Fastback Friday – 1973 Ford Taunus Coupé

Antti Kautonen

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1973_ford_taurus_coupe

Here’s a car from the pages of history books, a 1973 Ford Taunus Coupé formerly owned by the dad of a friend of mine, Jani. The spectacularly brown Taunus was in their family from new, and gathered only a reasonable 150ish thousand kms on the clock before it was sold on to Sweden. Like in Finland, clean and well-kept older Taunuses are in good demand there, so it’s no wonder the car got sold on.

I got these 2006-taken photos from Jani, with the greetings I could freely post them for you guys to see. We were enjoying some Guinness pints in the local, and that’s not a detail that can be overlooked.

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The Taunus was clean inside, too, with the period-correct seat covers on the L-specification seats. The dashboard looks especially good, with deep-set gauges on the cliff-like dash accompanied by a similarly period stereo. And just look at the steering wheel.

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You can see the only gauges the dash had were the speedo, the fuel gauge and the temperature gauge.

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Speakers even on the rear shelf.

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That beautifully sloping fastback, simple taillights, simple badging. Even the chrome was in good nick despite the car’s age. I can see a small amount on the rear screen’s corners, but that’s it. The engine in this Taunus was the 1.6-litre OHC, producing 82hp.

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I really hope the Ford is in such good nick even today. These photos are already over six years old, so as the car has entered its 40th year it would only be justified to keep it as presentable as in these shots.

[Images: Jani Haglund]

About

Antti Kautonen

Antti Kautonen

The resident Finn of Hooniverse. Owns old Peugeots and whatnot, writes long thinkpieces on unloved cars. These two facts might be related.

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16 responses to “Fastback Friday – 1973 Ford Taunus Coupé”

  1. Spring-heeled Jack Avatar
    Spring-heeled Jack

    Mini-Torino! There, now that's out of the way. You know this is begging for a 289, right?

    Reply
  2. engineerd Avatar
    engineerd

    I love these. Not quite as much as I love the Cortina, but it's up there. In fact, I believe this generation was mechanically the same as the Cortina, but with different body.

    Reply
    1. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      The Mark3/4 Cortina in fact. Oddly, this fastback body style was never sold in RHD markets which had sedans and wagons only with a very few 2doornotchback sedans, I wonder why -maybe they thought it would impinge on Capri sales.

      Reply
  3. stickmanonymous Avatar
    stickmanonymous

    As someone who grew up in a country with Cortinas rather than Taunuses (Tauni?), I had no idea these came as coupes. This looks kind of cute, and gets mad respect for the driving lights.
    I had a long-term loan of a Cortina wagon from a friend, so pretty much the platform opposite of the same car. It had a worked 250 CI (4 litre) and three-speed auto. While it did wild peg-leg burnouts, I have a deep suspicion that this coupe handles one whole-heckuvalot better without some boat anchor weighing down the front end.
    At least in RHD, the steering wheel was massively off-centre, and the windshield leaked so badly that my (ridiculous government mandated) immobiliser filled up with water, which prompted me to learn the dark art of removing immobilisers in beach parking lots with surf-wax combs.
    Great car, though, in a horrible way. It was brown, like this one.

    Reply
    1. mdharrell Avatar
      mdharrell

      "(Tauni?)"
      Sure, go ahead. It's the name of a mountain range and, strictly speaking, is a defective noun [no plural form], but that's the correct declension. This is somewhat akin to making up a plural for Mount Everest. (For that, by the way, I'd say "Mounts Everest" but I suspect in practice this would be a losing battle against the forces of "Mount Everests.")

      Reply
      1. stickmanonymous Avatar
        stickmanonymous

        I'd go with "Mts Everest," except of course a specific mountain by its very nature couldn't be expressed as a plural. Unless, perhaps, it was a comparison of some sort. Taunuses/Tauni, of course could be expressed as plurals, as they were expressed plurally from their respective factories.
        I think this has something to do with definite and indefinite articles, and I'm feeling pedantic on this fine morn.
        Pedanticism?

        Reply
        1. mdharrell Avatar
          mdharrell

          "Taunus" presents the same problem, as it's the name of a specific mountain range with no plural. What should one do for the plural of a production car with the model name Mount Everest? In practice, I suspect the construction for, say, referring to a feature on another planet as being "as tall as a stack of ten Mount Everests" would indicate that ordinary usage would trump strict grammar. Similarly, "Tauni" is better Latin (although still contrived), but "Taunuses" is a comfortable construction.
          After all, Priora wasn't even seriously considered as a plural for the Toyota Prius, although it should have been.

          Reply
          1. stickmanonymous Avatar
            stickmanonymous

            I'd be happy to concede that there are plenty of instances in which common usage should override correct grammar. At the risk of sounding vastly pretentious, have you ever read Bill Bryson's book Mother Tongue? It raises some interesting points about this.
            I'm fairly certain that correct Latin isn't too much of an issue when referring to groups of European Fords. Thanks for your perspective.
            Vavon's made a funny point about the Lada. Maybe there's some kind of comparison to be had.

  4. TrueBlue315 Avatar
    TrueBlue315

    It's the angle or the first shot, but it reminded me instantly of a '66-'67 Charger.
    <img src="http://dc199.4shared.com/img/1J9YNaPe/s7/1966-dodge_charger_KERGINALDO_.jpg"&gt;

    Reply
  5. Tim Odell Avatar
    Tim Odell

    Reason # 4587 why Ford needs to sell the 2.0L 4-pot EcoBoost as a crate motor.

    Reply
    1. Rust-MyEnemy Avatar
      Rust-MyEnemy

      A nice idea, but a 70s car needs a nice big twin-choke Weber, and to always run slightly on the rich side.
      Such nostalgia. I can almost smell the vinyl decomposing from here.

      Reply
      1. Tim Odell Avatar
        Tim Odell

        Ah…70s car smell…
        My 60s cars smell more like a mix of slightly mildew-y carpet and gas.
        Fine, offer the 2.3L Pinto OHC as a crate (with like 12.5:1 compression and an angry cam).

        Reply
  6. Vavon Avatar
    Vavon

    When I was a baby my dad had a red wagon version of this Taunus. The wagon was called the Turnier.
    One day on the highway I suddenly stood up on the backseat to look at the cars through the rear window.
    My mum told me it was the first pace I stood all by myself. I guess I didn't have a child-seat yet…
    Oh, the irresponsible 70s! At least I can honestly say: Cars have always been a driving factor in my life…

    Reply
  7. mdharrell Avatar
    mdharrell

    Precisely! Had Toyota done things properly from the beginning, they could have nailed Lada for infringing upon their PriorArt.

    Reply
    1. Vavon Avatar
      Vavon

      I think Toyota had other Prioraties.

      Reply
  8. Mad_Hungarian Avatar
    Mad_Hungarian

    What a random collection of Ford themes put into a mixmaster. Maverick meets Capri meets Aussie Falcon meets '71 LTD, with a '71 Mustang dash tossed in to boot. Looks really good from the back but the squared-up front clip seems to belong to a different car.

    Reply