A pleasant surprise awaited South African perfomance car enthusiasts when Ford South Africa launched it’s Series 5 Cortina range late in 1980. Built exclusively for our market and awarded the American-derived XR badge for the first time, the Cortina XR-6 scorched onto the local scene with relativey devestating effects. With its matt-black highlights, bespoke wheels and performance add-ons, the XR-6 featured a 102 kW Weber-fed V6 3,0-litre engine mated with a four-speed manual transmission and was able to sprint from 0-100 km/h in just 9,5 seconds.
Described in CAR’s January 1981 performance issue using adjectives like “tough”, “sun-bronzed”, “muscular brute”, and “honest”, the Ford Cortina XR-6 retailed for R8 490 and went on to become a true South Arican legend.
