The Meissner Thread

Any discussions about the history of the road going cars
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FairmontGT
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Re: The Meissner Thread

Post by FairmontGT » Fri 07 Mar 2008, 22:32

I dont know the smaller ford engines at all - and have heard bad things about the V4.

Was it that bad?
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Killarney Racer
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Re: The Meissner Thread

Post by Killarney Racer » Fri 07 Mar 2008, 22:34

I believe sluggish, very rough and somewhat heavy. They didn't stick around too long so they must have been pretty poor.

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Re: The Meissner Thread

Post by ZA Perana » Sat 08 Mar 2008, 18:55

Killarney Racer wrote: Thanks ZAP for that. In an earlier posting I said I thought Meissner had never done a Corsair conversion. You jogged my old head and this now rings a bell. Are the numbers from a CAR test?

Yup the V4 was an engine Ford probably won't be proud of.


Correct numbers are from that source....back in 1967, another unique aspect of the car was a large Meissner grill badge. In fact Meissner did a lot of Corsair work, not only on the V4 but also other engines in the range.

Have heard a V4 run and it was a newish one with only 45 000 miles on the clock and must say it certainly had a unique beat....the car was a one owner V4 Capri....
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ZA Perana
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Re: The Meissner Thread

Post by ZA Perana » Sat 08 Mar 2008, 18:56

Killarney Racer wrote: I believe sluggish, very rough and somewhat heavy. They didn't stick around too long so they must have been pretty poor.


Last Ford in SA to get a V4 I think was the Mk3 Cortina so it did stick around for a while though sales figures will probably show that not many were sold.
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Re: The Meissner Thread

Post by henryk » Thu 13 Mar 2008, 15:12

About the V4 Ford engine.

Yes it was probably not Ford's best being a 3 litre V6 without the middle pair of cylinders.


But they were not total dogs.


In the mid 70's Pioneer Ford in P E prepared a standard 2 litre V4 Capri which was raced by John Barnes. The engine was standard and it ran on road tyres (Dunop SP73s as I remember)

The car raced in Cape Town in the then GTR races. This was something of a forerunner of Group 1 racing.

In any case the car won lots of races overall, beating mostly 2 litre Alfa Romeos. Somewhere at home I have a track test of this car done by I think Motoring Mirror.

For the following year the car was modified to Argus Production Car spec and it raced in the Free State championship. Still driven by John Barnes it once again performed exceptionally, in many cases finishing right behind and sometimes ahead of some of the 3 litre Capri's that used to rule the roost at Brandkop and the old Welkom circuit.

Perhaps if Ford S A never launched the V6 Capri the V4 would have not been the black sheep in the family.
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Hi-Fi
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Re: The Meissner Thread

Post by Hi-Fi » Thu 13 Mar 2008, 16:25

Henryk,

You are so right. I had forgotten what motor that car had in it. I remember John Barnes coming to Killarney and cleaning up the opposition. In fact he also raced this car in the 9 hour of 1969.

Here are a couple of pics of the car. Sorry, the quality is very bad.

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Re: The Meissner Thread

Post by henryk » Thu 13 Mar 2008, 16:29

Thanks for the pics.

Glad someone can confirm my view that the Essex V4 could be raced successfully and that it was not a total failure.
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Re: The Meissner Thread

Post by Firenza GT » Thu 13 Mar 2008, 22:03

Henry, what can you tell us about this one ? Please explain how it is that this Ford was plastered with so many metres of stripes ? They even curled that side stripe back towards the back of the car to fit in.

I must say this to me is also one very nice Escort and if any were really sold as such or even this publicity pic car was still around, quite something today. I think the mods are all done in good taste for the era.

I thought our General Motors excessive GT striping was a bit beyond the norm ....

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Re: The Meissner Thread

Post by Hi-Fi » Fri 14 Mar 2008, 05:28

Yes, that Meissner Escort is yet another piece of history that the great man produced. What a collectors item!

I scrounged this out of an old Ford Performance mag.

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Re: The Meissner Thread

Post by Railway » Fri 14 Mar 2008, 07:04

Something like this ? "For Ford owners only " Quite a cheek ...

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