Classic shrine: Ford Heritage Collection

By Simon Hucknall

| 25 Oct 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Classic shrine: Ford Heritage Collection

Given Ford’s status as one of the United Kingdom’s best-loved car brands, the fact that its 130-strong collection of heritage vehicles – which includes everything from an early Transit van to an original GT40 racer – has only just been opened up to the public is bewildering.

Until recently, Ford of Britain’s dazzling array of historic cars and commercials had been squirrelled away in what was affectionately known as the ‘old tool shed’ at Dagenham, with exposure for the vehicles mainly through press loans.

“The building leaked like a sieve, made worse by the dust generated via the cement works next door,” recalls collection manager and PR officer Len Keen.

The Fiesta lives on at the Ford Heritage Collection

After the shed was condemned, a permanent home was found for the collection at Ford’s vast parts distribution centre in Daventry – formerly Europe’s largest single-storey building.

Better still, the area earmarked there had once been office space and was therefore well insulated and heated.

Budget was found early in 2023 to reconfigure the space, and the historic vehicles have since been gradually relocated there.

The plan, Len explains, is to use the collection to broaden awareness of Ford of Britain’s 113-year history by introducing it to employees, fleet customers, dealers, car clubs and the media.

Ford Heritage Collection curators Len Keen (on left) and Chris Smith

With just Len and technician Chris Smith permanently dedicated to the collection, only managed visits of small groups by appointment are available – but even that marks a sea-change from where the collection had been.

Len is also in the process of organising the huge stock of memorabilia and sales literature that has been accrued to display in the rooms that border the main collection area.

There will even be a merchandise shop.

As for the collection proper, Ford started retaining important examples of its models as far back as the 1960s, long before the idea of a heritage centre took shape.

Clockwise from top: Ford returned to Le Mans in 2016 with its new GT; Johnny Herbert’s Stewart-Ford Formula One car; World Rally Transit (left) and Supervan 3 push the light-commercial-vehicle envelope

An early addition was the roadgoing 1967 GT40 MkIII used from new as a company car by Ford’s legendary chairman Walter Hayes; it has now been fully restored and is a stunning centrepiece when you first enter the Heritage Collection.

But it wasn’t until the late 1980s that Ford’s public affairs department began to collect vehicles in earnest, and not until 25 years ago that the Heritage Collection’s status was formalised.

Since then it has grown substantially, with almost all key model lines represented, the majority of which will be roadworthy in time.

Not all will be kept at Daventry: along with Vauxhall, Ford will continue to place cars in the British Motor Museum at Gaydon.

This 280 ‘Brooklands’ was the last Capri to roll off Ford’s production line, here with a Mk2 1.6L alongside

At the time of writing, five vehicles are exhibited there, with plans for a further eight to join them this year, thanks to the efforts of the BMM’s head of collections, Stephen Laing, and our sister title Autocar’s editor in chief Steve Cropley, a long-time supporter and trustee of the museum.

Having people engage with the cars is vital, from an emotional as well as a motivational point of view.

“Just sitting in these cars takes people back to a particular time in their lives,” remarks Len, a Ford veteran of 30 years.

As if to prove the point, I make a beeline straight for a 1994 Mondeo 1.8 LX, identical to my first new company car back in the day, right down to its pale-lilac metallic colour.

Ford’s Heritage Collection includes styling models and collectibles (left); the Ford Sierra is well represented, including this Sapphire GLS

It was the car my wife and I returned to after getting married, and I can remember the distinctive click of my wedding ring tapping the top of the gearlever for the first time – replayed today, 28 years on.

Moving down the line, there’s a 1984 Saffron Yellow Ford Transit 190 panel van, a spit of the one I used to drive as a courier in the mid-’80s.

Memories flood back of how great they were to drive, and how Ford had been so canny in recognising that fine ergonomics and chassis dynamics mattered just as much – perhaps more – to people who made their living hauling stuff around the country.

Ford commercial vehicles have been a British mainstay

The Transit forms part of an impressive commercial-vehicle section within the centre.

One of the earliest exhibits on display is a Model Y-based, three-wheeled 1935 Fordson Tug, this one formerly owned by chocolatier Cadbury and used to ferry cocoa beans and chocolate around its factory in Bournville, Birmingham.

Alongside sits a 1960 Thames 400E flatbed, the Thames range representing Ford’s riposte to Bedford’s domination of the light-commercial sector with its 1952-’69 CA.

Cleverly designed with a system of independent front suspension that didn’t encroach on access to the cab, the Thames was the precursor to the Transit, and I honestly can’t remember seeing one since I was a child.

The Ford Model Y-based Tug, a three-wheel commercial vehicle used by Cadbury

As well as my throwback 190 panel van, the Heritage Collection has a first-model Transit, which dates from 1965 and is the oldest-surviving original example in the country, sporting evocative 1960s General Electric signwriting on its bodywork.

