairly rare significant quantity of them are reasonable quantity of them were imported during the 60s while they got rave reviews when they first came out particularly from a Motor Trend and Road and track the after sale service wasn’t

Really up to par and so the people that loved them and bought them didn’t love them for very long so what year is this car this is a 71 this is the last year that the P6 was sold in North America it’s actually a series two car the the

Series ones had a horizontal Chrome Grille and a much plainer Hood and the V8s and the four cylinders had different hoods this is the combined Hood from a series two with a more aggressive front end no so this has a four cylinder it’s overhead cam it’s a four-cylinder

Overhead cam yes two liters 125 horse now the V8 would have been the V8 was a 3.5 0.5 liter it’s the X Buick 215 and that was rated in this application I think at 149 hours so how long have you done have you had I’ve had this since 2016.

It was repainted just before I got it a French car dealer had acquired it down south but prior to that it spent the vast majority of its life in the French maritimes it was ordered new in Germany by a Canadian servicemen brought back with him kicked around the Ottawa

Toronto area for a good many years before moving out to New Brunswick in Newfoundland me and I know you’ve got the the the herald too right I do that’s right and one or two others you got one would you like to see I would before we take a look at this Dusty barn

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So this when I met Andy today this is the car he had at the cars of coffee can we show people how this absolutely if you can swing the latch there and voila a beautiful seat perfectly placed for you to look at the engine oh

I love it sit right on the wheel and do a valve adjustment the Triumph Spitfire and and The Herald and the vitess had this flip up and accessibility was easy and for race cars you could just unpin it put the hood over there somewhere and really have access to it that’s right so

Is that a Triumph sports car engine absolutely The Herald was the platform that provided the running gear and a modified frame for the Spitfire so it’s the same engine transmission rear end as the Spitfire the carpets have been replaced and the white paint I think has been redone but it is exactly the

Factory paint Scheme and the rest of the car is completely original so you’re saying the black is original black is 1963 paint yes and the top that’s original that’s original and so are the seats 39 707 miles yeah I’ve been using it a lot lately I’ve never owned a

Cortina but I I am a Cortina Enthusiast and you know Jimmy Clark raised them and tell us why what this is and then and explain a Lotus Cortina okay this is a Ford Cortina Deluxe Station Wagon absolutely you might get spiked by a piece of springware but otherwise okay

Yeah so this has got a four cylinder this is a four-cylinder it’s the pre-cross flow being a mark one caught taking out at least 62 to 66 variant it has the um the variant with the intake and exhaust on the same side of the head 1600 Kent engines had a cross flow

System with the intake and exhaust on opposite sides for better breathing and then the variant with a Cortina uh Lotus Cortina what was that that was a it was actually released before the GT which was the higher performance version of this but it didn’t come out until afterwards because of production issues

But it was it’s a Ford provided body shell with Colin Chapman’s twin overhead cam conversion on the 1500 CC pre-cross flow block very successful rather fragile yeah expensive to repair yeah this is an unrestored car this looks like original finish isn’t here completely yes it’s a South Carolina car

And I got it from a young lady in northern Michigan who found it at a restoration shop that had been using it as a shop hack in South Carolina he had driven he drove this up and down 75 a number of times between his home in

Carolina and his home in Michigan so was this is this a driver of yours yes I have occasionally slept in this at various race events so the bed is just long enough I’ve got mosquito screens custom made to go in the side windows and everything Isn’t that cool but this

Is absolutely my wife’s favorite car I could get rid of everything else in here but I couldn’t touch this Yep this is the stuff that gets my attention this is what barn find Hunter is all about we have three cortinas in a row here wagon and two sedans correct are these

Restoration projects they will be yes this one actually runs or did run last time I had it out very very local car the the original owner is still alive I believe at 102. well it’s just a matter of time and space and everything else this is just a bare body show but it’s

Pretty straight other than a lot of minor dings and was that a race car no I think somebody was just turning it into a gym Clark look alike okay okay yeah but the the green Wagon in the corner is is rather special because if you were talking outside about a Lotus Cortina

Wagon that’s actually a GT wagon and Ford never officially made GT Mark 1 wagons the Ford factory records have long since been lost for cortinas however the Owners Club collected oral testimony in the 80s from people who worked on the line which confirmed that one possibly two batches of 25 right

Hand drive GT wagons were built for the police force in Kenya wow this obviously is left-hand drive so that that throws a further curveball the thought is that they actually made an unknown quantity maybe as few as five for the mounties to test in Canada in Canada I found this one in a

Barn in Pennsylvania and I didn’t I was just after the screen because I cracked the screen in that one but I happen to be going to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving so I stopped off on the way to look at this it was completely dark but I felt my way around the screen cut

The screen out as my eyes adjusted I realized that the gauge pack is completely different than my 66 so I snapped a flash picture in the dark and sent it off to the Owners Club and didn’t think much more of it and they come back with congratulations we heard

This car existed but no one’s ever seen it and then when I went back to collect the rest of the car because of course by that point I decided I wanted it I was able to clear the the front off enough to lift the hood and the chassis plate

Confirms that it was so far the one and only left-hand Drive GT wagon the GT was a intermediary model between the Cortina Santa Cortina and a Lotus Cortina which had the twin cam motor so this had was it a 1600 CC push rod motor this is a

1500 CC pre-cross flow push rod yep okay I got it so you’ve got an E-Type over here I do so we haven’t seen any typing since this morning no well I’m sure his is nicer than mine but this is the one that everyone gravitates to in here they

All say well why don’t you put all the others away and concentrate on this one is that a series one it’s a series one 3.8 um with the rather unusual option I can’t call it an option I guess it’s aftermarket but it’s got triple Weber’s instead of triple sus so this seems

Complete and solid it is very solid yes will you restore this yourself I probably will just because it’s too expensive otherwise but you know it’s getting to be that point where if you’re paying somebody 100 an hour you could be upside down in no time no time at all

Yeah it looks a lot worse than it is actually oh that’s a neat car yep so where does this fall in your lineup of projects oh everybody asked me that and I just I have no idea to half of these I never actually went out to look for I

Just came across them and thought well I like that well this is like a little uh gem hidden in an industrial park uh no signs out front and in fact if you didn’t have your Rover park there I could have driven right by right I like

It thanks so much for inviting us over more than I’m really happy I met you at Cars and Coffee thank you