FORD’S CONSUL USHERED IN A NEW ERA

Andrew must be getting old as he’s started looking at saloon cars with new interest

Being of a certain age (ie. a little bit over 50), I love people watching, and you can do this just as easily via an internet forum as you can just actually, well, watching people. For example, you can tell when a bloke on the internet is closing in on the big 4- 0 because he misguidedly starts using awful Americanisms – parting out, swapped out, changed out and even words like fender – even though they live in Somerset. It’s amusing, but being ever youthful myself, you won’t find me using such words or phrases, ever.

However, a sign of advancing years could well be the cars I look at now. I wouldn’t have given an MGB garage space 20 years ago, arguing that the 1750 Alfa Spider was a far better car. In some respects of course it is, but there is also little doubt that a mildly tweaked MGB with the standard mods – telescopic dampers, a rear axle locating kit plus a well modified engine with a free flow exhaust – results in a car that your Alfa would find hard to shake off. I favour the early ones and strictly a roadster, because although the GTs look nice, I just wouldn’t want one when a prettier car with 60 miles of headroom is available. I like the later one with RoStyle wheels and the black grille, too.

However, I actually find myself looking more and more at old saloons. Not that I’ll ever buy one, because I’m at the stage where I have just one or two old cars myself and would rather admire those belonging to others than buy more myself. Sorry, but I’m too old a bunny now for multiple projects and spanner rash.

There are several contenders. At the top of the list is a MkI 3.4 Jaguar, and at the bottom but not without merit is the BMC Farina, the 1500/1622 four bangers. (The big A110s and Wolseleys are magnificent beasts, but a good one is now worth the same as a decent XJ6 so I’ll pass, thanks.) The fourcylinder cars were an odd thing to pilot though, and you cannot drive one the way you drive modern cars because you’ll fall off the road. However, because I remember them being derided, seriously unfashionable and thus worthless, I couldn’t bring myself to pay more than £1500 for a good one, and those days are long gone. I think the Magnette was a slap in the face for the MG badge, so it would have to be a Wolseley 16/60, whose take-iteasy image matches the road manners perfectly.

I always preferred the Rootes Group stuff myself. The 1957 model year Hillman Minx is a particular favourite, and the Series I model with the big grinning grille yet simple detailing elsewhere was a superb bit of Raymond Loewy styling so clearly aped from the 1953 Studebaker Commander. The sporty twodoor Sunbeam Rapier arrived first in 1955 to great acclaim, and the four door Minx was most of that glamour for a lot less cash, especially when decked out in a two-tone paint job. Sadly, Rootes kept that design going for far too long and by the time production of that and the chubby Super Minx ended, Ford were launching their second and even more successful Cortina. The ‘Arrow’ Minx, Hunter, Gazelle and Vogue from 1966 were as good if not slightly better than the Cortina Mk2, but without the Cortina’s competition success to sell a very ordinary car, Rootes had gained an Old Man image that killed the marque in ten years. That’s a pity if you look at a 1967 Humber Sceptre with its lovely interior, finned stainless hubcaps and the twin carb 1725cc engine. Of course, Chrysler ruined it like they ruined everything else in the Rootes stable, but they did give us the Alpine. Thanks.

Although I do like the preFarina BMC stuff like the A55, A95 Westminster and the earlier Oxfords, it’s probably a Ford that takes its position here behind the Jaguar. The Mk1 Ford Consul arrived here 70 years ago with its six-cylinder Zephyr counterpart and turned the British car industry on its head. Whilst the small Fords were laughably crude and lightly warmed over pre-war offerings, the Consul was the first modern car in Europe. It beat Ford of Germany by over a year and Opel by two, but Dagenham turned out a car with some US ideas – smooth sides, an OHV engine, hydraulic brakes and a bit of synchromesh as well. Earle McPherson’s strut, an idea used in hundreds of millions of cars since, originated in the 1951 Ford. Well, it was actually launched in 1950, but you couldn’t buy one until the following year.

If the Consul was too slow

(it wasn’t), then the six-cylinder Zephyr was your car. Swift, handsome and extremely robustly made, the Zephyr was notable in the way it made a lot of expensive cars look a bit silly. If you thought a 1950 Silver Wraith would beat you away from the lights by a huge margin, you’d be surprised. Like the MkVII Jaguar of the same year, the Consul and Zephyr represented excellent British engineering when such a thing led the world.