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One of the most popular films of Ford Heritage’s superlative YouTube collection is a 1963 gem entitled Jim Clark Drives Corsairs. 

His automotive co-star is a red De Luxe with doors ‘that won’t wake the neighbours at night’ and controls ‘readily to hand’.

The great man is not overly keen on the steering column gear lever – ‘I prefer the optional floor gear change, but that’s a personal thing; I’m more used to it’.

Mr. Clark also pointed out the ‘good lines’ for the Corsair is one of the most attractive cars of its generation.

Dagenham commenced work on “Project Buccaneer” in the early 1960s, and the development team envisaged it as a replacement for the Consul Classic.

The Consul Cortina and the Zephyr/Zodiac Mk. III would both make their bows in 1962, but Ford still anticipated a continuing demand for a “D” class saloon, one that bridged the gap between the two ranges and would compete with BMC, Rootes and Vauxhall in the £721 -£850 price bracket.

Sir Terence Beckett - Ford’s then head of product-planning– saw the logical D-car as ‘an extension of the Cortina formula’ and so the Buccaneer would use its windscreen and windows and door frames.

The suspension was from the Cortina GT, and the floor pan lengthened by three inches to allow for more space for the back seat passengers.

Power was from the 1.5-litre Kent engine, as found in the 1963 Cortina Super, but the future Consul Corsair bore little resemblance to its cheaper stablemate.

Nor did the latest Ford echo the sheer exuberance of the Classic’s bodywork or the tail fins of the Zephyr/Zodiac Mk. III, for here was a Ford very much in the idiom of “conservative cool”.

If one of the junior members of Mad Men had been transferred to the London office, they would have almost certainly opted for a Corsair.

It looked more up-to-the-minute than a Morris Oxford Series VI or a Hillman Super Minx Mk. II and faintly more dashing than a Vauxhall Victor FB De Luxe.

After all, who could not fail to be impressed with that “TV screen” style horn ring and strip speedometer?

Ford launched the ‘car specially designed to match the pace of modern living’ in October 1963 as the first car to be manufactured at their Halewood plant; Mr. Clark poured champagne over the inaugural Corsair.

There were two or four-door versions (the former was mainly for export), and your choice of standard, de-luxe or GT trim.

The first two featured that not overly smooth four-on-the-column while the last came with a remote control lever.

A two-door De Luxe would have set you back £677 4s 7d, plus another £15 2s 1d for the heater, but at least a twin sun visors, two-speed wipers and windscreen washers were standard.

And in 1963 a ‘full width package tray’ was perceived as a luxury feature.

The early brochure is a riot of hilarious sales copy, headed with ‘Corsair; once a brave adventurer of the high seas in an age as daring as our own’.

However, thanks to Halewood, there was now a car for ‘the man who still enjoys a sense of adventure’.

Yes, that Saturday morning shopping trip to Mac Fisheries would never be the same again with your new Corsair De Luxe, although dressing as Blackbeard the Pirate was really not recommended.

As for the coachwork, the ‘sculptured elegance and its superb unity of feel will always excite’ - or at least cause a certain amount of curtain-twitching in Acacia Avenue.

But perhaps one of the finest sections of early sales publicity is entitled ‘Corsair – with man in mind’ and penned by the famed publisher Jocelyn Stevens.

‘To me, the man of today is sophisticated, cool, tough – and on the outside, casually elegant. James Bond with a touch of Peter O’Toole’.

The reality was probably ‘cardigan-wearing, Brylcreemed and a whiz at Ludo - Terry Scott with a touch of Tony Hancock but the owner could at least aspire to a world of glamour.

And by specifying a ‘long range driving lamp kit’ from their nearest Ford dealer, their Corsair would look even more macho.

Meanwhile, Samantha Eggar (billed as ‘currently starring with Dirk Bogarde in Doctor in Distress) presented the ‘feminine viewpoint’. ‘The interior – attractive let functional - even in a tight evening dress I got in fairly comfortably’.

A realm of cocktail parties and fine dining would clearly be yours and, importantly ‘you’d have to do a lot of shopping to fill that boot!’.

This leads us to Dawn Rendezvous, the other great Corsair launch film with Delphi Lawrence experiencing the glamour that was the De Luxe, complete with the regulation cocktail jazz soundtrack.

The ultimate Corsair was the GT, and with all British Fords so-badged before the launch of the Capri in 1969, it adopted a low-key approach; on the exterior, there was merely a shield logo on the rear wing.

The rival Vauxhall VX 4/90 may have favoured a side-flash and lashings of extra chrome, but the Corsair GT was the car for those who wished to make a discreet entrance.

However, the cabin did boast an ammeter and an oil pressure gauge (albeit positioned so that the driver’s left kneecap best read them) and a tachometer perched on top of the steering column.

The price of the GT was £840 7s 1d – about £67 more than its Cortina stablemate; Dagenham consciously marketed the Corsair as a more prestigious offering.

The Corsair, along with the Cortina, lost its “Consul” prefix in late 1964 and the major news of the following year was the replacement of the “Kent” engine with 1.7-litre and 2.0-litre V4 plants.

Perhaps Autocar best summarised the appeal of the early models in their test of the GT. In the opinion of the scribe, it was a car that could ‘capture the imaginations of many who would normally never aspire to being anything but staid family motorists’.

And the Corsair even caught the eye of Peter Sellers at the 1963 London Motor Show.

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