The Cortina GTE in 2012 with original wheels and factory wheel covers
CORTINA GTE WORDS AND PHOTOS ALAN STOKER
“Yes madam, … yes sir, we have a Mk3 GT Cortina at our North Shore Dealership.” The salesman at Campbell Motors assured us that it was a Mk 3 . At 16 years of age I had persuaded my mother that her next car should be a Mk3 Cortina and at that age, as did most boys, I thought I knew a bit about cars. Campbell Motors in Upper Queen Street had no Mk3 Cortinas in stock, but there was a Mk3 GT on the ‘Shore for $3,000. No, this can’t be right, I knew very well that a Mk3 GT was at least another
s The GTE and my old Vauxhall photo taken Taranaki in 1972.
22 Beaded Wheels
$1,000, however the salesman insisted he was correct and that the car would be brought to our Mt Albert address for us to inspect. The salesman was partially correct when a few hours later the GT arrived, but it was the wrong model! Delivered to the door was a 1970 Mk2 GTE. Thinking back to 1972, I don’t recall ever having seen one of these. As a 16 year old I was certainly impressed, and it had red go-faster racing stripes. It is hard to recall 48 years later but my mother must have liked it, either that or I was a better salesperson than I was given credit for, as the GTE never went back to the dealership and has stayed in the family since. So now we owned a 18 month old silver Mk2 GTE Cortina with 11,000 miles on the clock and the price, $2800, was well under normal. Oh how I loved every chance I had to drive that car, even making excuses that my own car was not running very well, and I did not want to break down. It was so much more fun, and much much quicker than my ‘59 Vauxhall Victor. One fun story among many to share was a trip returning to Auckland from Tauranga via the Kaimai Hills. I was gunning it up the hill at about 90 mph passing everything but keeping my eye on a MkII Zephyr which was gaining on me quite quickly. The Zephyr passed me and was gone. I can only assume that at that speed there
