MEET THE OWNER – DOUG MOODY AND HIS FORD CORTINA “WOODY” ESTATE
By Ellie Priestley |
10th June, 2020
Doug Moody is the proud owner of a very fine collection of Consul Cortina Mk. Is – including a version that is widely remembered, despite it enjoying a limited production run. Ford boasted that the Super “Woody” Estate offered ‘Superb extra luxury, power and prestige for you to enjoy – for everyone else to see!’ – and that is certainly the case with 372 FLN.
The Ford Consul Cortina Estate debated in March 1963, and at £683 the 1200 De Luxe version was the cheapest new five-door station wagon in the UK. Judging by this Ford PR film, it was a pretty exciting machine in its own right, with the power to cause people to dance the twist on their front lawns - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ82NQ5tbNg. ‘The Cortina estate car sets out to be an elegant, no-nonsense utility car for ordinary people. It succeeds admirably in this aim’, thought Autocar of 29th March 1963.
However, for just another £102 14s 2d you too could be enjoying the 1.5-litre Super Estate, with its heater, carpeted floor, windscreen washers, cigarette lighter – and Di-Noc exterior decoration. The “wood” was essentially a synthetic laminate covering but who needed genuine timber in a brave new world of Terylene suits, Rael-Brook Toplin shirts and TV dinners? The Super so caught the public’s imagination that Corgi devised one of its most charming die-cast models in tribute.
However, 57 years ago, the trim was not universally popular. Motor Sport of June 1963 included a test of the De Luxe estate that included the observation it was ‘mercifully without the ornate American imported Di-Noc trim that distinguishes (in the recognition sense) the Super 1500 cc version’. By contrast, Ford enthusiasts claimed it added distinction to the flagship Cortina station wagon and helped to make it the car of choice for those sophisticates who regularly dined at the Golden Egg.
The “Woody” was certainly distinctive; neither the Austin A60 Cambridge Countryman and the Morris Oxford Series VI Traveller nor the estate versions of the Hillman Super Minx and the Vauxhall Victor FB featured such trim. When the “Aeroflow” succeeded the Consul Cortina in October 1964, Ford continued to offer the Super in “Woody” trim, but 1965 saw the last of the Di-Noc models.
Non-modified examples are now scarce, and Doug’s Super must be one of the finest anywhere in the world. It took part in the “100 Years of Ford Display and Parade Laps” at the 2011 Goodwood Revival. He acquired 372 FLN via eBay from London in the following year, and today it resides in Christchurch New Zealand - where it would be fair to say it causes a minor sensation.
The original Super wagon deserves to be remembered for both Ford’s ambitious marketing and the impact of the Cortina Mk. I Estate. Terence Beckett, at that time the company’s Head of Product Planning, intended it as a deliberate move from a utility vehicle or a modified saloon towards a stylish integrated design. And the Moody Cortina displays just how well he achieved this goal.
With Thanks To: Doug Moody and The Official Mark 1 Cortina Owners’ Club - http://www.mk1cortina.com/
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