African Muscle Cars - Forum

Another of my personal interest cars...am looking at one that for sale though it seems it might need much to much work for me...

Must say I have always liked the styling and proportions of this particular Zodiac though juding from letter and comments back in the day I would have been in the severe minority...

The proportions of the car look so right and apparently they used to handle particularly well, strange that they are seen that often today, probably because they werent that popular back in the day.

Whats also interesting is that in a time where all Ford had leaf spring the Zodiac had fully independent rear suspension...now imagine putting a V8 in it..

Anyone know anything or have any memories of these cars...

Is this the car ZA?

Correct its that shape...sadly not in as nice condition....

Very rare cars. In my opinion this is when Ford started losing their grip in the design of their cars. Not that this one was the worst. Far from it, but things changed a lot and then improved for a while and finally went out of the window in this country. I didn't mind this car. It was fairly comfortable and had power from the V6 as far as I remember. A friend of mine's father had one.

If you are going to do a resto, keep the V6. It's authentic.

All said and done Pat Sonnenschein tried her hand at racing one.

I wish I could get hold of the MKIII with its straight 6

I think the MK4 was a very ugly car. Kind of like a woollen MK2 Cortina that got streched in the wash.

The Mk3 was the last really pretty large English Ford.

But the redeeming factor of the MK4 is that it brought the world the Essex V6. But then again it broght us the dreaded V4 as well.

The one I am looking at has a 308 holden v8 in it so orginality has already been compromised...major issue with it though is that it needs a lot of work....

Agreed its ugly but as you say it did bring us the V6 and the rather forgettable V4....

Though I think everyone needs to hear a V4 run...rather unqiue sound...

My Dad managed to roll his MkIII when he got T-boned in Paarden Eiland around the time Paul Kruger was was running the Transvaal! One of the selling points on his car was the Firestone tyres that came with them "with nylon content good for 50,000 miles". Needless to say they did not last too long on the market before Firestone withdrew them. I guess sales were geting a bit slow.

Regarding the introduction of the V4 to South Africa, it happened a while before the Zephyr MKIV.

In the early 1960's Ford Germany had on the market the Taunus 17M P3 which I think was powered by a V4. It is evident that there were a lot of mongrel cars available on the market in those days. The 20M, for instance , was a Taunus, as was the Cortina MKIII.

The V4 that came out in the Taunus was transfered to the Corsair and the Capri.

Fairlaine 500: When did the 17M come out with the V4? My recollection is that the Zodiac Mk4 was slightly earlier.

OK, a bit of googling and I can answer my own question, Fairlane 500 is right.

In Europe:
12M V4 = 1962 1200cc
Zodiac Mk4 V4 = 1966
17M (20M shape) V4 = 1967.