British Ford Cars of the 1960s and 1970s E-Book

James Taylor

• Herausgeber: The Crowood Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 318

Beschreibung

The 1960s and 1970s were a pivotal period for Ford in Europe and, seen from a British perspective, were a time of experimentation and exploration. At the start of the 1960s Ford had models aimed at just two market sectors – small family saloons and large family saloons – but by the end of the 1970s they were represented in no fewer than five areas of the market with small hatchbacks, small saloons, medium saloons, sporty coupés and large saloons. And they had overtaken all rivals in Britain to be the best-selling manufacturer with (since 1967) the Cortina as the best-selling car. With over 270 photographs, this book details: the Ford company structure, businesses and key locations throughout the two decades; the factors influencing model design, engineering, styling and interior; specification and performance tables; market reception and sales; special editions, models produced overseas and conversions and finally, helpful buying advice for each model.

Leseprobe

First published in 2022 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

[email protected]

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2022

© James Taylor 2022

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7198 4072 2

Image creditsAlan Light/WikiMedia Commons, page 21;Alf van Beem/WikiMedia Commons, pages 18, 19 (bottom), 38 (top); Allen Watkin/WikiMedia Commons, page 75 (bottom left); Andrew Bone/WikiMedia Commons, pages 22 (top), 24 (top and bottom), 26 (bottom), 86 (top), 165; Brian Snelson/WikiMedia Commons, page 162 (top); Charles01/WikiMedia Commons, pages 20 (top and bottom), 22 (middle), 25 (middle), 30, 38 (bottom), 41 (top), 44, 82, 88, 91 (middle), 109 (bottom), 137 (bottom); Dougie Macdonald/WikiMedia Commons, page 112; Flickr, pages 41 (bottom), 69 (bottom), 86 (bottom); Jeremy/WikiMedia Commons, page 67 (bottom); Jirˇí Sedlácˇek /WikiMedia Commons, page 146 (middle); Kent Police Museum, pages 66 (second down), 99 (second down); Kieran White/WikiMedia Commons, pages 145 (bottom), 146 (bottom), 150 (top); Laurie Lind/WikiMedia Commons, page 168 (bottom); Magic Car Pics NB All these need to be ordered (total 47), pages 10 (bottom), 14 (bottom), 46, 48 (top), 49 (middle and bottom), 50 (top and bottom), 54 (bottom), 55, 57, 58 (top), 59 (top), 64 (bottom), 65 (bottom and top right), 66 (top, bottom left and bottom right), 73 (bottom), 74 (top and bottom), 75 (bottom right), 77 (top), 78, 89 (bottom), 90, 105, 107 (top), 108, 125 (top), 129 (bottom), 130 (top), 132, 136 (bottom), 144 (top and bottom), 151, 152, 153 (top), 154, 159 (bottom), 162 (bottom), 163 (left), 164, 168 (top), 169, 170; Matthias v.d.Elbe/WikiMedia Commons, page 26 (top); Riley/WikiMedia Commons, pages 42 (bottom), 83, 89 (top); Robert G/WikiMedia Commons, frontispiece and page 139 (middle); SG2012/WikiMedia Commons, pages 17 (top), 21 (middle and bottom), p.35; Sicnag/WikiMedia Commons, pages 27 (top), 67 (top), 79 (bottom), 85 (bottom), 110 (bottom); Thomas’ pics/WikiMedia Commons, page 87; Vauxford/WikiMedia Commons, pages 19 (top left), 31 (left and right), 32 (top), 34 (bottom), 37, 85 (top), 91 (top), 115 (top and bottom), 123 (top and middle), 155 (bottom).

Cover design by Sergey Tsvetkov

CONTENTS

Introduction and Acknowledgements

Timeline

CHAPTER 1 TWO PIVOTAL DECADES

CHAPTER 2 THE 105E ANGLIA FAMILY

CHAPTER 3 CLASSIC, CAPRI & CORSAIR

CHAPTER 4 ZEPHYRS AND ZODIACS

CHAPTER 5 CORTINA MKI AND MKII

CHAPTER 6 CORTINA MKIII, MKIV AND MKV

CHAPTER 7 ESCORT

CHAPTER 8 CAPRI

CHAPTER 9 CONSULS AND GRANADAS

CHAPTER 10 THE FIRST FIESTA

APPENDIX THE ENGINES

Index

INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

What struck me most when writing this book was how quickly the cars that form its story have disappeared from our everyday lives. Cars that were ubiquitous 50 years ago have now taken on a charm that I would not have believed possible when they were new.

