The Most Disappointing Car of 1965?

Sir,
May I give you the most disappointing car of 1965, the Corsair GT V4? Having owned two Ford Cortina GTs over the last 24 years, I have just bought a Corsair GT V4 after having a short test drive in one—too short.

Previously I had driven a Corsair straight-4, of which I found the road-holding quite good for this type of car. After running-in my GT V4 I find the car rolls on corners, the suspension soft, the steering has too many turns on it. The engine is noisy and rough when accelerating through the gears.

Two smaller points, the fuel and temperature gauges cannot he seen, and the demisters do not clear all the windscreen, the outlets being too close together.

In all, a very disappointing car, except perhaps for top gear pulling which is good; also the finish is very good. I get about 29 m.p.g. on a run.

The biggest thing missing from this car is a V6 engine and a 19 m.p.h.-per 1,000 r.p.m.-top gear, like the Ford Taunus 20MTs. The price well pays for a V6 compared with the old GT. Now no Weber, perhaps soon no GT badges ?; a pity to have scrapped a great engine just for a van.

Nailsea. M.J. Reynolds.
[We have yet to test the Ford Corsiar GT V4 but as its top speed, 0-50 m.p.h. acceleration time and petrol consumption are apparently no better than those of a normal Corsair de luxe, this is not yet one of the Ford Motor Company’s better efforts. Another correspondent remarks on the interchangeability of many of the Dagenham’s V4 components with those of the earlier German Ford Taunus V4 and V6 power units, suggesting that this much vaunted British Ford V4 is not so new after all. My money goes on the well-tried Ford Cortina GT and it is significant that Ford of Britain, consistently the biggest motor vehicle exporter in the country, exported 142,000 Cortinas last year, compared with 104,428 in 1964 and that this model’s overseas’ sales now exceed those of any other two British cars combined.—Ed.]