Starting Up Again

The FTC-GB Club was reformed in 2014. Initially being based within a Facebook Group, it has grown and developed into a more fully fledged Club that is able to offer all Taunus owners advice, support and assistance in keeping their vehicles on the road.

Roy T. now picks up the story and tells us how it all began.

 

I suppose it all started in 1990 when I bought, and restored, a Ford Cortina XR6. Ths was all done in the pre-internet days when Club magazines and Newsletters ruled the day and communication was via telephone, proper telephones!

Local to me was an XR Owners Club (XROC) Rep, who was very welcoming and knew of the XR6s, having read about them. I joined the XROC and attended Shows with them nationwide.

 

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Ford Cortina XR6.
The XR6 was a South African Ford Cortina powered by an Essex 3.0L v6 engine, and mine was for first of its type to be shown in the UK, much to the amusement of many so called Ford Fans and Experts who thought it was a "home made" effort!

However due to its uniqueness, it was soon featured in the National Press and Magazines and I was asked to attend Shows that were further afield.

Whilst at one show, in the early 1990's, that I became aware of the Taunus Club.

I was fascinated with the Taunus. Especially with them being very rare and unusual, like my Cortina XR6. However, all of the vehicles I saw at the time were Left Hand Drive.

So, although aware of the FTC-GB, we were located at different ends of the country so our paths never really crossed other than at the larger National Shows.

 

Clubs back then were found either through listings published (usually in small print) in the back of Car related magazines, you got to meet the Club at a show, or were recommended to them via word of mouth.

But, by 1994, the Internet was launched and with it came much more worldwide information. In the same year, the Taunus Club sadly closed down, with the passing of Chairman Neil Dashper.

While I myself became an Area Rep. for the recently formed Cortina Club. At the time I was forever changing jobs, going through redundancies, moving house, and everything else life throws at you!

 

For many years I was "off scene" but making Ford Parts in the background, for individuals and Clubs alike.

Along with yet another job move, and a new relationship, and new home, I had a phone call out of the blue from an old friend on the south coast. I was told I needed a RHD Taunus in my life, for a restoration project!

At first I was just curious, then when a few photo's arrived I thought, hmmm, quite like that.

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Ford Taunus P7b 20m XL.
Front View (After Resto).
P7b-20m-XL-Rear-200x200
Ford Taunus P7b 20m XL.
Rear View (After Resto).

It was now 2012, and I had been out of the car "scene" for years. I also had no garage to work on it and no real spare time available either. So I did the sensible thing, and I bought it...

I immediately started scouring the area for safe lock-up and just down the street from my house was a compound, with around 20 lock ups. I popped down one afternoon to see the owners, told them the story and they took pity on me. They gave me the keys to one of their empty lock-ups. I didn't realise at the time, but I had jumped the "waiting list"!

 

So once more I was the owner of a very rare Ford, this time a Taunus. A deal was done with a transport company and the Taunus was piggy backed, oop North, arriving at my house in September 2012.

By this time, I had done alot of research on this particular model. Considered by most to be the last true Taunus model ever produced.

The Taunus, a 2.0L V6 powered Hardtop P7b 20m XL was given a weekends overview, and a huge list of parts needed evolved. While sourcing for parts, and chatting to fellow owners (mainly overseas) it became clear that there was no English base or Club for the Taunus?

 

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Ford Taunus P7b 20m XL.
Image © Nick Parkin Photography.
By April 2013, having worked and welded the P7b back together, it was ready for paint. All of the restoration was done on the driveway in all weathers, while Andy at Humber Body Repairs put on a fresh coat of Fern Green.

In 2014, with the P7b 20m XL all finished, I took the car to its first show. And won "Car of the Show"...

By now, I was talking more and more to other Taunus owners, and issues with parts and where to find them kept popping into the conversations. It was obviously very frustrating and the main reason for their own restoration progress faltering.

 

So, having worked with many Ford Clubs over the years, I knew a Club catering for the Taunus range would help fellow owners.

At the time the seeds of relaunching the FTC-GB were being sewn, I was busy making parts for the Ford Classic and Capri Owners Club (FCCOC) and their owners. Having many conversation with Stu D., an Admin of the FCCOC Club Facebook Group, our friendship grew. So much so, that I wondered "could I offer Taunus owners something similar via Facebook? A place for UK Owners to have easier access to the parts they would need to keep their Taunus Cars on the road?"

I had the ability to make things and engage with owners, and Stu had the knowledge to set up the Facebook Group. On the 1st October 2014, we launched the FTC-GB as a Facebook Group, and we have never looked back.

In resurrecting the FTC-GB Club, which formally started in 1991, the format of the Facebook Group reminded me of the style of Neil D.'s and Helaena M.'s old Newsletters.

As you can see, the FTC-GB has gone from the original format of Newsletters, through a Facebook Group to having it's own Website. All constructed by Stu D. - a.k.a. "the Stoogle"...

The website was launched in 2020, just in time to help us celebrate 50 years of the Ford TC1.

 

Roy T.