68 posts tagged “ford”

Wow. Six minutes to load the compose screen. That’s definitely this week’s record.
   This is the other photo I wanted to show:

   A beautiful 1969 Ford Mustang Fastback with a 351 in³ V8 under the hood. I asked the owner for permission to photograph his car which, sadly, had lost all oil pressure. I drove him to the petrol station in case the car was ‘out of gas’; when I came back along this route a while later, his car had gone, so I hope he was able to get it started.
   He says he has a friend with a Cobra Jet 428, which we both thought was the best of this series, and that this shape was probably the nicest before Bunkie Knudsen’s fat Mustangs hit the streets for the 1971 model year. Sometimes I like the ’68s, and the ’65s, but right now, the ’69s seem to appeal to my taste in 2009.

I think Vox might be back. I clicked ‘Create’ and the compose box came up instantly.
   How’s this for a sparring match? The Renault Sport Mégane versus the Ford Focus RS. The Renault has a 50 bhp deficit but still manages to keep up on the corners. No surprises which car I was rooting for.

The largest car maker in the land was effectively nationalized. It then killed more brands and product lines, even ones that could have survived.
   Chrysler, hanging on to unloved mainstream sedans such as the Avenger, was in a deep crisis and needed a European manufacturer to take over its operations.
   Ford, resisting the urge to go cap in hand to the government, stayed its course and solidified its market share, despite its own union troubles. It managed to shore things up and grow from there.
   USA 2009? No, UK in the 1970s.
   This is not a political post—it’s just pointing out how history repeats itself. I also have a funny feeling the US scenario will play out the same way as the UK one did.
   British Leyland was broken up further and its “volume” operations—despite making fewer cars than London Taxis International—are owned by the Chinese state.
   Chrysler UK no longer exists. Its plants wound up making Peugeots.
   Ford UK might not be as strong today as in the 1980s, but it still has a good market share.

The makers of Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei have a good relationship with many of the local car manufacturers. BMW débuted its X1 on the show, before it even appeared at the IAA (Frankfurt Motor Show), and since it is filmed in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Ford Köln is in the area. So, is this a Ford prototype? It looks like a stripped-down version of next year’s S-Max.

This was an interesting, but hardly scientific, test by the Autocar team. Most British motoring television seems heavily influenced by Top Gear (I mean the one that was originally cancelled, rather than the revised show) and the lack of a true process here is due to that. However, I enjoyed watching it and certainly did not dislike it to the extent of some of the viewers on YouTube.

If anything, this post was an attempt to figure out whether Vox had been fixed or not. The ‘Compose’ screen came up pretty quickly this attempt, though an earlier attempt resulted in a blank screen after a minute.
   Here are some rare cars from Autocade, anyway, since I’m not going to waste the opportunity to blog something. When I started Autocade, I expected some old cars that were around before my lifetime; what I didn’t expect was actually covering a good number of them. Here are some for those pub quiz nights.

Italia 2000 Coupé. 1959–62 (prod. 297 approx.). 2-door coupé. F/R, 1991 cm³ (4 cyl. OHV). Hand-made, rebodied Triumph TR3, with attractive Michelotti-designed bodies by Vignale, shown at Torino in 1958. Made under contract to Ruffino SpA. Never officially a Standard–Triumph model, particularly after Leyland Motors’ takeover and the company’s withdrawal of support. Often referred to as Triumph Italia. Very expensive when new, and not popular; underpowered considering the price, though reasonably competent.

AMC Marlin. 1967 (prod. 2,545). 2-door coupé. F/R, 232 in³ (6 cyl. OHV), 290, 343 in³ (V8 OHV). Marlin shifts to the full-size AMC Ambassador (1967–8) platform, but production dropped further due to poor sales. Deleted after one year. Price up from 1966 as Marlin became a full-size car, with more luxury appointments.

Ford Anglia Torino. 1964–8 (prod. over 10,007). 2-door saloon. F/R, 997 cm³ (4 cyl. OHV). Rebodied Anglia, with body made by OSI of Italy. Created for markets which might have found the original 105E to be too unconventionally styled, but export plans were never realized and the car remains very rare. Doors and front windscreen shared with English Anglia, but other panels new. Michelotti design: attractive to some, ugly to Angliaphiles. Two one-litre engines: standard tune with 41 hp and Torino S with 52 hp from 1965.

Volvo P1900. 1956–7 (prod. 67). 2-door convertible. F/R, 1414 cm³ (4 cyl. OHV). Flimsy fibreglass convertible from Volvo, with uprated engine shared with export model of PV444, developing 70 hp. Inspired by American roadsters of the 1950s, but killed off after new Volvo boss, Gunnar Engellau, felt the quality was under par.

I remember at the time there was quite a lot of excitement around this car—then as the years went by, we realized it was another boring bread-and-butter bubble. All the Ford Telstars made it on to Autocade today, and here they are. This is, as far as I can tell, more accurate than the claptrap on Wikipedia.

Ford Telstar (GC/AR/AS). 1982–7 (prod. unknown). 4- and 5-door sedan. F/F, 1587, 1789, 1998 cm³ (4 cyl. OHC). Mazda Capella (GC) with new front and rear ends and Ford badging. Mechanically the same. No coupé. Five-door badged TX5. Big technological advance on Cortina, which it replaced in Australia and New Zealand, though in the latter market, a station wagon variant was missed. Popular and a welcome all-rounder in the mid-sized market at the time, and Ford’s main entrant through most of the Asia-Pacific, but more seemed to be affectionate toward its predecessor. Sold at Autorama dealers in Japan.