I doubt that I am alone in finding this. Sometimes, it is the everyday and the taken-for-granted that with hindsight become the important elements in our memories. Or is it just a distortion that comes about through time? I hope that reading this book will help provide some perspective on that question.

I also hope that this book will encourage more people to take an interest in these older Fords. They deserve it. That is the main reason why each section of the book is accompanied by some brief buying advice and by information about clubs and interest groups.

Special thanks go to Magic Car Pics for providing so many of the pictures that illustrate this book, and to the many generous individuals who have made their work available through Wikimedia Commons.

James TaylorOxfordshireOctober 2021

TIMELINE

1959, September

Anglia (105E) introduced

1961, May

Consul Classic introduced

1961, September

Consul Capri introduced

1962, April

MkIII range of Zephyr 4, Zephyr 6 and Zodiac introduced

1962, September

Consul Cortina introduced

1963, February

Capri production transferred from Dagenham to Halewood

1963, October

Anglia production transferred from Dagenham to Halewood

Consul Corsair introduced

1964, July

End of Consul Capri production

1965, October

V4 engines introduced in Corsair

1966, January

End of MkIII Zephyr and Zodiac production

1966, spring

MkIV range of Zephyr 4, Zephyr 6 and Zodiac introduced

1966, October

End of Cortina MkI production

Cortina MkII introduced

1967, November

Anglia production ended

1968, January

Escort MkI introduced

1969, January

Capri MkI introduced

1970, June

End of Corsair production

1970, September

End of Cortina MkII production

1970, October

Cortina MkIII introduced

1972, March

Granada MkI range introduced

1972, autumn

End of MkIV Zephyr and Zodiac production

1973, autumn

End of Capri MkI production

1974, February

Capri MkII introduced

1975, January

Escort MkII introduced

1975, March

End of Escort MkI production

1976, summer

End of Cortina MkIII production

1976, September

Cortina MkIV introduced

Granada production transferred from Dagenham to Cologne

1976, October

Capri production transferred from Halewood to Cologne

1977, February

Fiesta MkI introduced (September 1976 in Europe)

1977, summer

End of Granada MkI production

1977, August

Granada MkII introduced

1978, March

End of Capri MkII production

Capri MkIII introduced

1979, autumn

Cortina 80 (MkV) introduced

1980, July

End of Escort MkII production

1982, July

End of Cortina production

1983, summer

End of Fiesta Mk1 production

1985, April

End of Granada Mk2 production

1986, December

End of Capri production

CHAPTER 1

TWO PIVOTAL DECADES

At the start of the two decades covered by this book, Ford of Britain was an outpost of the parent company, Ford of America. It was a separately managed company, with headquarters at Dagenham in Essex, although it was subject to oversight by the headquarters of the American company in Dearborn, Michigan – and on occasion that oversight was extended to become direction. Ford of Britain produced cars not only for its home market but also for several countries of the British Commonwealth and for several countries on the European continent. There, its sales territories were carefully allocated so as not to impinge on those where sales belonged to the other major European Ford branch, Ford of Germany.

Though separately managed, Ford of Britain had inherited the ruthlessly rational approach that was characteristic of its American parent. Everything it did was carefully scrutinized to minimize waste and duplication; components were shared between model ranges as far as possible, and there was ruthless cost-paring by re-using existing items on new products wherever it made sense to do so.

Ford also depended on a discipline called product planning, which was not common in the British motor industry at that time. This had been imported from the USA in 1953, when Sir Patrick Hennessy, then Managing Director of the British company, had recognized its benefits. Product planning determined what new products the company should design and develop by taking in a variety of information about customer requirements and combining this with internal information such as manufacturing feasibility. It reduced the autonomy and responsibilities of the engineering, sales, financial and manufacturing divisions, which in other companies generally worked out future product policy among themselves. The Ford method was devastatingly more efficient.

