The headline fact about the Cortina is simple; it sold in numbers nobody else came close to.

It was Britain’s best-selling car for most of the 1970s, the default choice for the family driveway and the fleet manager alike, and the 1979 range set a registration record that stood for years.

More than 2.6 million were built across the five generations.

That ubiquity is exactly why honest survivors are now scarce.

They were used hard, raced as bangers and scrapped without a second thought when they were simply old, so a tidy, original Cortina of any generation is a far rarer sight today than the production figures suggest.

Somehow our example has survived, apparently it was off the road and unused for several years, and then between 2020 and 2023 was restored.

Work included the fitting of two front wings, new exhaust system, the replacement of the brake pipes flexi hoses and brake cylinders, the brake calipers were refurbished, poly bushes fitted and the cambelt and water pump renewed...