This is the exact car that made your dad’s area manager absolutely insufferable in the 1970s. The 2000E was the pinnacle of the Mk3 Cortina range, taking the working-class hero blueprint and wrapping it in aggressive transatlantic styling to dominate the company car park. Underneath that puffed-up executive bodywork, it is still just rudimentary, parts-bin Dagenham engineering with a 4-speed box and a Pinto engine you can fix on the driveway with basic spanners. It was built purely to pound the expanding motorways, proving that British luxury of the era was mostly just a very clever, mass-produced illusion.