Predictably, the Heritage Collection houses comparatively little in the way of pre-war content, thanks to Ford producing so few different models until the 1950s.

Much of this can be attributed to the Model T’s long run as Ford’s sole car in Britain between 1914 and 1927, with more than 250,000 produced at its Trafford Park works in Manchester.

The centre has a mix of six US- and UK-built Model Ts, as well as its Model A successor and a Model Y.

Clockwise from top: Ford Escort RS Cosworth (left) beside Thunderbirds StreetKa; a V8-powered 1949 Pilot (left) sits alongside a Model A; Model T is one of six kept at this centre

There’s a faithful recreation of Henry Ford’s very first ‘automobile’, an 1896 Quadricycle, built by Ford of Britain’s apprentices in 1963 to mark their company founder’s centenary.

The majority of the collection, though, is devoted to post-war cars.

There’s a beautifully presented ’49 V8-Pilot – Ford’s first new model after hostilities ceased, complete with luxuries such as a heater, demister and a built-in four-wheel jacking system.

With Britain crippled by fuel rationing at the time, it’s quite remarkable to think that 22,000 of these 17mpg gas-guzzlers were produced between 1947 and 1951.

A Ford Consul Mk1 at the Ford Heritage Collection in Daventry

The ’50s are covered by gleaming examples of a Ford Consul Mk1, a Zodiac Mk2, and a rare Zephyr Mk2 with a 2.6-litre straight-six engine and an estate body by Abbott of Farnham.

This vehicle was actually produced in 1961, and it was one of the first to be purchased by Hertfordshire Police to patrol the recently opened M1 motorway.

Motorsport has shaped Ford’s fortunes for the past 60 years, so it’s no surprise the Heritage Collection is awash with competition legends.

There’s a late-model 1965 Lotus Cortina Mk1, a roadgoing car in classic Ermine White/Olive Green livery representing Ford’s Hayes-led breakthrough in the sport.

This Ford Zephyr Mk2 Abbott estate once patrolled the M1 motorway

Not so successful was the 1970 GT70 – the collection’s bright-yellow example is one of just six or seven produced.

It was conceived as a mid-engined world rally challenger, but was dropped when it became clear the Ford Escort was more viable.

Naturally, the famous Escort rally cars enjoy a substantial display here.

FEV 1H, the Mk1 London to Mexico rally winner of 1970, piloted by Hannu Mikkola and Gunnar Palm, sits next to Björn Waldegård and Hans Thorszelius’ British Airways-liveried ’77 Mk2, and François Delecour and Daniel Grataloup’s 1993 Ford Escort Mk5 RS Cosworth WRC.

This Ford RS 200 Group B monster is one of two on display (left); rally Ford Escorts include London to Mexico winner of Mikkola/Palm (on right)

Two RS 200s – the final example produced, and another assembled by Ford apprentices from leftover parts – celebrate the company’s Group B ambitions in the 1980s.

And dovetailing neatly with Hayes’ old company GT40 is a 1964 MkI competition version, two chassis numbers down from the 1966 Le Mans-winning car.

For many visitors, though, it will be Ford’s bread-and-butter products from the 1970s through to the ’90s that will capture hearts and revive memories.

This Ford Capri is one of 15 Ferguson four-wheel-drive cars built

All five series of Ford Cortina are represented, with a Mk2 1600E range-topper (sporting a genuine ‘1600 E’ registration and equipped with a highly specced interior) the undoubted star, along with a pristine facelifted Mk3 1.3L, so nostalgic with its solid green paint and chrome hubcaps.

Completing the line-up is the very last of all the 4.2 million Cortinas produced by Ford up to 1982: a ‘Mk5’ Crusader.

A 1977 Granada Mk1 GL conjures memories of The Sweeney – “We’d only lend cars for TV if they were for the good guys,” smiles Len – while the ’77 Ford Capri 1.6L next to it recently featured in Autocar.

I spot the final Escort off the line (on 21 July 2000) and an understated 1973 Capri 3000 GXL with Ferguson four-wheel drive, originally gifted to the Brabham Formula One team.

Clockwise from top: Ford Heritage Collection exhibits span from pre-war cars to modern MPVs; mid-engined GT70 rally flop; silver GT40 Mk3 was Walter Hayes’ company car

From the 1990s is the last Ford Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth 4x4 made, plus a Racing Puma and Focus RS Mk1, both of which I remember reviewing as a cub road-tester at Autocar.

And where else could you find three versions of the diminutive Ka parked alongside a 2005 Ford GT and the current GT MkIV supercar?

After three hours spent roaming Ford’s Heritage Collection I’d still barely scratched the surface, despite my two hosts’ in-depth knowledge and compelling commentary.

Whether or not you are a Ford enthusiast, there is a deep well of automotive richness to be found here that’s almost complete.

All it’s missing is one of my favourites: an Escort RS 2000 Mk2.

Images: Jack Harrison