Ford of Britain first implemented product planning for the car that became the Consul Classic in 1961, and that model was not a spectacular success. The next product-planned car, however, was the 1962 Cortina, and the success of that one exceeded all expectations. It was the main driver behind Ford’s leadership of the British market for nearly two decades and had a huge influence on future Ford strategy and on the model policies of many of their rivals as well.

The car that brought Ford to the forefront of the British motoring scene in the 1960s was the hugely successful Cortina. This is the original model, built when it was still called a Consul Cortina.

Cortinas remained in production for 20 years and went through five different major iterations. Here are four of them, in a celebratory publicity picture from Ford.

GOING EUROPEAN

Yet in spite of this major success from Ford of Britain, with a model that had been theirs and theirs alone, Ford in the USA was already working towards greater integration of its European subsidiaries. The view from Dearborn was that it made no economic success to have two major subsidiaries as close to one another geographically as Britain and Germany, especially since the requirements of the markets serviced by each one were so similar. As a result, moves towards integration were being made before the middle of the decade and in 1965 the first joint product, the Transit van, was introduced. In June 1967 the two companies were then formally merged as Ford of Europe, with headquarters in the German city of Cologne.

By this time, the British motor industry was beginning to suffer from industrial unrest, and Ford was hit hard in summer 1968 when the women sewing machinists who made car seat covers at Dagenham walked out over equal pay with Ford’s male employees. Three years later, a ten-week strike brought a temporary halt to production of the then-new MkIII Cortina and proved especially damaging; at the time it was reported to have cost production of as many as 100,000 cars. The spread of industrial action right across British industry over the next few years must have persuaded Ford in America that they had been right not to allow Ford of Britain to continue as a stand-alone subsidiary, and as the 1970s progressed the company focused production increasingly on the European continent, where strike action was nowhere near as prevalent.

By the end of the 1960s, all new models were designed jointly by British and German engineers under the umbrella of Ford of Europe. These are German versions of the MkI Granada range in 1972; the original version of the coupé, with its ‘Coke-bottle’ upturn in the side panels, did not become part of the British line-up.

In fact, plans had already been made to increase car production on the European continent, and the German factory in Cologne was supplemented from 1970 by a newly opened one at Saarlouis. This was followed in 1976 by yet another new factory at Valencia in Spain to build the new Fiesta, to supplement the assembly already taking place at Dagenham and Cologne. This multi-sourcing strategy reduced the risk of a total interruption to assembly if one or other of the factories was obliged to suspend operations. At the same time, the second British factory at Halewood ceased to make Capris, which were all in future built in Cologne (although it now became the primary production facility for the Escort family). The wisdom of the Ford arrangements was not lost on General Motors, the American owner of Vauxhall in Britain and Opel in Germany, and by the late 1970s the operations of those two marques had effectively been merged for very similar reasons.

THE GHIA NAME

Several of the later models in this book carried the Ghia name as a model designation, beginning with the 1974-season Ford Granada Ghia. The name was used to indicate the top level of trim and equipment, and remained in use until 2010, when Ford replaced it with the Titanium designation.

Ghia was in fact a long-established Italian coachbuilder, but by 1966 it was running into business difficulties. In 1970, it was put up for sale and was acquired by Ford. The coachbuilder’s design studios in Turin became an outpost of the Ford empire, but Ford’s real interest was in using the famous red and blue shield badge on its cars and trading on the Ghia reputation.

The blue and red Ghia badge denoted top-model Fords after 1973.

PERSONALITIES

The Ford corporate system tended to suppress personalities; there was no room for the maverick designer or engineer whose brilliant ideas drove the company forward. Yet the Ford system certainly produced its fair share of top-quality men, and inevitably the names of many of them have become known over the years.

As the 1960s opened, the Chairman and CEO of Ford of Britain was Sir Patrick Hennessy, who had joined the company’s Irish branch at Cork in 1920 and had worked his way up through the ranks. He retired as Chairman in 1968, by which time Ford of Britain and Ford of Germany had been united as Ford of Europe. Another important figure who was already in place within the company was Terry Beckett, who had joined the company as a management trainee in 1950 and made his name as the product planner behind the first Cortina. He went on to become Managing Director and CEO in 1974, and Chairman two years later, remaining at Ford until 1980 when he chose to move to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), later gaining a knighthood.