Ford Telstar (GD/AT/AV). 1987–96 (prod. unknown). 4- and 5-door sedan, 5-door wagon. F/F, F/A, 1587, 1789, 1998, 2184 cm³ petrol, 1998 cm³ diesel (4 cyl. OHC), 1789, 1998 cm³ (4 cyl. DOHC). Mk II Telstar, introduced alongside Mazda Capella (GD), and with a stronger resemblance to the donor vehicle. Station wagon for the first time from 1988, but sold only in Japan and New Zealand; sedans appeared more mature, larger. Five-door still called TX5. DOHC and four-wheel-drive models for this generation, as well as a larger 2·2-litre unit. Improved on its predecessor in terms of quality and refinement, but more of a domestic appliance. Station wagon continued as part of closely related GV series after 1991, while sedans went to GE platform that year; GD wagons were still assembled in New Zealand into the mid-1990s.

Ford Telstar (GV). 1992–7 (prod. unknown). 5-door wagon. F/F, F/A, 1789, 1998 cm³ petrol, 1998 cm³ diesel (4 cyl. OHC). Instead of coming up with an all-new wagon for the GE-series Capella and Telstar, Mazda put the GD through an extensive facelift, and sold the result alongside GE. The effect was somewhat incongruous—bumpers and plastic trim looked like afterthoughts and blended poorly with the original shape—but GV kept the company in the mid-sized wagon market in Japan for much of the 1990s, when it faced financial difficulties. Mid-term revisions in 1994.

Ford Telstar (GE/AX/AY). 1991–7 (prod. unknown). F/F, F/A, 1789, 1991 cm³ (4 cyl. DOHC), 2497 cm³ (V6 DOHC). Another variation on the Mazda Capella (GE)—Mk III for want of a better term—as before with relatively few changes from original Japanese model. Overall a bread-and-butter bubble with typical rounded styling of the late 1980s–early 1990s. Telstar II launched in Japan in 1994 and overlapped standard GE run. GE built also in South Africa by Samcor, 2·0 and 2·5 only.

Ford Telstar II (CG). 1994–7 (prod. unknown). 4-door sedan. F/F, 1789, 1991 cm³ (4 cyl. DOHC). Odd amalgam of rounded centre section of GE-series Telstar with formal front and rear ends favoured by traditional Japanese sedan buyers. Mechanically a GE four-cylinder. Same sheetmetal as contemporary Capella. Introduced in Japan after Mazda’s multi-brand strategy collapsed, and front end meant to ape Mazda Sentia; Ford simply took what was available for the Japanese domestic market and badged it a Telstar.

Ford Telstar (GF/GW). 1997–2001 (prod. unknown). 4-door sedan, 5-door wagon. F/F, F/A, 1840, 1991 cm³ (4 cyl. DOHC), 1998 cm³ diesel (4 cyl. OHC), 2497 cm³ (V6 DOHC). Final Telstar, but very conventional. Mazda Capella (GF) twin was developed as a reaction to the company’s overambitiousness of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and resulted in a very plain car. Telstar had four-door sedan and wagon; no five-door. Diesel from 1998. Sold in Japan, and not widely exported as Ford shifted to promoting the Mondeo and Contour in most markets.

This was a bit disappointing. What is the 900th entry on Autocade?

Ford Telstar (GC/AR/AS). 1982–7 (prod. unknown). 4- and 5-door sedan. F/F, 1587, 1789, 1998 cm³ (4 cyl. OHC). Mazda Capella (GC) with new front and rear ends and Ford badging. Mechanically the same. No coupé. Big technological advance on Cortina, which it replaced in Australia and New Zealand, though in the latter market, a station wagon variant was missed. Popular and a welcome all-rounder in the mid-sized market at the time, and Ford’s main entrant through most of the Asia-Pacific, but more seemed to be affectionate toward its predecessor. Sold at Autorama dealers in Japan.

   Well, at least, unlike the Wikipedia entry on the car, it’s accurate.
   A hundred to go and then I’ll announce the site more widely.

Someone has a beautiful 1963 Ford Falcon in Christchurch. This station wagon was beautifully restored, but also appeared to be now in daily use.

   I love the brightwork on this—this was a lovely American design before things got too gaudy at the end of the decade. This particular Falcon was, of course, an Australian model, possibly assembled in New Zealand.

There was quite a bit of buzz with the Ford Puma TVC in 1997, which used visual effects to bring Steve McQueen back to life, driving the newer car. The original footage and music are from Bullitt, and a body double was used in some shots, with McQueen’s face mapped on to him. I read some of the YouTube comments and they were quite critical, saying McQueen would never have driven this car, but I beg to differ. Plus, it was done with the permission of Steve McQueen’s children.

   The director even got asked, ‘What was it like to work with him?’ by people who did not realize that, by that time, Steve McQueen had been dead for some 16 years.
   I was very surprised to see Ford used a similar idea when selling the 2005 Mustang a few years ago. Maybe it’s because I knew of the Puma ad for such a long time that this newer one seems less clever. Make a track in your field and dead people will begin emerging. And take your car.