adminbeen taken from scrapyards and remodelled.
Either way I always appreciate driving next to them because it makes me realise how creative mechanics were back then.
In this issue, I thought I would look at a car which made its mark in production and sales back in the 40s to the 60s. I’m sure many of you will remember this one – the Ford Anglia.
According to Wikipedia, the Ford Anglia is a British car that was designed and manufactured by Ford in the United Kingdom.
It is related to the Ford Prefect and the later Ford Popular. The Ford Anglia name was applied to four models of car between 1939 and 1967. It was produced in a two-door saloon, three-door estate car and two-door panel van. With a 997cc engine, I am sure driving around was so cheap, still is for those who own one. About 1 594 486 Anglias were produced, before it was replaced by the new Ford Escort. My grandfather owned one and I enjoyed riding in it from time to time.
Back then, the more competitively priced basic Anglia featured a smaller, painted grille, with a chromed reveal, rendering it easily identifiable from, but several decades later, rarer than the De Luxe 105E.
The final Anglia model, the 105E, was introduced in 1959. Its American-influenced styling included a sweeping nose line and on deluxe versions, a full-width slanted chrome grille in between prominent “eye” headlamps.
Basic Anglias featured a narrower, painted grille.
Its smoothly sloped line looked more like the early Ford Thunderbird for those familiar with the Ford line-up to the more aggressive-looking late-50s American Fords, possibly because its British designers used wind-tunnel testing and streamlining.
Like late-50s, Lincolns and Mercurys and the Citroën Ami of France, the car sported a backward-slanted rear window, so that it would remain clear in rain.
It had muted tail fins, much toned-down from its American counterparts, we know how American like all things big and unique.
An estate car joined the saloon in the line-up in September 1961. The instrument panel had a red light for the generator and a green one for the oil pressure.
The new styling was matched by a new engine, something that the smaller Fords had been needing for some time a 997cc overhead-valve straight-4 with an over square cylinder bore, that became known by its “Kent ”code name.
Acceleration from the rest was still sluggish (by the standards of today), but it was much improved from earlier cars.
Also new for British Fords was a four-speed (manual) gearbox with synchromesh on the top three forward ratios: this was replaced by an all-synchromesh box in September 1962 (on 1 198 powered cars).
The notoriously feeble vacuum powered windscreen wiper set-up of earlier Anglias was replaced with (by now) more conventional windscreen wipers powered by their own electric motor. The Macpherson strut independent front suspension used on the 100E was retained. In October 1962, 24-year-old twin brothers Tony Brookes and a group of friends took a private Anglia 105e fitted it with the Ford £13 Performance Kit to Montlhery Autodrome near Paris and captured six International Class G World Records averaging 83,47 mph (134,33 km/h).
Guess back then that was the car for performance. These were four, five, six and seven days and nights and 15 000 and 20 000 kilometres. The Anglia’s strength and durability meant that no repairs were required whatsoever other than tyre changes. A new Anglia saloon tested by the British Motor magazine in 1959 had a top speed of 73,8mph (118,8km/h) and could accelerate from 0-60 mph (97km/h) in 26,9 seconds.
A fuel consumption of 41,2 miles per imperial gallon (6,86l/100km, 34,3 mpg) was recorded. The test car cost £610 including taxes of £180.
The same car was also sold in Europe with a few spilling over to our parts of the world. In Europe-only variant was the Anglia Sportsman that carried its spare tyre on the back, somewhat similar to the continental kit often seen in the United States.
Chrome bumper over riders, broad whitewall tyres and optionally a side stripe kicking up at the end into the tail-lights/fin were also fitted.
Towards the end of the run Ford experimented with two colours of metallic paint on the Anglia, “Blue Mink” and “Venetian Gold”. 250 were made in the Blue and 500 were made in the Gold, so they are both quite rare.
Anglia saloons were provided with various levels of trim. The base model was the Standard and this sported no chromework, painted rear light surrounds, steel slatted grille and limited interior trim. The deluxe had a chrome side strip, chrome rear lights, glovebox lid, sun visor and full width chrome radiator grille. The top of the range was the Super, which had twin-chrome side strips, contrasting coloured roof and side flash, plusher interior trim, together with the 1198cc engine and a gearbox with synchromesh on first gear.
Today, we see them on our streets being driven mostly by the grannies. These cars are so vintage, you can literally smell the 60s on them and they would be perfect for that wedding with a twist instead of having the newer Mercs and limos. They are a statement to ride in and getting one now might even cost you more than buying a standard brand new car.
Till next week, Ciao and God bless you.
Fact Jeke is an auto enthusiast with over a decade experience. She has written for several regional publications, attended many auto trade shows around the globe. You can contact her on email: [email protected] or via Facebook: Torque with Fact Jeke.
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