A left-hand-drive Escort MkII on test in Britain. The chase car, joined to the test car by an umbilical cord of cables, is a Cortina MkII estate. Today, telemetry has removed the need for a second car to carry all the test instruments.

The Fiesta XR2 was a result of Ford’s ruthless approach to product planning, minimizing manufacturing costs and complication while giving the customers what they wanted.

Among those with direct responsibility for British Ford products, it is the names of the stylists that have tended to come to the fore. In 1953, Ford bought Briggs Motor Bodies, its primary body supplier, and with that company came Colin Neale. Neale was made Chief Stylist and oversaw the creation of the earliest 1960s British Fords. His replacement was Roy Brown, Canadian designer of the infamously unsuccessful Edsel, who was responsible for the first Cortina of 1962. The second Cortina of 1966 was the work of Roy Haynes, who also contributed to the MkIV Zephyr and Zodiac range that entered production the same year. Haynes’ work was so highly regarded that BMC poached him in 1967, and he worked on several cars for British Leyland, including the Maxi, the Mini Clubman, the Allegro and the Marina.

After the merger of Ford’s British and German branches, styling was entrusted to the German side of the company, and the key figure was Uwe Bahnsen, who had joined Ford in 1958 and during the 1970s became Vice President of Design for Ford of Europe. He developed the ‘folded paper’ style that characterized the company’s products for much of that decade.

Two other names that stand out in the period covered by this book are those of Harley Copp and Walter Hayes. Copp was an American engineer who became Vice President of Engineering for Ford of Britain in the 1960s and oversaw the engineering that went into cars from the big MkIV saloons of 1966 to the Cortina MkIII of 1971. Walter Hayes, who headed the public relations department from 1962, was the chief architect of Ford’s change of image in the years that followed. Before him, the company had been seen as a maker of solid but rather boring cars, but Hayes gave the company a new image as a maker of interesting and fashionable cars with performance as well. He was also a major figure in the development of the motorsport programmes that contributed so much to this change of image.

THE LOCATIONS

At the start of the 1960s, Ford’s UK manufacturing operations centred on Dagenham in Essex, where the company had opened a factory in 1931. During the 1950s, the Dagenham plant was extensively redeveloped and by 1959 production capacity had been doubled. At the same time, car body assembly was centralized at Dagenham; it had previously been located in the old Briggs plants at Doncaster and Southampton that Ford had acquired when it had bought out Briggs Motor Bodies in 1953.

The Dagenham plant was the centre of Ford manufacturing in Britain but was supplemented by an additional factory at Halewood from 1963.

Dagenham remained the primary British assembly plant throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and Ford’s administrative and design offices were also located there; other special divisions such as AVO (see below) were located nearby in Essex. Nevertheless, the expansion in the 1950s was not enough to cope with Ford’s plans for the 1960s, and in October 1963 a second assembly plant was opened at Halewood on Merseyside. This took on assembly of the Anglia (which was moved from Dagenham), built the Corsair from its introduction in 1964, and followed with the Escort and Capri at the end of the 1960s.

However, the 1960s were not all about expansion. Ford design was based at Dagenham but the company had no fewer than seven engineering sites at various locations around the UK. As the company gradually moved towards integration of its European operations, it made sense to consolidate its British engineering operations too, and in October 1967 it opened a new engineering centre at Dunton in Essex for that purpose. Within Ford of Europe, Dunton split the multiple elements of car engineering with its German counterpart at Merkenich in Cologne, so avoiding the duplication of effort that had previously characterized Ford’s European operations. An inevitable result was that British and German Fords grew much closer to one another in design and in specification over the following years.

Dunton also became the headquarters of Ford Team RS, which handled all European racing activity and the development of new performance models. Among these would be the Fiesta XR2 that is covered in this book, and the rest of the XR family of performance Fords that followed.

