These two imports, one from Great Britain and one form Germany, represented the beginning of a new breed of European low-cost cars, having applied the same formula as American muscle cars like the GTO had just a few years earlier: bump up the power with a bit of engine tuning, add some stripes and other external signs if its intended image, and give it a sporty name, like Rallye or GT.
Road and Track decided to do a dual road test, and it makes for interesting reading. I was initially a bit surprised at this pairing, as the Cortina was generally one class larger and more expensive than the Kadett in Europe, but their prices in the US were almost identical. The specs here all favor the Cortina GT, but the Kadett Rallye didn’t give up the fight easily.
R&T points out that these captive imports have the benefit of a larger dealer network in the US, a sore point for many of the other import brands except VW. They also point out that not all Ford dealers carried either the Ford of England or German Ford lines, although by this time the German Ford line had disappeared here several years earlier. And then there’s the fact that Buick dealer basically walked away from Opel in the early 60s, orphaning the owners of the quite popular Opel Rekord, only to take up the brand again in 1964 for the new Kadett, which had become the #2 selling import by this time.
The Cortina looked more conventional compared to the fastback Kadettm especially in Rallye guise, with its bold stripes and such. The Cortina was bigger all-round, and weighed 270 lbs more. Its 78 hp 1.5 L four was considerably larger than the Kadett’s 67 hp 1.1 L mill.
Both were of course conventional RWD cars, but the Cortina’s front suspension of struts and coils was more modern than the Kadett’s IFS of upper control arms with a lower transverse leaf spring. And at the rear, the Cortina’s had radius rods to help control its leaf-spring suspended live rear axle; the Kadett had a torque tube and leaf springs.
Not surprisingly, the Cortina was roomier and more comfortable inside, it had better ventilation, and its instrument panel was preferred.
When it comes to driving, the Kadett “invites brisk driving…the seating position is high…extremely responsive steering to inspire confidence even in close-quarter maneuvering… the engine is very revvy…and it doesn’t object to being kept towards the top of the dial (tach)…all the drivers commented on its smoothness…but the noise level is not low”.
All this sounds very familiar, having both spent quite a bit of time in my father’s ’65 KadettA as well as driving some Kadett Bs. It truly invites full-on driving, even if it isn’t truly a fast car. But fun, yes.
Not surprisingly, the Cortina GT accelerated faster, although the difference wasn’t all that great, thanks to the Kadett’s 1770 lbs of flyweight. In fact the Kadett went exactly as fast ultimately (91 mph) as the Cortina, despite its smaller and less powerful engine, thanks to less frontal area of its slim body.
It made the Kadett a great city car, but it also did better than average on the highway simply because its little four didn’t create the vexing boom and resonances of larger fours. But its primitive suspension didn’t take to rough roads very happily.
The Cortina was rightfully deemed “one of the best handling sedans we’ve ever driven”. Refinements to its front and rear suspension paid off, and now it both cornered smartly but still rode well over rougher pavement. It was simply a more sophisticated car, and made it more suitable for longer trips or over poor conditions. And that means it was better suited to being an only car, whereas the Kadett was deemed to be better suited to second car status.
This is an interesting pairing, and both of these would have been a lot of fun. I knew one owner of each car, though in more basic non-sporting trims. The ownership experience (of my admittedly small sample) is kind of what you might expect, with the German Opel giving more satisfactory long term service than the English Ford, which seemed old before its time.
67 cortina gt was my first car! Started with the engine in a cardboard box in the trunk! BLEW THE RINGS OUT OF IT TWICE..FUN FIRST CAR!! And decent mileage to check out the early morning surf in San Diego county back in the ’70’s !
Funny, within a year the US Rallye Kadett would be a 1900cc powerhouse, the Cortina GT would get the cross flow 1600, and they were both up another class in performance. Fast forward a few more years, and the Cortina would be gone and the Opel would be an Isuzu … neither one offered with a sporty option package.
