The Car Spy

It’s Ford’s 100th birthday and fans will find plenty to peruse, at this year’s Footman James Classic Motor Show when it returns to Birmingham’s NEC from 11-13 November.

There’s plenty of variety on the Mk1 Cortina Owners Club stand, with a 2-door Super, ‘woody’ Estate, Zetec-engined saloon, Lotus Cortina, and the club’s Supreme Champion, a 1200 ‘fleet’. Jim Scott’s superb 1200 won’t be on the club stand this year. It’s so good; it’s in the Meguiars display.

That fifties favourite, the 100E, has a broad appeal and the 100E Owners Club is embodying this by presenting a Popular, a Prefect, and the 300E Thames Van that appeared in the 1997 Heartbeat Xmas special. For fans of tuned classics, there’s a Pinto-powered 100E and a 2.8 V6 300E.

Around 1.3 million Anglias and variants were made, and quite a few will be on the Anglia 105E Owners Club stand. Well 8 actually! The club is exhibiting two highly-tuned saloons, a Standard saloon, two Deluxe versions, a Super, a Van, and a Standard Estate, which, like its saloon counterpart, truly defines no-frills motoring!

The MkIII Zephyr and Zodiac Owners Club has chosen four models from this capable and capacious range, namely a Zephyr 4, Zephyr 6, Zodiac, and Zodiac Estate. The featured Zephyr 6 was passed from father to son and the immaculately-restored Zodiac saloon has been in the same family for 28 years.

Much loved by families and fleet managers, the Mk3 took the Cortina into the 1970s. The Mark Three Cortina Owners Club is showcasing a Savage V6 replica, Crayford Convertible, Estate, 1300L, and a 1600 Basic. And there’s a twist! Each car will be occupied by life-size and suitably-attired manikins.

It’s ‘Win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ for the AVO Owners Club with one half of the stand set out to represent a rally stage, complete with two muddy Mexicos, mud, grass, and hay. Sideways to victory! The other half is a showroom with pristine sale cars.

The Corsair always cut a dash and the Ford Corsair Owners Club is bringing along some of the very best, including a 1500 Deluxe, a fully-restored 2000E, a 3-litre V6-engined 2000E and a Cosworth-engined Estate.

Amongst the seven cars on the Ford Granada Mk1 & Mk2 Drivers Guild’s stand will be a Granada Mk2 hearse, ‘sans’ coffin but with a wonderful collection of scale-model Granadas laid out instead! There’ll also be a Coleman Milne-converted Granada Mk1 Minster, the only example currently on the road.

The 1600E is plush, perky, nimble, and much sought after. Which is why the Cortina MkII and 1600E Owners Club is presenting two stunning examples. They’ll be accompanied by a modified Estate, a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’. Swift but subtle!

The Footman James Classic Motor Show is open from 10am until 7pm on Friday, 9am until 7pm on Saturday, and 9am until 5.30pm on Sunday. Ticket prices range from £17.50 when purchased in advance, or £20.50 on the door. For more information visit www.necclassicmotorshow.com. For informat ion on Footman James , visit www.footmanjames.co.uk

Fords don’t get old they just get faster as my old Dad used to say!!