THE RELATIONSHIP WITH ABBOTT

Ford had recognized during the 1950s that there was some demand for estate-car derivatives of its larger models, but the company cautiously decided against putting any into production in its own factories. (It nevertheless did commit to production of estate derivatives of the smaller models.)

The solution was to sub-contract production of estate derivatives to E. D. Abbott Ltd, a long-established coachbuilder based at Farnham in Surrey. These estates were created as conversions from saloons supplied by Ford, and production volumes were inevitably limited. There were Abbott estate conversions for the MkIII (Consul, Zephyr and Zodiac) and MkIV (Zephyr and Zodiac) large saloon ranges, and for the Corsair, and these were often referred to as Farnham estates. By the time of the Granada range in 1972, it was clear that customer demand had become high enough to justify volume production, and from that point on Ford made all its own estate bodies.

OVERSEAS LINKS

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the British Ford factories built special variants of the mainstream models for some export territories. Many had left-hand drive; many had low-compression engines to suit poor-quality petrol; while others had smaller-capacity engines to avoid excessive taxation in their destination country.

The British-designed Fords (though not all of them) were also assembled in multiple overseas locations for local sale. Many of these overseas plants were supplied from Britain with CKD kits, in which the cars were shipped as sets of parts to be assembled locally. There would often be quite substantial locally-sourced content in the finished product, too, ranging from tyres, paint and batteries to seats and upholstery. Some of the larger assembly operations had their own engineering departments and were given permission to make substantial modifications to suit local requirements. Examples ranged from the lightly-modified Anglia Sportsman in Belgium to the redesigned Anglia Torino in Italy and the Cortina pick-ups in South Africa.

Assembly plants around the world produced Fords from knock-down kits, and some added their own variations as well. This is an Australian Cortina TD, or MkIII; the door mirrors and wheel trims are immediately obvious differences from British-built cars.

The assembly plants and their products are listed below, and there is more detail about the cars they built in the individual chapters of this book.

Australia

The assembly plant was initially at Brownmeadows, Campbellfield, in Victoria. Anglias and all five marks of Cortina were assembled here.Assembly then moved to a plant at Homebush, near Sydney in New South Wales. This plant assembled Escorts and Capris.Assembly of MkIV Cortina estates was undertaken under contract by Renault Australia at Heidelberg in New South Wales.

Belgium

The Ford plant in Antwerp assembled Anglia models.

Eire

The Marina plant in Dublin assembled Escorts and Cortinas, and in later years supplied some cars back to mainland Britain as well.

Israel

Escorts were assembled at a plant in Upper Nazareth, in a joint operation with the Israeli Ford sales agency.

Malaysia

A plant in Singapore assembled Cortinas.

Netherlands

The Ford plant in Amsterdam assembled examples of the first four marks of Cortina but closed in 1978.

New Zealand

Ford’s assembly plant was at Seaview, a suburb of Petone, near Wellington on the north island. Seaview assembled the big MkIII saloons, Cortinas, and Escorts.Escort Mk2 models were assembled at a second Ford plant, in Wiri, South Auckland.

Pakistan

The Ford plant was at Karachi and assembled Cortinas.

Rhodesia

Ford’s Rhodesian plant was at Salisbury, where the company assembled the big MkIII saloons.

South Africa

Cortinas, Escorts and Capris were all assembled at the Ford plant in Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape.

South Korea

The Ford plant was at Ulsan in the south-east of the country, and assembled Cortinas and some Granada MkII models.

Taiwan

Ford Lio Ho at Taoyuan, near Taipei, assembled Cortinas and Escorts.

THE MODEL RANGES

The 1960s and 1970s were a pivotal period for Ford in Europe and, seen from a British perspective, were a time of experimentation and exploration. These experiments were not all successful, but by the end of the decade it was clear what the shape of the future product line ought to be. As a result, the 1970s were a period of greater stability, and the only major experiment was the introduction of the Fiesta in 1976. Ford had entered the 1960s with models aimed at just two market sectors – small family saloons and large family saloons – but by the end of the 1970s they were represented in no fewer than five areas of the market. They had small hatchbacks, small saloons, medium saloons, sporty coupés and large saloons. And they had overtaken all rivals in Britain to be the best-selling manufacturer with (since 1967) the Cortina as the best-selling car.