I don’t remember ever seeing a Cortina. When did importation stop?
IIRC 1969 or at the latest 1970. The Maverick and Pinto were of course the reasons. It didn’t sell all that well either. For some reason, the Kadett was much more successful.
Are you certain it wasn’t 1968? Many cars stopped being imported after 1967 because of new US vehicle codes, and I think all of them needed expensive alterations to continue being imported. Alfa Romeo took 1968 off and returned for 1969. Minis stopped being imported after 1967. The Austin Healey was killed for 1968 because of the regulations. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but it would have been odd for Ford to bother making the Cortina comply only to kill if off soon after. I suppose they could have kept it until the Pinto was ready.
Yes I am.
From a reliable source:
The Mark II was sold in the United States from 1967, achieving 16,193 cars sold in its first year. Sales of the Mark II in 1968 were 22,983. Sales in 1969 reached 21,496. Sales slumped in 1970, to almost half their 1969 peak, at 10,216 units. Ford USA dropped the model in 1970 and was effectively replaced with the introduction of the US-produced 1971 Ford Pinto subcompact.
Those sales number are minute compared to Kadett, as in about one-tenth or less.
They were sold thru 1970, as Paul notes. Ford’s own small cars surely played a part, but there was also the April 1970 introduction of the $2,295 Capri, which sold well from jump. First month sales were over 2,000 units, and effectively wiped out dealer stock, yet they sill managed to move 17,000+ by years end. Why bother with the Cortina any further? When finally prepared to deliver Capri’s on the level consumers actually wanted them, sales exploded until the exchange rate effectively priced the car out of its own class around 1974.
And the Mk.2 was replaced by the Mk.3 in late 1970 so I assume that would have needed to go through a new approval process before going on sale. With Pinto and Capri available it wouldn’t have been worth it.
I bought a new 1969 Cortina GT at a Ford dealership Seattle in 1970. I was 20 years old and it was my first new car. It was a 1600cc engine with tuned exhaust, and a Holly/Weber carb.
You would have never noticed the Cortina because it looked like a Toyota Corolla, I used to get a lot of that
They were built in Canada and Florida
The Ford Cortina of that era shared strong design resemblance with its larger step-sibling the U.S. Ford Falcon produced during that era as well. Ironically both cars have similar rear leaf spring arrangements even though both cars were built on a different unitized body construction.
MK2 Cortinas like this sold well over here though our models differed most were local assembly though imports from the UK and Australia were sold too rust loved them and so did boyracers so many were hotted up well beyond their braking and handling capabilities and got merged into the scenery, very sought after now and fairly scarce in restorable condition
there was a factory hotrod bearing Lotus badging but it was dumbed down from the previous MK1 version with very little evidence of Lotus involvement and engine by Ford not Lotus.
There’s little difference between the last Mk1 and the MkII Lotus. The MkII is heavier. The MkII still uses the Twin Cam engine.
Similar to the GMH Monaro coupe versus the four door Ford Falcon GT being the performance models in Australia at this time.
Almost identical, though if one considers that the Ford compared here has less than one third the Falcon’s engine capacity and that the Monaro didn’t yet exist, there are tiny differences.
I would swear that a friends 67 Kadett that I used to maintain had coils in the rear. No question that my 69 wagon did. The standard 1.9 available in 69 was 100 hp and made a Kadett a mini rocket especially compared to the Beetle.
The new coil spring rear suspension arrived in 1968.
The road test suggests the Kadett was somewhat quicker than I remember it. For a time in the late 70s a buddy of mine had an 1100 Kadett and I had a Simca 1204, the 1204 being displacement. Aside from the Simca being almost a luxury car in comparison, I recall it being just a hair quicker, but with a rated HP of only 60 as opposed to the 67 listed for the Kadett, which should have made it much faster. And I’m sure I couldn’t have done the 1/4 mile in the listed time. But we battled it out a few times on mountain roads having lots of fun.
