Description
Author: Martin Rawbone, Hardbound, 302 Pages, H823, ISBN: 9781859608234 - 2004 Reprint of 2001 Original - **VERY RARE BOOK IN EXCELLENT UNREAD CONDITION**
Ford has been a major force in the British motor industry since before the First World War, but it has been a long and often bumpy road. The company's many successes have been accompanied by moments when it seemed to lose its way, yet throughout nigh-on a century of car manufacture in Britain, Ford has demonstrated a strong faith in the country, and backed this with a massive investment in both design and production.
This book is the story of Ford in Britain, from the first Model T Fords to the ending of car production at the historic Dagenham factory. It is the story of how Ford dominated the pre-1920s market with the simple and rugged 'Tin Lizzie', only to lose this leadership in the hard-fought years that followed, before it bounced back with the hugely successful 8hp and 10hp models of the 1930s — the legendary Ford Popular and its relatives.
It is the story of how the sleek Consul, Zephyr and Zodiac models redefined the Ford image, and of how in the 1960s, the technically orthodox but structurally clever Cortina started to erode BMC's market leadership and laid the foundations for Ford's crushing dominance of the sales charts in the 1970s and 1980s. It is also the story of how Ford of Britain came to lose its autonomy, with the creation of a single Europe-
wide company — a prelude to a gradual downplaying of Britain's role within the giant Ford empire.
Alongside the industrial history are the cars themselves — cars that have an indelible place in the British landscape: from the 'sit-up-and-beg' Ford Popular to the broad-shouldered V8 Pilot, from those sassy Zodiacs to the rally-winning Escorts, and the sparky XR3 to the blisteringly fast Sierra Cosworth.
Born in 1962 in Epping, Essex, in the heart of Ford country, Martin Rawbone has been a dyed-in-the-wool Ford enthusiast ever since he was bought his first toy car, a Corgi model of the Ford Consul Classic. Collecting car brochures from the age of eight, he has now built his collection into a 5,000-item reference library specialising in his favourite marque.
