Cortina

The Ford Cortina was Britain's best-selling car for much of the 1960s and 70s, five generations of family saloon that defined the company car park and the family driveway, from the sporting Lotus Cortina to the everyday GLs. A guide to the Mk1 to Mk5, how the generations differ, the fast Cortinas, what to look for, and what they are worth.

Ford of Dagenham built the cars that put Britain on wheels, from the Cortina that led the sales charts for a decade to the rally-bred Escorts and the executive Granada. A guide to the classic British Fords worth knowing, what they are like to own now, and where each one sits in the story.

The Cortina Mk4 of 1976 traded the Coke-bottle curves of the Mk3 for crisp Italian-influenced lines and finally shared its body fully with the German Taunus. It kept Ford's best-seller at the top of the British charts to the end of the decade. The development story, the range, and what the survivors are like now.

Ford called it the Cortina 80; Britain called it the Mk5. The 1979 facelift of the Mk4 was the last Cortina of all, holding the sales lead until the radical Sierra replaced it in 1982 and ended two decades of rear-drive Cortinas. The development story, the run-out, and the survivors.