The purists don’t like it,” laughs Pete Rawlinson, casting a fond eye over his beautifully-finished Mk2 Cortina. “But I didn’t build it for them, I built it for me.”
The overarching concept of this project was to create a classic Ford with the mechanical attributes of a more modern BMW. Why? Because Pete wanted something that fused retro looks with modern reliability, effortless power and torque, and low running costs.
“It needed to be a proper motorway cruiser,” he explains. “I used to have a static caravan up in Barrow-in-Furness and I’d drive the Cortina there and back all the time; these days it’s a daily driver and it’s always ready for a road trip.”
The car’s current twin-turbo set-up is actually its second evolution, as the basis of the conversion was originally an E46
