Meet the collector who’s got every Anglia covered
It was classically English, but fed the Detroit fantasies of Sixties Brits. Andrew Roberts shares memories of the Ford Anglia with surely its most enthusiastic devotee, who owns 12
In the Sixties, the scaleddown Americana of the Ford Anglia 105E was a ubiquitous sight, be it as a first company car, family transport to a seaside boarding house in Hove or even an ice-cream van; Ford promised that everyday driving would be “a sheer delight”.
“It tries so hard for that Detroit look, down to the bonnet lever labelled ‘hood’,” says Aubone Braddon, who owns no fewer than 12 examples of the “World’s Most Exciting Light Car” (as Ford copywriters would have had us believe at the time).
When this incarnation of the Anglia made its bow in September 1959, it caused a genuine sensation. Many were amazed by the reverse-rake rear window and the tail fins, while others were impressed by the first British Ford fitted with electric windscreen wipers and a four-speed gearbox.
The Motor magazine said the 105E provided “substantial gains in economy and liveliness” and “pleasing new coachwork features”, while the oversquare (with a cylinder bore larger than the piston stroke) 997cc OHV engine was a definite improvement on the side-valve unit in the outgoing 100E.
Ford’s promotional short film First on the Road promised a new world of sunshine, excitement and modestly “hip” cocktail jazz, and the Anglia gained further publicity from its starring role in the British film noir Never Let Go, where Richard Todd’s woebegone commercial traveller tried to retrieve his stolen 105E from a sociopathic car racketeer played by Peter Sellers.
Braddon traces his affection for the 105E to “my childhood, when my family used them for Dad’s commercial vehicle business”.
One of the oldest members of his line-up is a 1960 Standard model. The price of £589 0s 11d meant that you could expect little comfort, “although mine does at at least have the optional heater,” says Braddon. From the same year is a Vulcan Grey model “that was raced by Anne Hall in 1988. It has a 1.5-litre Cortina GT engine and the gearbox from a Corsair 2000E”.
All the ultra-Brylcreemed “goahead” sorts craved a De Luxe. This was the Anglia with flair and social distinction, from the full-width chrome grille to the lockable glovebox, all for only £610 5s 11d.
Braddon’s is a late example. It “has only covered 42,000 miles and is often referred to by passers-by as the ‘Harry Potter car’, thanks to the Lagoon Blue colour scheme”, says Braddon.
In 1961 Ford introduced the Anglia light commercial and station wagon ranges. Braddon’s 1964 Spruce Green 307E Van is badged “Thames”, as were all Ford commercials before 1965, and it cost its original owner £400.
Braddon says: “He chose the van to avoid purchase tax. It’s a De Luxe, so it has the decadent fittings of chrome bumpers and twin sun visors.”
It shares garage space with another commercial variant, a stupendously rare Pina Green 1967 Pick-Up that was converted by Martin Walter of Folkestone. “It is a useful workhorse that is tidy but not concours,” Braddon says. “I came by it back in 2000, and I have fitted the 1,498cc Cortina engine for extra durability.”
The station wagon (estate) variant, with its “high-wide-and-handsome comfort”, was Dagenham’s first in-house estate design. Braddon says that the
105E is “very capacious, with more headroom in the load bay than you get in a Volvo 245.”
Both his Anglia Estates hail from 1966, one a De Luxe in the ever-popular Spruce Green, the other an ex-ICI Agricultural Division Standard model in an appropriately sober Purbeck Grey. “Ford sold only around 6,600 basic Estates as the company car market, slightly surprisingly, preferred the De Luxe,” reckons Braddon.
September 1962 marked the debut of the 123E Super model, which was powered by the 1,198cc unit found in the new Consul Cortina. For your £598 13s 2d you got two-tone paintwork, windscreen washers and even a cigar lighter.
Braddon’s dates from 1963. He says: “It is finished in maroon and grey, with metallic silver seat facings – less ‘Flash Gordon’ than ‘Flash Harry’. The Super gives a little more power, but if you want a longer-lasting unit you stick with the 997cc. I’ve never bought a 1.2-litre that doesn’t rumble on the bottom [end].”
The ninth member of the Braddon Collection is a homage to the Anglia’s wide use as a police car. In 1965 Lancashire Constabulary replaced PCs on foot or bicycle with 105Es, in a move the top brass claimed “would save the force some 400 men”. The blue/white livery resulted in the nickname “panda car” and forces across the UK copied the scheme.
Braddon’s Anglia is a 1966 Standard. “It is a replica of a London Metropolitan vehicle, and I don’t know of any genuine survivors.” Its special equipment includes “two-note horns, a police roof-box, an alternator and a Pye Westminster radio.”
The launch of the “Coke bottle” Vauxhall Viva HB in late 1966 made the 105E look as “happening” as a 30-year-old Teddy Boy fulminating about those long-haired Kinks. Ford hit back with two dynamic new metallic colours in 1967, and, naturally, Braddon has examples of both.
His Venetian Gold Super has a black interior that makes it resemble a certain strain of Terry’s chocolates, and he refers to a recently acquired example in Blue Mink as “desperately trying to be ‘with-it’”.
The last of 1,004,737 105Es left the Halewood factory on Merseyside in November 1967, Ford also dispensing with the 28-year-old brand name in favour of reviving the Escort badge.
Braddon says the Anglia offered “showmanship reinforced by practicality”, and his car number 12 epitomises this. That this is no ordinary 1962 De Luxe is evident from “all the period extras; overriders, the spot lamp, the hub-cab medallions and the curved roof-rack” complementing the lime green and white exterior. It even has a “Sportsman” external spare wheel mounting, devised by Ford of Belgium and available in the UK as an aftermarket conversion for the sum of £8 18s 6d.
Perhaps the overall tone to this fine car is set by the “mock leopardskin rug on the back seat, as mere tartan would not do”.
You can envisage such an Anglia sweeping up to a roadside café somewhere off the A27, its owner uttering “Hi honey” in a Southampton-Californian accent to the scowling waitress. In short – living the 105E dream.
The overall tone is set by the ‘mock leopard-skin rug on the back seat, as tartan would not do’
Thanks to: Aubone Braddon; the Ford Anglia 105E Owners’ Club