[citation needed] The Corsair was designed by the same team as the Mark 1 Cortina, with Roy Brown Jr. overseeing the styling by Charles Thompson, and Fred Hart in charge of the engineering.

Replacing the Consul Classic range, it was essentially a long wheelbase re-skinned Cortina with extra soundproofing and more comfortable seating for high speed long-distance driving.

The Corsair had unusual and quite bold styling for its day, with a sharp horizontal V-shaped crease at the very front of the car into which round headlights were inset.

The jet-like styling extended to the rear where sharply pointed vertical light clusters hinted at fins, recalling the Ford Consul Mark 2.

In 1964 Tony Brookes, with his twin brother as one of the drivers, and a group of friends captured 15 International class G World endurance records at Monza in Italy with a Corsair 1500 GT.

The range was revised in September 1965, gaining a better dashboard and interior ventilation, but adopting new Ford Essex V4 engines which were rough at idle and coarse on the road.

One marketing tagline for the V4 models was "The Car That Is Seen But Not Heard", which was a real stretch of the ad man's puff, given the inherent characteristics of the engine.

An estate car by Abbott was added to the range on the eve of the Geneva Motor Show in March 1966,[5] and in 1967, the Corsair underwent the Executive treatment like its smaller Cortina sibling, resulting in the 2000E model with dechromed flanks, which necessitated non-styled-in door handles, special wheel trims, reversing lights, a vinyl roof, and upgraded cabin fittings including a polished wood dashboard.

The Corsair's performance was good for a car of its type and period, with a top speed in its later 2.0 L V4 version of 110 miles per hour (180 km/h) as measured by the speedometer,[7] thanks to the progressive 28/36mm twin-choke Weber downdraught carburettor.