1966 Mk1 Cortina GT

5 minute(s) of a 210 minute read

I don't normally do car shows as I have had bad experiences with rivet counters despite this I had wanted to go to the retro rides gathering as I have been a member on the forum for a long time but never been to one of their events, I had managed to talk Mrs. Jim into coming with me provided I supply the catering and deal with some brambles behind the shed!

When booking the tickets I saw an option to apply to be part of Jonny Smith's late brake show and figured I'd try as I am a fan of the channel and missed the shows they put on last year - surprisingly I was accepted which meant I had to make sure the Cortina was looking its best. Late last year somebody reversed the Cortina into the garage and the handle of my record vice jumped out with maximum prejudice and dented my bootlid. I have kept names out of this for obvious reasons...

With the fun of getting the carburettor sorted and making the cortina act like a car this had fallen by the wayside and despite my best efforts I didn't manage to get this sorted in time so I figured I would lean into it and put some plasters over it! I will get this sorted soon however.

The Cortina needed a clean as it had collected an assortment of bugs on the front for a change (they normally crash into the rear trying to overtake it!). Being nervous about taking a scruffy looking car and having painted the underside white I went all in and removed the wheels so that I could clean the underside of the Cortina, I have become one of those classic car owners....

Cleaned and ready to go I decided to fill up the fuel tank and buy some snacks for the hamper - some pork pie, battenburg and Coca Cola in glass bottles purely for aesthetic reasons

Despite the themes being 50 odd years old it kept the tea warm for about 3 hours which I was impressed by!

We arrived early so we could be parked up and arranged ready for opening, we briefly said hello to Jonny on arrival before being guided to our spot by his dad who we had a chat with.

The cars that had been selected was eclectic and positioned in a way that meant everybody mingled rather than the typical fords area then VW etc etc

The atmosphere was great on that side of things and people were open and friendly with their cars - I didn't lock the Cortina and left the drivers window open if anyone wanted to have a proper look around it. Mrs. Jim and I stumbled upon a mini that had been converted to electric with a Tesla motor in the rear which had been designed and built to an incredibly high standard, they would happily show anyone around the mini and it has given me a few ideas on areas I'd like to improve the cortina moving forward.

I was in awe of this genuine RS200 that had been driven to Mallory and only realised it was talking to the owner as he was sitting in the Cortina and mentioned it was comfier than what he had arrived it!

Later on in the day Jonny had been moving around the cars talking to everyone and filming when he approached the Cortina I said not to look too closely at the paint as I had done the work myself and I think it could be better, he laughed and we had a proper chat about the Cortina, the Mercedes as he had owned a few W123's I wanted to ask his opinion on it and a general natter. He's easy to talk to and was a fan of the picnic hamper and how I had filled it with meat and cake!

All in all we had a great day out and would definitely go to another of his events but good to get the Cortina out and talking to people who aren't interested what colour I have painted the dashboard!