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Ford Taunus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ford Taunus was a large family car sold by Ford in Germany. Some versions were similar to the Ford Cortina in the United Kingdom. The model line was named after the Taunus mountain range in Germany and was first made in 1939 and continued through several versions until 1982.
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The original Taunus was a development of the Eifel and used the same 1172 cc four cylinder engine but in a longer chassis and a streamlined body. It was the first German Ford to have hydraulic brakes. Due to the war, production was interrupted from 1942 to 1948. 74,128 were made including estate cars and light vans.
From 1952 to 1968 all German Fords were called the Taunus, using the model names 12M, 15M, 17M, 20M, and 26M. The "M" is said to stand for "Meisterstück", in English "Masterpiece". Taunus was also sometimes adopted as the brand-name in export markets, particularly where British and North American Fords were also available.
The 12, 15 and 17M models had a straight-4, later ones a V4 engine. The 20 and 26M models had a V6 engine. The 12, 15, 17 etc. refer to the engine displacement; 1200, 1500, 1700 cc etc.
From 1962 to 1970, the smaller models 12M (P4) and 12M/15M (P6) had front wheel drive. All other models had rear wheel drive.
The following models were offered:
- Smaller line: 12M, 15M
- first generation 12M (G13) 1952-1959, 15M 1955-1959
- second generation 12M 1959-1962
- third generation 12M (P4) 1962-1966
- fourth generation 12M (P6) 1966-1970, 15M (P6) 1966-1970
- Bigger line: 17M, 20M, 26M
- first generation 17M (P2) 1957-1960
- second generation 17M (P3) 1960-1964
- third generation 17M (P5) 1964-1967, 20M (P5) 1964-1967
- fourth generation 17M (P7) 1967-1968, 20M (P7) 1967-1968
- fifth generation 17M (P7.2)1968-1971, 20M (P7.2)1968-1971, 26M 1969-1971
In 1970 a new Taunus, the Taunus TC, was introduced, as a two- or four-door sedan, station wagon (or Turnier) and coupé. It was very similar to the British Ford Cortina Mk III, having been developed under the auspices of Ford of Europe, and many components were identical. The 1976 Taunus and Cortina models were identical in all but name, 'Taunus' being the name used in left hand drive (LHD) markets, and 'Cortina' in right hand drive ones, although the Cortina name was used in LHD South Korea and Taiwan. The Mk III was also sold in Scandinavia, alongside the Taunus.
The Ford Taunus TC series was conceived in the late 1960s to be a "world car" alongside its technical sibbling the Cortina Mk III, with construction and design work taking place on both sides of the Atlantic. As with the design of the first generation, it was done under the supervision of Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen, of former General Motors fame. The car is often nicknamed "Barock 2" (pointing back to the Taunus P2 series of the late 1950s, commonly known as the "Barock-Taunus") or "The Knudsen Nose" by its German owners because of the pointy hood scoop that, as the legend has it, was put there on direct order from Knudsen. Otherwise the major design work is rumoured to have been done by Italian car designer Luigi Colani, who also did design concepts for BMW's motorcycle division in the late 1970s.
As from the 1976 model year the Taunus and Cortina were essentially the same cars. The Taunus TC along with the Cortina Mk III and their successors have been produced in slightly updated forms in Europe, Argentina and Asia (some Cortinas were built under license by Korean automaker Hyundai) with the last Turkish Otosan-Taunus leaving the factory in the mid-nineties. However the major components remained basically the same through the entire production run only receiving minor body changes with the biggest re-engineering in the 1979 model year, which involved a facelift (identical to the Ford Cortina Mk5 update).
The 1979-82 series shared a good deal of its mechanics with the first generation Ford Sierra.
The Taunus and Cortina series are very easy to service and share a lot of mechanical components with the other European Ford cars of the period (excluding the Ford Fiesta), making them extremely easy to fix.
In 1982 production of the Taunus ceased in Europe, and was replaced by the Ford Sierra. Production continued in Argentina, where it also featured automatic transmission as optional, which had a local coupé version until 1984, and in Turkey, where a restyled version of the last model continued in production until 1994.
- Club Taunus in Argentina
- Dutch Ford Taunus GT and Ford OSI page
- Austrian Ford Taunus site (English language)
- German Ford Taunus site
- German Ford Taunus-Board (mainly German language, but also English and others)
- German site for M-series 1952 - 1972
- Swiss Ford Taunus site
- Hungarian Ford Taunus site
| Preceded by: Ford V8 G78 Ford Rheinland |
Taunus 17M/20M/26M (1957-1971) |
Succeeded by: Ford Granada |
| Preceded by: Ford Eifel Ford Köln |
Taunus G73A/G93A (1939-1951) |
Taunus 12M/15M (1952-1970) |
Ford Taunus (1970-1982) |
Succeeded by: Ford Sierra |
| Ford car timeline, European market, 1960s-1980s | Next -> | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Type | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Supermini | Fiesta I | Fiesta II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Small family car | Anglia 105E/Super Anglia 123E | Escort I | Escort II | Escort III | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Large family car | Consul | Cortina I | Cortina II | Cortina III / Taunus TC | Cortina IV/V / Taunus II | Sierra | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Taunus G13 | Taunus P4 | Taunus P6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classic | Corsair | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Executive car | Taunus P3 | Taunus P5 | Taunus P7 | Granada I | Granada II | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Zephyr II | Zephyr 4/6 III | Zephyr 4/6 IV | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Zodiac II | Zodiac III | Zodiac IV | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coupé | Consul Capri | Capri I | Capri II | Capri III | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ford cars made for the European market |
|---|
| Köln | Y | Rheinland | Eifel | C Ten | 7Y | 7W | Prefect | Anglia | Pilot | Zephyr | Consul | Squire | Taunus Vedette | Comète | Cortina | Popular | Classic | Corsair | Escort | Capri | Granada | Fiesta | Sierra | RS200 | Orion | Scorpio | Probe | Mondeo | Galaxy | Ka | Puma | Focus | Cougar | Maverick | Fusion | GT | Focus C-MAX | S-MAX |