Big cars were important for Ford in this period, too, and the MkIII range with its American-inspired tail fins is seen here in Zodiac form.

The Ford model range expanded hugely in this period. The four pictures at the top of this 1976 advertisement show (clockwise from top left): the big Granada saloon; the Cortina (then a MkIII); the Escort (then a MkII); and the Capri (also a MkII).

The ‘experimentation and exploration’ phase began in 1961 with the Consul Classic, as Ford tried to insert a medium-sized saloon between its existing small and large saloon ranges. That car encountered limited success (and its Consul Capri offshoot was even less successful), but Ford pressed the point home with the follow-up Consul Corsair range in 1964. By the time it arrived, however, Ford had already found the right solution with the brilliantly conceived Consul Cortina of 1962. That car eroded the relevance of the Corsair, as it had become (the Consul element of the names was dropped), which continued into 1970 but was completely replaced by the next generation of the Cortina. The second attempt at a sporty coupé arrived in early 1969 as the Capri, and was derived from the Cortina itself.

So by the early 1970s, the Ford range consisted of the Escort (which had replaced the Anglia as the small saloon), the Cortina as the mid-range saloon, the Capri as the sporty coupé, and the Granada family as the large saloons. This four-model range had its own clear hierarchy and yet, in the great Ford tradition, major elements such as engines and gearboxes were shared among the different models to create a seemingly vast array of options at every level of the market. The only change to this hierarchy then came in 1976, when the Fiesta was added below the Escort to meet the demands of the developing supermini market segment.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Ford were never very consistent about the way they expressed the mark numbers attached to many of their models. Enthusiasts are even less so, and the designations ‘Mark II’ and ‘Mark 2’ seem to be used interchangeably.

For consistency, the Roman numerals have been used throughout this book, and the designations are expressed in abbreviated form; the model with the most numerous variants, the Cortina, therefore comes as MkI, MkII, MkIII, MkIV and MkV types.

Inevitably, there are exceptions. Where the names of clubs or internet addresses use the Arabic forms such as ‘Mk2’, these have been retained for practical reasons.

PERFORMANCE MODELS

Although Ford did not have a tradition of involvement in motorsport, by the early 1960s it was becoming clear that there might be some marketing advantages to be gained by participating in competition. Sports car maker Lotus was already working on a twin-cam conversion of the 1.5-litre Ford production engine for use in its own cars, and Ford’s Walter Hayes seized the opportunity; he asked Lotus to fit the engine to 1,000 Cortinas so that the car could be homologated for competition in Group 2 events.

The Escort of 1968 was another huge success, replacing the Anglia as the smallest Ford saloon. Several sporting versions were developed, and invariably looked the part.

Sporting Escorts at an enthusiasts’ gathering. These cars have a dedicated following today.

The result was the legendary Cortina Lotus, which did very well for Ford but at some cost. To avoid complication on the assembly lines, the cars were built up by Lotus, but gradually Ford reduced their cost and complication with a number of specification changes. There were also some issues with build quality, and within a few years Ford had decided that using a sub-contractor in this way did not achieve what they wanted. The Cortina Lotus episode was a warning that low-volume performance variants of the company’s mainstream models might require special in-house manufacturing arrangements.

As Ford became increasingly focused on motorsport and introduced performance versions of the Escort to support its endeavours, it became clear that the Halewood production lines were ill-equipped to deal with these small-volume special derivatives among the high-volume mainstream models. Ford’s solution was therefore to create a dedicated facility to produce these cars. This was unveiled in November 1970 as Ford AVO (Advanced Vehicle Operations) and was based at Aveley in Essex. Over the next few years, AVO turned out Escort RS1600s and Mexicos, and later RS2000s, and was also responsible for completing Escort 1300E models that had been assembled at Halewood. These cars were enormously popular, both for serious competition use and with the ‘boy racer’ fraternity of the day, but sales suffered a setback after the 1973 oil crisis and Ford moved swiftly to deal with the problem, closing the AVO assembly line early in 1975 and returning production of the performance models to Halewood. Once again, Ford’s ruthlessly rational corporate policies had triumphed over the ‘maverick’ enterprises of some of its more gifted engineers.

