My main plan is to buy a mk2 'scort in the next couple of months but as a backup plan I'm looking at getting a 2.0 Cortina - BUT:

I have absolutly no knowledge at all of these cars in the handling department. I can only ever remember as a kid my dad having a 1.6 Estate. He couldnt go no more than 3mph round a round-about otherwise he would spin it!
I'm sure we can safely say that most mk5 coritna's still run standard everything - so probably the ones that left are on 20 year old shocks and springs! So there not gonna have go-kart like handling!

What can be done in the handling department to beef it up a bit - if this actually possible on a cortina! - the same question goes for breaking!

thanks for your help

ST

 

I crashed my mums X reg 2 litre Cortina Estate through someones garden fence the day after I passed my test! I wasn't popular when I got home!

It was fast though, I had 140 on the clock and it was still pulling!

 

That wasn't a mk5 that was the starship enterprise

 

Btw that was 1:40pm

 

The suspension will be fooked by now, the front is wish bone type and the back is live axel with some odd confiuration

 

I know the handling at standard is gonna be poor but can much be done to improve it?

 

my old man had a mk4 and a mk5 tinas. He kept em mint too. My grandad had a mk3.

they fookin handle shit and i remember when you used to look at the cortinas when they go over a bump you could see the car moving left to right on the suspension.

Speak to some of the old skool guys as im sure this has been done.

 

Quality!

 

Even better!

AM actually!

 

I had a 1.6L as a company car (yes, I am that old!) and it handled a bit like a barge, only not as precise!

Like most cars, stiffer, lower springs and shocks to match will help, but with the wishbone front and live rear end it will never be great, without a bit of fabricating - I don't think any of the stuff for the back of a Mk1/2 Escort will fit.

 

You can get poly bushes, spax adjustable shocks, lowered springs etc.

I know as i have been and done this to a few mk5s, all had cossie turbo power as well. My cortina did 146.7mph at a Performance Ford test day and its still listed in vital states.

PM me if you want.

 

pm sent mate.

thanks

 

Blimey now you are stiring up some memories, I owned a mk5 2litre Ghia back in 1986 and thought that they handled well and were supersonicly fast, mind you I was only 17 and it was my first motor so anything faster then a push bike would of been good.

Come to think of it, I have still got a set of new spoilers for it (front & rear & side skirts) in my mums loft, "I FEEL A eBay MOMENT COMEING ON"

 

a mk5 cortina estate can easily manage a sub 10 minute lap of the nuerburgring with only minor suspension mods, believe it or not