The regular Kadett 1100 had only 54hp. The Rallye’s 67hp engine was souped up considerably, with twin carbs and other changes. It was quite a bit zippier than the regular one.
I spent a couple of enjoyable years with an early ’67 Cortina GT Mk II. I had bought it cheaply from my ex’s father in 1979. He had used as an extra family run around for several years. The earliest 1967 Mk II GT’s still used the non crossflow 1500, but went to the crossflow 1600 in short order. This one was the 1500.
The owner previous to him was rumored to do some Gymkhana and perhaps other competition with it. As such, it had stiffer springs and Koni shocks. Quite a rough rider. The rear differential was much shorter geared than the one in the R&T article, maybe a 4:56 or such. 60 mph cost you 4k+ rpm if I recall. Rumored to be an gearing option on the Lotus Cortina. I’m certain that the engine compression had been increased by whatever means. It did OK on the normal 96 pump octane premium of the time, but was happiest with the 97.5 pump octane Sunoco 260. It actually was a quick car off the line and could embarrass some much higher dollar sports cars for a half a block and two gears.
I first learned to do OHV valve lash setting on that car. At one point a new exhaust system was about due. In my handy Mongomery Wards auto parts catalog I located the proper Cortina GT header back entire exhaust system and mail ordered. After more than a month passed, it arrived. Official Ford issue and had shipped from Canada at no extra charge!! Not so easy were any light lens and such. Ford had very quickly dropped nearly all parts support after the last 1970 US imports. A long pending class action lawsuit on that matter went nowhere. Technically, it may have been to Mercury which I believe is who sold the Cortina in the US. I bought a few bits from a midwestern Lotus dealer that had cornered all Cortina stock parts. Eye bleeding prices even back then.
I had a minor road get off in some snow. Even with tire chains it was supernaturally terrible in snow. It could have and should have been repaired, but I had liability insurance only. After some time, I sold it cheaply to someone who did fix it. It’s about on the top of the list of cars I wish I still had.
The Cortina is an outrageous, irritating example of designing something basic and uninteresting, but doing it really, really well.
Handsome, quite handly, quick enough (for the days), it made the superior-tech Euros of then (and the Issigonis breakable-clevers of BMC) look like complicated answers to simple questions. Those cars all WERE of course better, as the future of all such size cars proved, but for many purposes, the Corty felt no lesser, and in many ways, easier to drive (and certainly, to own). Add some marketing whiz with the Twin Cams, and, well. Genius.
Funny that the Kadett outsold it Stateside. It is somewhat outclassed in this comparison, being smaller and bereft of that carefully-actuaried genius, but for much the same dough.
Part of the reason the Kadett outsold the Cortina was that the Rallye fastback coupe was an outlier, pricewise, with the base notchback selling at around $1700. At that price you got a car that was designed from the ground up to compete with the 500lb gorilla of the small-car segment, the Beetle, and whose strengths mirrored the VW’s weaknesses (heater and trunk space).
The ’67 base Kadett sedan was priced at $1657; the base Cortina at $1815. Technically Ford was still selling the Anglia in the US in ’67, priced at $1569, but nobody was buying them.
The Anglia (at least the American versions) were out-of-date when they were brand new.
Even here in the import car loving city of New Orleans very few were sold.
In 1971, with the restyled BMW 3.0 CS copied body and the 1900 engine, the Opel would become “The Poor Man’s BMW 2002” according to “Car & Driver” magazine.
I owned 3 of the 1971-1975 Opel 1900/Mantas; loved them all.
I was stationed in Germany in 1967, and that Opel was the car to have. A service buddy bought one while stationed there.
I owned and drove a Cortina GT for two years in Jamaica and was impressed by it’s performance and road holding ability on the narrow and winding roads that we have there. Back in the late 60’s they were one of the most popular cars in the Country. Owners could flog these cars all day and they would still give over 30 MPG. These cars came with a Weber side draft carb and great four speed transmission, fun to drive.