At $5,500, Could You Be Tempted By This 1972 Ford Taunus TC?

Back again when Ford was selling the punky Pinto in the U.S. sector, it was also offering cars like today’s Great Price tag or No Dice Taunus all above Europe. Let us see if this private import’s selling price can make it value discovering what us Individuals have been missing.

The comic Billy Crystal used to do this character on Saturday Evening Dwell termed Fernando who lived by the motto that it was “always far better to appear superior than to feel good.”

With a thoroughly clean bill of overall health on the mechanical side but some aesthetic issues, yesterday’s 2000 BMW M5 would not have been appreciated by Fernando. People visual blemishes — some creeping rust and paint difficulties below and there — also doomed the M5 and its $13,999 inquiring selling price for several of you. At the conclude of the day, it fell in a narrow but decisive 57 p.c No Dice loss.

1 vehicle we seemed at so far this 7 days was an American luxury sedan from Ford’s Lincoln division that was powered by a German BMW engine. Pursuing that, we thought of a BMW that was entire-on German. Now we’re going to bring that accidental mish-mash theme complete circle and seem at a German-developed Ford.

This 1972 Ford Taunus TC — named for a mountain selection in Germany — signifies a person of the Ford Motor Company’s earliest tries at a so-termed World Car or truck. That is a bit of a misnomer since, by “the world” Ford at the time mostly meant Europe. Prior to the introduction of the Taunus TC, Ford of Germany and Ford of Britain proffered different auto traces that played in the fairly significantly exact same size classification, just about every in their household sector.

The 1970 Mark III Cortina and Taunus TC (for Taunus Cortina) merged these disparate vehicle lines into 1. The ensuing automobile, together with the 1968 Escort and 1965 Transit van, had been Ford’s first cross-subsidiary types, meant to be marketed all above the Continent and Britain. The only thing The united states available was an impact on the new car’s Coke bottle styling.

The Mark III Cortina, and that’s why the Taunus TC, moved up a size from its predecessor, becoming entirely four inches wider and giving a V6 motor for the to start with time. Ford could choose this tack as the Escort provided the dimensions course beneath though the European-industry Granada topped the range in equally size and status.

In the U.S., Ford presented the Pinto in the very same dimension class as the Taunus, and during the early ’70s that car served as its smallest offering below. In simple fact, every single design in the U.S. at the time was grotesquely larger sized than its nominal European counterpart. It wouldn’t be until finally the 1980s that Ford started to incorporate the U.S. in its worldwide product ideas.

Ahead of then, on the other hand, we were being denied amazing autos like this Taunus TC coupe. This auto is a private import, and it could extremely well be the only one particular of its ilk now on U.S. roads. The styling really should glance vaguely common, as it shares a winged front fender design with domestic Fords of the era, as nicely as the same soaring haunch and semi-fastback roofline. The again of the car or truck is eerily reminiscent of the hatch style on the Pinto wagon, proper to the horizontal shadow line and taillamp layout. Almost everything less than that American-motivated styling is about a few-quarters scale of what was offered in this article at the time.

As an case in point of that, the Taunus’ wheelbase is 101 inches, or about 2 inches shy of the contemporary Maverick. The base engine on the Maverick at the time was a 170 CID OHV inline-6. Right here, in the Taunus, you get a 1600cc edition of Ford’s extensive-serving “Pinto” 4. This SOHC motor replaced the Essex V4 and was really applied in the Pinto right here in the States, so areas sourcing shouldn’t be substantially of a issue. Ability may be, although. While this evidently is a higher-compression version, the engine can make only about 70 horsepower on its ideal day.

That is matched to a 4-pace guide gearbox with a flooring shift, and power is applied to the ground via a stay axle at the back again.

The bodywork looks tidy for the most section, but like most each individual European automobile from the period before bodies were galvanized, it does exhibit some rust pop-via. That is most noteworthy in front of the driver’s aspect rear wheel arch. The sheetmetal otherwise appears quite good. The paint is claimed to be a respray, and you can see a darker shade of blue obvious in the trunk.

The vendor suggests that most of the car’s major brake parts have been changed, changing rubber lines with sturdier braided metal hoses. Every little thing else is reported to operate as it should really. The advert notes the odometer to browse 42,995, and a quick squint at the dashboard pic exhibits that quantity to be looking through in kilometers. That’s a little more than 26,000 miles to us Yanks.

The rest of the interior appears to be like to be in good condition, and you have to like the air vents positioned like eyebrows on the upper edge of the dash. The seats have been lately reupholstered, and the car or truck will come with its unique Blaupunkt radio. All the right paperwork for the car’s immigration appears to have been finished, as it wears Washington plates and is reported to have a title from that state.

The price tag for this unusual-in-the-U.S. Ford is $5,500. If you’re a devoted lover of Ford’s European wares then this would be pretty the peach to incorporate to (or get started) your assortment. Is it really worth that kind of funds, however?

What do you imagine, could this Taunus command that $5,500 inquiring? Or, does that price make this imported German Ford a legitimate folly?

You make a decision!

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