Filed Under: News
It was time for a new model, the Mk11 Consul had done it’s job as had the Zephyr and Zodiac models, Ford was no longer the poor man’s car, the new owner’s were part of the affluent society, you were no longer ashamed to arrive at the Savoy or Claridges in one of the large Fords.
One cannot describe the first viewing of the new Consul Classic, there was nothing like it on British roads, it was definitely a Sunset Strip cruiser pure Hollywood, of course there were what one would call the prestige manufacturers whose clientele would never be seen in such a brash looking car.
Once again I was lucky, I had a friend who just had to have the new Classic, it arrived in that Ford blue, not dark but a mid blue, the interior was also blue, the front as you can see said it all.
The Anglia type rear window actually suited the car then there was the massive boot.
The seats were comfortable and the view through the screen was completely unhindered, the doors felt large making getting in and out easy, there were both two and four door models.
All that remained was to find out if this Classic lived up to it’s name and could deliver, in the first place you wouldn’t expect it to leave scorch marks on the tarmac, then if you wanted that this is not the car you would buy.
Despite being called a mid-size car you had at first a 1.3 4 cylinder engine
Which by all accounts gave a top speed of 75 mph and the obligatory 0-60 in 22 seconds, at least it gives an indication of the ability to get away from traffic lights, petrol consumption round about 35mpg, though I would have some doubt about the figures given, the Classic does not look a light car, the only way we can verify these is to ask the club member who has one, yep if you look up the gallery for the 2009 picnic we have our very own grey classic, would appreciate feed back on this one.
In the two year run Ford made 111225 Classics and nearly 19000 Capri’s, after the first year the engine was changed to a 1498cc unit, I can remember going back to the dealer with engine problems, though they were sorted eventually.
Gear’s you could have floor or column change, the smaller engine only had 3 speed box with the syncro on top and second, however the later
model got a four speed with syncro on the top three gears, variable speed wipers had arrived as had the headlamp flasher, I believe this was a first, I really love headlamp flasher’s most of my friends were of the opinion if anything was going to wear out on my car it would be the headlamp flasher, terrible.
The 9.5 in discs at the front and of course drum rears, said this really meant business, in fact very few cars had discs before 63, our old friend Earle Steele Macpherson struts were at the front giving independent suspension, got to tell you this that Earle Macpherson is an actual person, he previously worked for General Motors where he would come up with good or maybe wacky idea’s which General Motors ignored, so he packed his bags and headed for ford, given that Macpherson struts are widely used one can imagine his former employer isn’t the happiest of people.
The back end of the Classic was traditional a rear live axle using semi elliptic springs.
I have ignored the Capri as it did not really differ from the saloon except it was a two seater and a low swept roof and came in a variety of two tone colours, it just looked the business.
There appears to be a selection of classic’s around and once again the word rust is not being used however our own member might update us on body control etc.
So once again have a nice weekend and many thanks, regards
Ted Lay
tedlay@gmail.com
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