i had a te corty with the vynil top stripped and it looked great the whole car was biege.
as far as engine goes try for a xf 6and bang a turbo on it cause there is minimum work to be done to put the engine in. big v8's need to get the firewall adjusted for gearbox housing etc then its also harder to get it registered as the rta have changed laws on power to weight ratios for older car

mate if you put a alloyhead crossflow with a cam some headwork and a manual box it's going to have plenty of power, cortdy's are a hard car to set up for a lot of power, brakes and suspention are the hardest to get right and if you dont the car wont be able to get any of the power to the road, cordy's are known for front end slide it's dangerous in the wet, however it all needs engineering so maybe just go sick on the four, i have seen some mean cordy 4's and realy the poms only made em for 4's but once ford australia got hold of em thay put in ford's aus biggest ford 6 lol

Turboed TE's eat most V8's I've built a few , even one with a dashboard horsepower screw but it takes a bit of doing to get it right including BRAKES