To celebrate its centenary year in 2003, Ford asked a panel of automotive journalists to compile a list of models which they felt really captured the 'heart and soul' of the company. When it was delivered, that list came to 25 entries.
Attempting to pick just the two or three most 'classic' Fords, therefore, is a nigh-on impossible task. Simply put, the auto-maker has produced enough classics over the years to fill several books - and attempting to do its phenomenal heritage justice with this kind of scope just isn't possible.
However, what can be said for definite is that the following cars are all classics of the highest order; class leaders, collectors' darlings and endearing icons that ought to live on in the public consciousness long after even the car itself becomes defunct.
1914 Ford Model T
1914 was the year Ford stopped offering a choice of paint on Model Ts, after which point Henry Ford was famously supposed to have said: "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black."
The rumour that black paint was used exclusively because it dried quickest (therefore speeding-up production times) is not supported by fact, however, as over 30 types of both quick- and slow-drying black paint were used on the assembly lines. It's far more likely that Ford chose black because it was cheap and durable - like the Model T itself.
By the middle years of its production, the price of a new Model T was just $300, the equivalent of about $3,000 in today's money. By comparison, the cheapest Ford Focus currently available on the American market costs over four times as much, at $14,000. And as for its durability? A good number of Model T's are still running on original components to this day - at least 80 years after they were first driven.
Back in 1914, Model T's had been being made on the assembly line for about four or five years, and production had become so streamlined that it took just 93 minutes to make each one. Ford made more cars in that year than all the other manufacturers combined, and by the eventual end of the production run the firm had made over 15 million - a total unit sales figure that went unequalled for almost a century.
All things considered, it can have come as little surprise to anyone in the motor industry that the Model T was named 'Car of the Century' in December 1999.
1966 Ford GT40 Mk II
Back when us Brits were getting all excited over the football, Ford was winning its first 24 hours of Le Mans with the sensational 7-litre GT40 MK II. The car was commissioned by Henry Ford II (grandson of the first Henry Ford), then CEO of the Ford Motor Company, after a proposed merger with Ferrari went sour.
Ford was one of the first to realise that success in motorsport would be answered by success in the car business, and after his failed attempt to buy-out the then dominant force in European racing (Ferrari), he decided to win Le Mans using a more conventional method - by building a better car than everyone else.
The result was the GT40. Built around a chassis engineered by Lola Cars, a promising if unsuccessful race team (which Ford bought up) the Mk I GT40 was a disaster, actually killing drivers in testing. But with a little help from racing-driver-turned-designer Carroll Shelby, the Mk II dominated the Le Mans circuit in 1966, securing a 1-2-3 finish for Ford. The car went on to win the following three 24 hours of Le Mans races in a row, in '67, '68 and '69.
The secret of the GT40's success was most likely its stupendously powerful 7-litre plant. The Ferraris of the day, by comparison, were running on 4-litre engines.
2006 Ford Focus RS WRC
Coming right up to date, this car won the World Rally Championship constructors' title for Ford in 2006, a much-needed first for the company in 27 years.
Built and run for Ford by M-Sport, the race team founded by ex-WRC driver Malcolm Wilson, the Focus had its rally debut at Monte Carlo in 1999, with Colin McRae at the wheel. Though it was later excluded from the event due to vehicle weight technicalities, the Focus set many fastest-stage times. The car went on to win its first rally victory at Safari in East Africa, in February of the same year.
Fast-forward to the '06 season and, while Ford's two drivers Marcus Gronholm and Mikko Hirvonen must be content with second and third place respectively in the Drivers Championship, the Focus wins the Constructors Championship by a clear margin. Ford's finishing score of 195 puts it a clear 29 points ahead of its nearest competitor, Kronos Citroen.
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