3 Attachment(s)
Ford Corcel (2nd Gen) 1977-1986
The Ford Corcel ("steed" in Portuguese) is a car which was sold by Ford do Brasil in Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, and Venezuela. It was also assembled in Venezuela (along with the Del Rey). The French-influenced styling of the Corcel was unique to Brazil until late 1977. From this year, the redesigned Corcel II (as it was originally sold) bore a strong resemblance to the European Ford Escort and Granada of same era, but its Renault underpinnings remained the same. The Corcel was eventually replaced by the Del Rey, which was originally introduced as the sedan/coupe version of the Corcel.
[B]Origins[/B]
The Corcel's origins lay in the Renault 12. Willys-Overland's Brazilian operations included manufacturing the Renault Dauphine as the Willys Dauphine/Gordini/1093/Teimoso. Plans were underway to replace this outmoded range with a new car based on the upcoming Renault 12, internally referred to as "Project M". When Willys do Brasil was bought by Ford do Brasil in 1967, Ford inherited the project. The Corcel was actually presented nearly two years before the Renault 12.
[B]Second Generation[/B]
In 1977, for the 1978 model year, Ford launched the Corcel II. The second generation had a completely remade design and straight lines as opposed to the pony car style of the original Corcel. These changes were also applied to the Belina, while the four-door version was dropped in response to lack of consumer interest. The resulting two-door sedan was of a fastback style, with long and heavy doors. Originally equipped with the same 1.4-litre four as the first Corcel, the engine was now rated at 54 PS (40 kW) DIN for the base, Luxo, and LDO versions. The somewhat sporting GT received 57 PS (42 kW), courtesy of a twin-barrel Solex carburettor. The Corcel II was also used for an FIA Group 1 one-marque championship in Brazil, in the years of 1979 to 1983.
The Ford Del Rey was introduced in 1981, with a more upright roofline and available four-door bodywork. The Del Rey also had a reworked, more square front design. A station wagon version of the Del Rey (called the Ford Scala until 1986) differed from the Belina only in trim and in the front design. The traditional Ford name Victoria was to be used on this version but was dropped at the last minute. The Ford Corcel II also provided the basis for a pick-up version called the Ford Pampa in 1982, although this used the shorter front doors of the four-door Ford Del Rey since there was no need to access the back seat. The Pampa would eventually also be available with four-wheel drive.
As of 1982, the engine was a CHT, an improved version of the Ventoux engine used in the first Corcel of 1968. It had already been bored and stroked to 1,555 cc years earlier, but with a redesigned cylinder head, a rotating valve design and many other peripheral improvements it received a new name and a new lease on life.
[B]Facelift[/B]
All had a slight face lift for the 1985 model year. The Corcel II became known again simply as the Corcel. The interior was now the same for all four models. Externally, the Corcel and the Del Rey differed at the rear; the Corcel received fastback-style bodywork while the Del Rey was of a more traditional sedan design. The Belina and the Scala, however, had by now lost nearly all of their interior/exterior differences and became near identical: only a few details, such as the taillamps, differentiated these two models. Between 1985 and 1987 the Belina was made available with the same four-wheel-drive system used in the Pampa. This system seemed to have questionable reliability; Quatro Rodas magazine did a long-term test of a Belina 4x4 (50,000 km) in which breakdowns were very frequent - the resulting bad reputation led to Belina 4x4 production ending after only a few model years, while the Pampa 4x4 continued to be available.
1986 was the last year for the Corcel. The Belina was also discontinued in 1986, but its name was from then on applied to what had been the Scala (a name that had never really caught on) as the "Del Rey Belina". In 1989, as a result of the Autolatina joint-venture, the higher output Volkswagen AP-1800 engine replaced the 1.6 litre unit in all models of the Del Rey and Belina, and was made available in all models of the Pampa except for the ones with four-wheel drive.
The Del Rey and the "new" Belina were discontinued in 1991, being replaced by the Ford Versailles and Ford Royale respectively (Passat B2 version fascia). The Pampa continued to be sold on until 1997, with Ford introducing the smaller, Fiesta-based Ford Courier a year later.
[SIZE="1"]Source: wikipedia.org[/SIZE]
