Dinky Toys 139/133; Ford Cortina Mk1 103106

I really don't know what Ford were doing with the Consul name in 1963. In the Observers Book of Automobiles there is a Consul Cortina, a Consul Capri and a Consul Classic, the year after there might well have been a Consul Corsair, Zephyrs were still Zephyrs but the Consul as a Consul has disappeared. Why did they add 'Consul' to everything else bigger than an Anglia? Was it to mirror Ford Germany with the Taunus name?

There is a mention in the Observers book though of a Cortina 'Sports Special' which came in white with a green stripe and had a 1558cc Lotus twin overhead camshaft engine. The 1500 Cortina as supplied by Ford produced 53.5bhp, the Sports Special wound that up to 105bhp, double!, and became eventually the Lotus Cortina. An all time classic. One of the hottest cars I ever owned was a Cavalier SRi, 25 years after the Lotus Cortina and just getting the same power from 1800cc with probably twice the kerb weight. My SRi was wild as hell, the Lotus Cortina must have been a nightmare with drum brakes, crossply tyres and archaic suspension and all that power, although it might just have been a heap of fun as well.

I do like this car though, it also brings back a memory. My brother had one of these. It was a '63 Consul Cortina 1300. Here goes the story. He was about 18, the car was midnight blue and he loved it. He polished it to a mirror finish in only the way a truly deep blue can be done. I was about ten at the time and had (as one did) a few pet lambs. We did live on a farm in Cumbria. It was late summer and my tup (ram) lamb had grown big with fine horns. He was wandering about the yard and caught sight of his reflection in the side of the highly polished Ford.

We were all in the house and because the doors and windows were open we became aware slowly of a sort of rhythmic banging. We went out to the yard and found my young ram charging and head-butting his reflection in the drivers door, which by now had a corrugated finish due to repeated attacks from a horned head. He had seen his reflection and thought it was a rival and reacted in the only way he knew how, head-on. Funny that my brother didn't see the joke.

This lovely model is quite unusual in the Dinky range in that it got a facelift. The original Consul Cortina was launched in I think 1962 and the Dinky followed in 1963. In 1964 Ford dropped the 'Consul' from the name and changed a number of features on the car, the most noticeable being a new front end treatment with a new grille and integrated indicator and side lights. On the original Consul Cortina the white sidelights flashed in place of orange turn indicators.

In response Dinky came out with a model of the updated car. This was very unusual, in the past when a car had been changed by the maker the Dinky version carried on regardless - the Land Rover for instance was unchanged for about 25 years, the model being of a very early version that only lasted for the first few months of production. Corgi released their Cortina - an estate with wooden side panels, in 1966, two years after the facelift and it was a model of the Consul Cortina. very odd.

However these are both very well modelled. On the second version we have jewelled lamps back and front, number plates, opening doors, tipping seats, detailed dashboard. It really does have the lot. This is a serious and very successful attempt at showing they could do anything that Corgi could.


Dinky Toys 139; Ford Consul Cortina; Light Blue	Dinky Toys 139; Ford Consul Cortina; Blue Metallic	Dinky Toys 133; Ford Cortina Mk1; Gold With White Roof	Dinky Toys 133; Ford Cortina Mk1; Yellow	Dinky Toys 212; Ford Cortina Rally; East African Safari

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Last Edit: 22/12/2020		Page Added 20/12/2020