Cortina front uprights under stress

Just trying to find the consensus on how good or bad the Cortina front uprights are with big brakes. Which cars are/ were they fitted to? I've heard that the Granada spindles can flex in which case I assume the Cortina ones do as well? Any opinions?

Lee,
There is no doubt that many of the 40s used in competition have thrown their old Cortina or Granada uprights over the nearest hedge and are using various source alloy uprights. I still successfully run on Granada uprights with modified Willwood braking system and knock on 15" BRM rims with absolutely no problems whatsoever and i,ve thrashed the poor old 40 to hell in the SR @ GT Series for the last two seasons. Doubtless i will change next year but having a spare set which cost next to nothing does keep my expenses down.The critical thing is to make sure your bearing loadings are even and you should have no problems especially if you want to keep your costs down.
Regards,
Graham @ GTA.

Hi Graham, very interesting comments, I have tried 3 different front upright setups over the past couple of months, and to be honest I was not really convinced that any were significantly better than the old Granadas.The car was running wide 17" BRMs and was set up by one of the guys who used to run the factory Audi Quattros.

When you factor in the price element, the Granada uprights seem better still, They might not look too pretty, but I've never heard of one fail, which is more than I can say for some others on offer. A little spindle flex is probably inevitable, but any brake pad knock back can be reduced by using a residual pressure valve.
Regards, Mike

Jasper and Lee,
With my set up i have no brake kick back at all and no residual pressure valve but i do believe that there are variations in the production lines of the old Granada uprights and that i, and am sure some others, have been fortunate to have good ones. I,m also convinced that some of the troublesome set-ups have not been thought out properly and that just sticking on big brakes and wheels and assuming they will work trouble free is wrong. I am running on a 15" diameter wheel set up and i think that puts far less strain on the spindles despite the intense and hard cornering and braking that that i subject my 40 to in circuit racing. Touch wood i have experienced no problems whatsoever.
Regards,
Graham.

Guys,
I am currently trying to cost the build of a tornado replica and one of things i was unsure about was the upright/brake/wheel setup.
How simalar are the granada uprights to the cortinas? would they pick up with the same mountings?
Do you know where i could get some of the alloy uprights you mention?

Regards
Chris

Try Gardner Douglas replicas. They do very high quality Cobras, and a Lola T70 spider.

Check out the Ultima, they produce ally uprights around 400ish a pair. Also, check out some of the formula ford web sites I recall seeing some ally uprights thereabouts also around 400ish(English quids).

Regards, Alex

Alex,

Just a thought on the use of FF uprights. A typical GTD will weigh up to 3 times more than the FF. At least mine does. On Wendy's FF, a 1968 model, I think the uprights are off a Triumph Herald at the front. Makes the Cortina items look really beefy.

As GTA said above some uprights used to get more spindle flex than others. I suffered terribly with it hence I have played around some in this area. It is not a nice feeling knowing that when you get to the next corner you need to pump up the brakes just to get a pedal! Slows you down somewhat. I did try and still use anti knock back springs but found they didn't really reduce the problem.

Malcolm