SURPRISE, SURPRISE

hen Ash Mahmood bought his 1972 Cortina 2000 GXL it didn’t look this nice. “I found the car on Gumtree in 2014,” remembers Ash. “Dad had a white Mk3 just like it, only his was a manual with RS2000 wheels. He owned it from the mid-1970s until about 1982 and I grew up with the car so I’d always wanted one. The closest I got was a nice Mk2 1600E but I had to sell that when the DVLA suspended my driving licence.” In 2006 Ash had a fall at work resulting in a crushed spinal cord and the loss of feeling in his legs. “I was told I’d never walk again but, following spinal fusion surgery in 2009, I gradually learned to with crutches. My wife, Shameem is a nurse and became my full-time carer. I