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In Britain, there was a highly regarded version of the Cortina Mk II called the 1600E. In this case, the E stood for "Executive". They were often painted gold (the same exact color as Volvo used) with Rostyle wheels. The Volvo "E" (which stands for "Elektroniska", not "Einspritzung" which is a Mercedes designation) is twice the car any Cortina ever was. In Europe this car was known as the 142 GL. These exist with a factory sunroof, which is extremely rare. The 142E is the 140 series equivalent of the 123 GT. There were only about 2400 of these special 142s produced for the North American market---approximately 2000 of them having the M41 overdrive gearbox, a mere 12 automatics (BW 35) and the remainder straight 4 speeds. Nearly all of them were either gold metallic or blue-grey metallic. I had one of the very rare bright red ones.
Unless there is some prohibition on LHD cars (as in Australia) it is worth getting it going again and returning it to use. Nearly everything about it, with the possible exception of the styling is superior to the 122/Amazon. It would not be out of the question to convert it to RHD if a suitable donor car could be found, which would be any 140 from 67 to 72, not necessarily an E. As someone else has already mentioned, it is likely the only one of its kind in NZ.
BTW I lived in NZ for 2 years as a teenager---it was wonderful.
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