MOTORSPORT

This is not the place for a detailed examination of the Ford motorsport programmes of the period, but it is worth noting that Ford in the USA had shown a determination to embrace motorsport more fully with its Total Performance programme of 1962. The thinking behind this filtered down to the company’s European operations, and by the end of the decade there were works teams in touring car racing and in rally championships as well. Their success was a major factor in changing public perceptions of what Ford stood for, and in adding excitement to the Escort range in particular.

Ford put a great deal of effort into motorsport in this period and was amply rewarded with success. This picture shows Roger Clark and co-driver Jim Porter driving their ‘works’ Escort Twin Cam in the 1969 San Remo Rally in Italy. The pair would go on to win the Circuit of Ireland rally in a BDA-engined Escort the following year.

THE RELATIONSHIP WITH LOTUS

Sports car maker Lotus developed a twin-cam conversion of the Ford 1498cc Kent four-cylinder engine for its own cars, and Ford recognized that this engine would be ideal for a performance derivative of the Cortina range it introduced in 1962.

The Ford Cortina Lotus was actually assembled by Lotus at their Cheshunt factory, using bodyshells provided by Ford. The relationship between the two companies continued into the MkII Cortina era, but Ford gradually took over the assembly side of the operation, even assembling the twin-cam engines themselves. From August 1967, the Lotus name disappeared from the cars, although the Lotus-designed engine remained available in cars that were now called Twin Cams. There were both Cortina MkII and Escort MkI Twin Cam models, the last Cortina being built in 1970 and the last Escort in 1971.

THE RELATIONSHIP WITH COSWORTH

Northampton-based Cosworth began building racing engines in 1959 as developments of Ford production engines. The company developed several successful engines in this series, of which the best known was the DFV (Double Four Valve) type. This legendary engine was introduced in 1967 and went on to become the most successful engine in the history of Formula 1 and Grand Prix motor racing.

The relationship between the two companies intensified in 1969, when Cosworth developed a 16-valve DOHC engine for the Escort, on the basis of the Kent engine block. The engine could be enlarged from its basic 1.6 litres up to 2.0 litres and allowed the works Escorts to compete in both Group 2 and Group 4 rally or touring car events. It was known as the BDA type (see Appendix for further details).

CHAPTER 2

THE 105E ANGLIA FAMILY

By the later 1950s, the old side-valve Fords of the 100E range were embarrassingly underpowered, and it was clear that a major overhaul would be needed if they were to maintain their position in the market. Dagenham therefore tackled the problem on two fronts: there would not only be a new and more modern engine, but also a new and strikingly modern shape.

The Anglia Super – this is a 1965 model – had an additional contrasting-colour flash on each flank. Note also the different badge on the nose.

This rather wonderful Ford publicity picture celebrates the fact that the Anglia became a popular police Panda car.

The engine was drawn up with overhead valves, and the new Anglia, launched on 30 September 1959, would be the first Ford to have it. The Anglia also brought a remarkable new shape that was very much of its time but is still very distinctive today. Its arrival prompted a realignment of the other small cars in the range. The old 100E Anglia was not dropped but re-emerged as the 100E Popular, while the four-door Prefect variant became the 107E by taking on the running-gear of the new Anglia.

Ford promoted its new Anglia as ‘the world’s most exciting light car’, and the model was a great success from the start. Its initial appearance at the Earl’s Court Motor Show in October 1959 attracted an astonishing 100,000 export orders, and its first full-year production total of 191,752 set a new record for Ford. The initial 997cc Standard and De Luxe saloons were followed in June 1961 by a pair of van derivatives and by estate variants that September. From September 1962, an 1198cc version of the engine became central to a new Anglia Super, with appropriately higher equipment levels, and this replaced the 107E Prefect. (Customers who wanted four doors were now offered the new Cortina.) With relatively few running changes, this was the model range that carried the Anglia through to the end of its production in November 1967, when it was replaced by the new Escort.

