Your classic Ford Anglia 100E
FORD ANGLIA 100E
OWNED BY Stephen Prior FROM Midhurst, West Sussex FIRST CLASSIC Austin Seven Ruby (AOV 816, where are you?) DREAM CLASSIC Mercedesbenz 540K Cabriolet B BEST TRIP London to Zürich in my 1931 Lagonda
Whenever I see a car advertised for sale as having the ‘same owner for 40 years’ I wonder how such feats of longevity could come about. Imagine, then, the shock when I realised one day that I had owned ‘Elsie’ (LCJ 286), my beloved Ford Anglia 100E, for four decades.
In 1977, I regularly drove myself to school in my father’s 1929 Austin Seven Top Hat saloon, then my daily driver, and it continued to be so for my gap-year job in ’78. A few months in, a loud bang from the back axle signalled a broken crownwheel. This was the last straw for my father so the Top Hat was sold (I bought it back five years ago). So I started borrowing moderns to get to work, but I really needed a car of my own – something to take to university later in the year. I had seen Elsie the year before, when it was advertised in the local paper – even then a car from 1954 stood out in the small ads. In the end it was my friend Nick who bought it, but his lack of funds meant the Ford was soon back on the market; £220 and a bottle of Guinness changed hands and it was mine.
Elsie is a rare survivor of the very early 100Es, chassis number 1830, first registered on 19 February – I have only ever come across one earlier example. These models have some distinctive features, such as a removable T-key for opening the boot, minimal rear lights and much smaller brakes. It was in very good condition, other than a fairly typical Ford nasty of the period: rot around the top of the front shock absorbers, soon fixed by a trip to the welder. One morning in September 1978 I set off for Nottingham University, but 12 miles from home there was another loud bang as I lost the last 18 inches of the exhaust pipe. A brief stop was made to fix some stout twine around the remains of the exhaust system, a repair that lasted for my first year at university.
As one of the few student-owned cars, Elsie was soon pressed into service on ‘Rag Raids’, touring the Midlands loaded to the gunwales with Rag magazines to be sold for charity. This was also the time of my one claim to sporting fame as a member of the British under-21 shooting team, and on many weekends I made the five-hour trip each way from Nottingham to Bisley, home of British shooting.
On my last trip to Bisley in summer 1979, the main oil seal on the crankshaft gave out, leading to me topping up with oil more often than petrol. Lack of funds meant that Elsie was then laid up for the rest of my university career.
Graduation marked the start of many years working overseas, but Elsie soon became my brother’s first marital car. I returned to the UK in the 1990s, when Elsie was once again used as my daily driver, although when I got a company car it got less use. She still comes out often for jobs such as commuting and the school run, but also recently the 300-mile round trip to my father’s funeral – he’d told me not to buy the car: “It’ll never last!”
In recent years, the engine has been rebuilt and she’s had a respray and new headlining. So we’re ready for our next 40 years together.