1963-65 Cortina GT/GT 500

The second generation Cortina arrived in Australia a year after its UK release to allow for local development and production. It was the first small Ford in Australia to feature headlights at grille level, some seven years after Ford Australia introduced this style in the first Falcon. As a 1966 UK release, this Cortina series shared key styling cues including grille with the all-new 1966 US Falcon.

The Cortina GT under Harry Firth guidance proved to Ford Australia that anything was possible with thorough development and improvisation. It created the "can do" engineering environment that made the first Falcon GT possible. The Cortina GT was the first local GT, the first four door GT and at a time when many Australians struggled to buy a full-sized family car, the Cortina GT was affordable.

The original 1.5 engine responded so well to tuning that it's little wonder that it formed the basis for several open wheeler race categories. Special internals, a twin-choke Weber, bigger valves and a compression boost coupled with fatter tyres and tweaked suspension was enough for its first Bathurst win. The Cortina GT's standard disc brakes were a rarity in this price range.

As the competition got hotter, so did the Cortina GT. The Lotus Cortina's complexity and import costs ruled it out as an accessible Bathurst racer so Ford and Harry Firth developed the Cortina GT 500, the first Bathurst homologation special to win Bathurst and the spiritual successor to the Falcon GT-HO models.

The GT 500 could be picked by its long range fuel tank with twin fillers at the base of the rear screen, front brake scoops, its Lotus Elan-type close-ratio gearbox and extra suspension tweaks. Further engine mods including camshaft, cylinder head, larger carburettor and higher compression delivered extra power and allowed it to rev higher. The Cortina GT's distinctive parallel side strips and the tiny 500 badges next to the rear GT badges had serious street cred at the time.

Pitched against the six cylinder Prince Skyline GT, Cooper S and Renault R8 Gordini in a 1966 Wheels comparison, the home grown GT 500 won and demonstrated that Bathurst had succeeded in challenging local engineers to build the best car. Cortina GT race and rally experience gave Ford Australia the expertise for the XP Falcon 70,000 mile durability run. The same experience also delivered the Falcon GT a win at Bathurst first up in 1967 and brought the whole 1968 Falcon GT team home at the pointy end of the field in the London to Sydney marathon the following year. The Cortina GT heritage lives on in the latest Ford Focus rally cars.