Here's a little guessing game for you. I took the above photo in the early 1970's during my time as European Accounts Group Creative Director for the J. Walter Thompson ad agency. The location was near Caserta, a small town in the south of Italy, the purpose an advertising shoot. The car was a pre-production prototype, meaning that it was virtually identical to the vehicles that would come off the assembly lines but was hand-made at the factory. The dollar value of the subject vehicles was around a million, so you can be certain we advertising types kept our hands off except to indicate where we wanted the cars positioned for photography. There were two versions of the same car, each with minor styling differences to suit different markets. One was a little softer, a touch more rounded than the other which was crisp and sharp by comparison, both vehicles typifying the personalities of their home countries… or so the marketing mavens thought. There's no prize for the first correct guess (hey, I'm a blogger, what would you expect?) but to the winner goes the honour of recognition. Replies in the Comments section below, please.
Interesting looking car the radiator grille looks like a MkII Cortina (the coke bottle shaped one) but the sides look more like a MkIV Cortina. So I am guessing it is the German produced Ford Taunus.
Tony Merrygold
July 9, 2008 @ 5:01 pm