The Ford Cortina MkII Owners Club will be spending the 2016 show season celebrating the 50th anniversary of the MkII Cortina being launched by Ford of Britain at the Earls Court London Motor Show on October 18th 1966.
The season began with our Somerset branch winning the “Best Club Stand of Show” award at the Great Western Auto Jumble at Shepton Mallet back in February.
The main event of the year will be at our National Rally. Held over the weekend of 6th and 7th August, we will join our friends, the MkI Cortina Owners Club at the Stratford-upon-Avon Race Course. A road run to the Coventry Transport Museum will take place on the Saturday, while Sunday is the main show and shine day. We will see some very special MkII Cortinas joining us over the weekend where original Motor Show and Press cars will line up with the very earliest surviving examples. Entry is just £5, no booking necessary.
A few weeks later we will join up with the BMW 02 club who are also celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2016. On Sunday 28th August the two clubs will come together for a feature display at the Classic Motor Show at Knebworth, Nr Stevenage, Hertfordshire.
Later in the year, on Tuesday 18th October, the 50th anniversary, we have organised not one, but two club member events. During the day we have a road run that takes most of our Cortinas back to their birth place, and then in the evening we have a very special pub meet.
We will meet in the morning at the Whitewebbs Museum of Transport in Enfield, and then after lunch we head to Essex for a visit to “The Shed”. The Shed is on the old Cortina factory site at Dagenham and houses the Heritage Collection, Ford’s own private collection of some of the many cars they have built over the years and includes some firsts, some lasts, press cars, prototypes, and a number of other rarities that you just won’t see anywhere else. There is no public access to the Heritage Collection so we are very privileged to have the opportunity able to visit.
The Hare pub, just outside Chelmsford, will play host for our evening event. The top car park has been reserved for MkII Cortina parking, a buffet meal and MkII Cortina pub quiz have also been arranged. Our special guests for the evening will include Harry Calton, the ex Ford Motor Company head of PR at the time the MkIIs were launched.
For more information, including details of our award-winning club magazine ‘The Indicator’ please email us at info@fordcortinamk2oc.co.uk
