1981 Ford Cortina 2.3 GL Garage Find Arrives At Auction

We’d barely arrived at Reeman Dansie when this turned up on a trailer.

Dusty, rusty around the edges and looking as though it hadn’t seen daylight for a very long time, it immediately caught our attention.

Then we spotted the badge on the boot.

2.3 GL.

This isn’t just another tired old Cortina. It’s a 1981 Ford Cortina Mk V fitted with the 2.3-litre V6, and it’s now heading into Reeman Dansie’s Classic Cars, Vehicles & Automobilia sale in Colchester with an estimate of just £600–£800.

Fresh Out Of A Garage

The Cortina, registration JON 866W, is being offered for sale by direction of executors.

Reeman Dansie says it was discovered in the late owner’s garage and is believed to have been off the road for many years.

There are no MOT records showing online for the car, and at the time of writing the auction house is still waiting for confirmation regarding paperwork, V5 and keys.

That uncertainty is worth bearing in mind.

But visually, this certainly has all the hallmarks of a car that has been sitting for a very long time.

When it arrived at Reeman Dansie, the bodywork was covered in a thick layer of dust and grime, with corrosion clearly visible around several lower areas.

The front valance looks particularly crusty, while there is visible rust around the wheelarches, lower doors and sills.

This is not a car we’d approach expecting a quick recommission and an MOT.

It looks like a proper project.

But Look At The Badge

What makes it rather more interesting is the specification.

This is a 2.3 GL, meaning it left the factory with Ford’s 2,294cc Cologne V6 rather than one of the more familiar four-cylinder Cortina engines.

The 2.3-litre cars sat much higher up the range and were available in GL, S and Ghia form.

Contemporary workshop literature confirms that power-assisted steering was standard across the 2.3 V6 range, along with servo-assisted brakes and radial tyres.

In other words, this was not the basic rep-spec Cortina many people remember.

It was a fairly serious bit of family transport in its day.

The V6 Cortina

The 2.3-litre Cologne V6 gave the Cortina a very different character from the smaller-engined cars.

Smoothness and torque were the appeal rather than outright sports-car performance.

By the time the Mk V arrived, the V6 had also benefited from detail improvements, including electronic ignition and a modest increase in power compared with the earlier Mk IV version.

Period figures put the Mk V 2.3 at around 114–116bhp, depending on source and market specification.

That may not sound dramatic now, but in an ordinary four-door family saloon from the start of the 1980s, it was enough to make it a considerably more interesting proposition than a 1.6L.

And today, a surviving 2.3 GL is something we’re far more likely to stop and look at than the Cortinas that once filled every company car park in Britain.

A Very 1980s Interior

Inside, it gets even better.

The cabin is still recognisably late-Cortina, with the large Ford steering wheel, wood-effect dashboard trim and blue cloth seats.

There is plenty of dust and debris, and it certainly smells as though it has spent a very long time shut away.

We won’t attempt to describe that particular aroma in too much detail.

What matters more is that the interior still appears remarkably complete at first glance.

The door cards, dashboard, seats and major trim are all there, and the whole thing has the wonderfully undisturbed feel that makes long-term stored cars so interesting.

It hasn’t been cleaned up for auction.

It still looks like something you’ve just dragged out of storage.

Plenty Of Rust To Investigate

The photographs also make one thing very clear.

Anyone interested in this car needs to inspect the body properly.

There is obvious corrosion around the lower front end, the bottoms of the doors, sills and wheelarches, and we’d want a very careful look underneath before deciding how much work is involved.

The rear quarters also show bubbling and surface corrosion, while the lower edges of the body have plainly suffered.

None of that is especially surprising on a Cortina that has apparently spent years off the road.

But this is where photographs can only tell you so much.

A cosmetically scruffy Cortina can hide much more significant structural corrosion underneath, so inspection is going to be important.

£600–£800 For A V6 Cortina

That brings us to the estimate.

Reeman Dansie has put the Cortina at just £600–£800.

That’s low enough to make it extremely tempting, but also low enough to remind you that nobody is pretending this is a ready-to-use classic.

At that level, the appeal is obvious.

You’re looking at a genuine late-model Cortina, with the desirable 2.3-litre V6, manual gearbox and GL specification, still carrying registration JON 866W and apparently emerging from long-term garage storage.

What we don’t yet know is how complete the paperwork is, whether the engine turns, how extensive the corrosion really is or exactly when it last ran.

Those questions matter.

But they’re also exactly the sort of questions that make cars like this interesting.

One Of The Last Cortinas

The timing is significant too.

The Mk V was the final major version of the Cortina sold in Britain before the Sierra took over in 1982.

By 1981, the Cortina was nearing the end of a production story that had begun back in 1962.

For nearly two decades it had been part of the furniture of British motoring.

Company cars, family cars, taxis, police cars, tow cars — Cortinas were everywhere.

That ubiquity is precisely why cars like this feel so evocative now.

They were once ordinary.

Now even a scruffy one can stop you in your tracks.

And a scruffy 2.3 GL V6 is better still.

Going Under The Hammer This Saturday

JON 866W is Lot 67 in Reeman Dansie’s Classic Cars, Vehicles & Automobilia auction in Colchester on Saturday 12 September 2026, starting at 10am.

The estimate is £600–£800, with the cars in the sale subject to a 12% buyer’s premium inclusive of VAT.

Viewing is available at Reeman Dansie’s Wyncolls Road saleroom on Thursday afternoon, Friday from 9am to 5pm and again on the morning of the sale from 8.30am.

You can see the full auction listing and bidding details at Reeman Dansie here:

For £600–£800, would you take this one on?

We have to admit, when a dusty V6 Cortina turns up on a trailer while we’re standing there, we’re always going to wander over for a closer look.

Got Something The Motoring World Should See?

Cars like this are a reminder of what can still be sitting quietly behind garage doors.

We’re always interested in hearing about unusual cars, motorcycles and pieces of motoring history with a story behind them.

It doesn’t have to be immaculate, valuable or even running. In fact, sometimes the forgotten things are far more interesting.

Whether you’re a private owner with something tucked away, or a business with an unusual vehicle, motorcycle or piece of motoring history for sale, we’d like to hear about it.

If it’s something our audience would be interested in, it’s newsworthy to us. Get in touch with UK Barn Finds and tell us about it.