On this day a century ago, Ford of Britain was founded.
Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903 and within months, had exported the first Ford cars to England. He established the first British Ford dealer, through a company based in Long Acre, London.
The UK quickly became the most important market for Ford cars, outside the United States.
By 1911, Henry had decided to start building cars in Britain. Ford Motor Company (England) Limited was incorporated in London on 8th March 1911 – the first Ford company to be established outside North America.
In 1911, Trafford Park, a suburb of Manchester, played host to Fords first UK factory with a disused tram works converted to Model T assembly opening in October. Four-man teams built individual vehicles until Henry Fords revolutionary introduction of the moving assembly line in 1913. By 1914 Ford sales of nearly 10,000 cars were equal to the output of the next six biggest British manufacturers combined.
A few years later, in 1928, Henry Ford oversaw the construction of the Detroit of Europe– a new British plant on the banks of the Thames, at Dagenham. Its first vehicle, a Ford AA truck, rolled off production lines in October 1931.
The Dunton Technical Centre was opened in 1966, the same year that Ford scored its famous 1-2-3 victory at Le Mans, with the iconic, Ferrari-beating GT40 race car – built by Ford of Britain in Slough and Ford engines powered the top five finishers in the Indianapolis 500.
One year on, the Ford Cosworth DFV engine scored the first of a record 155 Grand Prix victories, over 18 dominant years.
Fords unmatched motorsport heritage has benefited greatly from British talent. Its first works rally efforts were based at Boreham in Essex and the UK has been intrinsically linked with top level Ford rally success.
Fords World Rally Team is today run by Cumbrian-based M-Sport, one the largest employers in the area, with 216 on staff. M-Sport works directly with Ford engineers in the UK and Europe sharing skills and experience from competition that feed back into engineering processes and inform further development of vehicles, engines and components.
The results of M-Sports efforts are seen in the all-new Fiesta RS World Rally Car – powered by a Bridgend-built, 1. 6-litre Ford EcoBoost engine – that scored a 1-2-3 victory last month on its debut in the Swedish WRC rally following that with second and third places in Rally Mexico.
Ford of Britain has been associated with cars whose names have earned affection and admiration in the streets and on the racetracks: Zephyr, Anglia, Cortina, Capri, Escort, Sierra, Fiesta, and Focus are often fondly remembered family members while Transit has been adopted as a generic name for a carry-all van, even Mondeo man has entered popular culture.
Ford-related events are being held around the country including the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, Hampshire and the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon, Warwickshire. This years Goodwood Revival, the countrys premier historic motoring event, will see a significant number of classic Ford cars take to the circuit in September.
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