We—my photographer husband and I—are in the middle of a road trip round the BC interior. Yesterday afternoon we pulled off at a scenic lay-by and off in the distance were a couple of derelict cars strewn about an old barn. One of them was a ’72ish Vega Kammback. The other was this what’s in the photo. “Curbside” here has to be stretched a little; the car was probably 500 metres (about 1/3 mile) away. That’s why the image is a little on the grainy side; even though it was taken with a long lens, we still had to crop in on it quite a lot to embiggen the car enough to see. Looks like something from about the ’53-’56 timeframe, but I can’t identify it. Can you? Or you? …or you?
Ford Zodiac.
The Zodiac would be two-tone paint on the flanks, and the Zephyr should have brightwork under the rear lights, so it’s probably a Consul.
Only the update loline had trim under the tail lights on the Zephyr that looks like an early high roof model, no C pillar trim I’m going with Consul.
Its a MK2 Zephyr or Consul 56-62 cant quite make out the wheelbase to be certain Consul was a four and shorter Zephyr was a six, also came in Luxury Zodiac flavour, iconic cars in this country.
+1. My money’s on it being a Consul. My Dad had an identical Consul back in the late ’60s, same colour even.
Ford Cortina would be my guess.
Definitely a Mark 2 Consul/Zephyr/Zodiac.
I agree on the Mk 2 Consul/Zephyr. My family had a Mk 1 Zephyr when I was just a lad. I don’t remember much about it other than that it was blue and my father being very proud of it the day he first brought it home!
My first thought was that the car above was a Series VI Morris Oxford, but the C pillar is very different – and much prettier in my view – on the Oxford. I owned one as my first car (with “4 on the floor”). I was very fond of it. It coughed and spluttered a few times but never left me stranded.
Consul.
The chicken shed with a transom over the door actually caught my attention first. Was that a Canadian tendency?
(British) Ford Mk.II Lowline, so 1959-62. The distance between the front wheelarch and the leading edge of the door would suggest the shorter bonnet of the Consul (4 cylinder) rather than the longer one for the six cylinder Zephyr. Definitely not enough side trim for a Zodiac.
Definitely Consul rather than Zephyr or Zodiac but not the Lowline which had much wider stainless trim round the screen and rear window.
Something about the angle of the chrome trim at the front makes me think Consul not Zephyr, but it does appear to have been bashed at that corner.
“…embiggen…” ? I love it. Some day I will have to learn to speak Canadian.
I think he was speaking “Simpsons”.
It’s a perfectly cromulent word.
Much better than one that grinds my gears… “the engine outputs 230 horsepower”. Or “is outputting”. Are these really real words???
When I was young there was a Mark 2 Zephyr (I think it wasn’t a Consul) lying on its side next to my grandfather’s shearing shed, having had its drivetrain harvested.
Thought it might be a Willys Aero, but now think Consul is spot on. Definitely getting a Ford “vibe” off it.
Mercury LN7. Just kidding.
Is that a Zephyr or a Zodiac? AlwayZ mixZing thoZe two up
Nope. Neither.
A Consul. I saw one back in 2000 that belonged to a friend of my in-laws. It was light blue and had been completely restored.
I don’t know enough about English Fords to say which model this was, but when I was a young boy in the ’60s there were there were quite a few of these still around in BC. They were quite popular in Vancouver and environs as well as Victoria which still had a sizable ex-pat UK population. An Uncle had one, as did one of my early school teachers.
We had quite a few different vehicles aimed at the low priced market from Europe available in Canada before the Japanese manufacturers became dominant in the early ’70s.
First car I ever travelled in, my dad’s Ford Consul in navy blue, back in the mid 60,s. XXR699 was it’s registration number. Funny how you remember those things…
XXR699 sounds like one of those Gerry Anderson Supermarionation TV shows from the 1960s. Maybe that’s why you remembered it?
Consul. When I was born our family car was a 1956 Consul in that same shade of green. It was totalled in 1959 in a head on collision, which my Dad survived with only bruises on account of the thick winter overcoat he was wearing. The replacement was a brand new Zephyr in black equipped with after market seat belts and back up lights. My Dad told me he picked the Zephyr because he thought the torquier 6 would be easier for my Mom to drive, as she wasn’t that adept at working the clutch or downshifting. She still drives a stick shift – Civic hybrid. And she still isn’t that good with the clutch or downshifting.
Heres one
Looks like a Ford Consul or one of those other British cars with US-influenced styling from the fifties.