The Anglia family was built at Dagenham and (from October 1963) at Halewood in Britain. It was also manufactured overseas at Broadmeadows in Australia and in South Africa, in each case for local consumption. There were some fascinating ‘specials’ in Belgium and in Italy, and at home in Britain several aftermarket conversions added interest to the range. The 105E was enthusiastically adopted by club racers, and in Britain was often seen in police livery as a Panda car (allowing the local or ‘beat’ police officer to cover a wider area); the first fleet of 50 or so was purchased by the Lancashire Constabulary in summer 1965. It was popular enough in Britain to earn its own nickname of ‘Anglebox’ – a name which is proudly used today as the title of the owners’ club magazine.

ENGINEERING

Radical innovation was not expected in the small-car market of the time, and that was one reason why the BMC Mini, introduced at the same time as the 105E Anglia, proved such an eye-opener. Even so, Ford’s new ‘Kent’ OHV four-cylinder engine was such a vast improvement on the earlier side-valve units that it seemed like a major innovation in 1959.

It came with another innovation – for Ford, at least. This was a four-speed gearbox which had synchromesh on all gears except first. To Ford owners used to the earlier three-speed type, that too was a revelation. In tandem, the new engine and gearbox provided a blend of performance and economy that were most attractive at a time when the first motorways in Britain were encouraging long periods of high-speed motoring. Although the original 997cc Anglia was all-out at 73mph (117km/h), it could cruise comfortably for hour after hour at just under the 70mph (113km/h) legal limit, which meant that the family motorist did not feel outclassed by bigger-engined cars and could expect to outpace older small models with ease.

There were no real surprises about the suspension layout, which had the same MacPherson struts at the front as the old 100E models, and also had the same leaf-sprung rear axle. Nevertheless, the Anglia’s handling was much better than was normal for its class, and would be one reason why the car became a motorsport favourite.

STYLING

When Ford in Britain started work on their replacement for the 100E range in 1956, they identified improvements in rear-seat accommodation as an important design target. So executive engineer Fred Hart designed the body to have a roof that remained flat at the rear instead of curving down to the detriment of headroom. Following the lead of US Ford thinking that would lead to the 1958 Lincoln Continental, he arranged for the window to have a reverse rake. This ensured that the length of the boot was not compromised.

This 1960 Anglia shows a two-tone colour scheme typical of the early saloons.

The controversial but distinctive reverse-rake rear window is clear in this picture of an Anglia De Luxe.

Distinctive tail lights and a distinguishing badge on an early Anglia De Luxe.

The car was to have only two doors, as there were plans for a different model to attract customers who wanted four. So Hart designed the body with much wider door openings than the model it would replace in order to give better access to the rear seat. Wind-tunnel testing was by this time a factor in Ford design, and the new Anglia was duly tested. One result was a sloping bonnet where the old models had a flat one, and this led to a distinctive front end profile where the headlamps stood proud on either side of the nose.

There was, of course, some influence from Dearborn. Although Ford’s parent company did not force the hand of its overseas divisions in the way that General Motors did with a company like Vauxhall, some strong hints were undoubtedly made. So the body was adorned with plenty of chromed brightwork, including a full-width grille on the more expensive variants, and almost inevitably it ended up with fin shapes for the rear wings, even though these were much less pronounced than was common on American cars of the time. There was almost certainly American influence on the paint colours chosen for production, too. Bright colours such as Shark Blue, Lichen Green and Sunburst Yellow were remarkable for the time, and the more expensive models were made available with fashionable two-tone options as well.

The overall result was a highly recognizable body shape, which remains distinctive today but when new was verging on the avant-garde. It was quite remarkable for a small car in the Anglia’s class, and as a result was of course also controversial. Ford decided that explaining the evolution of the reverse-rake rear window was too difficult, and so their promotional material settled for claiming that the window would remain clear in the rain – which was undoubtedly true, but was hardly the point.

INTERIOR

If the interior space was outstanding for a small two-door saloon of the time, and was made to feel more so by quite large glass areas, the design was disappointingly conventional. The dashboard was of course bare metal, painted in the same colour as the body, and was very obviously designed to suit both LHD and RHD models. Where the oddly-shaped instrument panel went on one side, a strangely-shaped glove box was on the other side. The steering wheel was large and deeply dished.

The Anglia’s dashboard was very obviously designed so that the same pressing could be adapted to both RHD and LHD cars.