1956-62 FORD MKII ZEPHYR/ZODIAC

WHY LARKIN LOVES IT – ‘Arguably the greatest ever Dagenham product, bristling with style and usability’

A truly fine Ford and a car motorways could have been made for, although they appeared around the same time as work was beginning on the Preston Bypass.

Reputed to have the largest glass area of any British car to date, the Zephyr and its slightly more lavish Zodiac sibling would offer you an excellent view of the new road, and everything around it as you bounded along in six-cylinder-powered six-seater comfort. You’d hit 60mph from rest in around 25 seconds and could cruise all day at 70mph, with plenty of torque for those high-speed bursts. These Fords went just as well as they looked.

It wasn’t all modern and great, though. The vacuumoperated windscreen wipers were an antiquated carryover from earlier Fords and might have seen the Lancashire rain and spray from ancient, plodding lorries getting the better of you.