Nearly 2.6 million Ford Cortinas were sold in the UK, making it the best-selling car of the 70s (Image: Jack Mortimer) Owning a classic car is a little bit strange when you think about it. For something designed to do a single job, getting its owner from A to B, it should be a little bit like obsessing over a vintage washing machine or black and white television.
However, that simply is not the case. Growing up, our family cars ferried us to school each morning, introduced us to a new corner of the world each summer and most likely helped us learn how to drive. In the case of many families, that mainstay of the driveway was a Ford Cortina .
Built between 1962 and 1982, the humble Ford was the UK's best-selling car for the entirety of the 1970s. Back in a time when off-roaders were only owned by farmers and a people-carrier was called a bus, the Cortina was the benchmark for family cars, spanning over an impressive five generations. As a result, when the Great British Car Journey asked if I wanted to drive the example in their Drive Dad's Car fleet, a collection of cars that museum visitors can get behind the wheel of, I knew I had to tick it off my automotive bucket list.
Each generation of Ford Cortina reflected the general styling trends of the era (Image: Getty) Styling: Throughout the model's life, the Cortina was never a groundbreaking car to look at, but largely reflected the overall styling trends of the era. The fifth-generation example that I drove, for instance, fea.