Tag Archives: Prefect

A Power Of Difference – Ford Prefect 107E Pinto Farnham

In 1953 Ford introduced it’s Ford Anglia 100E and two years later an estate / wagon version known as the Squire with a body modified by Abbott of Farnham was offered that remained in production until 1959.

Ford Prefect Farnham, Classic & Retro Action Day, Castle Combe

When I first saw today’s featured car at last year’s Classic & Retro Action Day, Castle Combe I incorrectly identified it as a Squire.

Ford Prefect Farnham, Classic & Retro Action Day, Castle Combe

In fact this car is a meticulously restored 1960 fourth generation 4 door Ford Prefect 107E of the type built from 1959 to 1961.

Ford Prefect Farnham, Classic & Retro Action Day, Castle Combe

As the alloy wheels suggest this car had a few upgrades during it’s restoration which include replacing the 36 hp 997 cc / 61 cui 4 cylinder side valve motor with a more modern 2 litre / 122 cui Ford Pinto 4 cylinder and replacing the three speed gearbox with a 5 speed.

Ford Prefect Farnham, Classic & Retro Action Day, Castle Combe

Additionally the restoration has included converting the 4 door saloon / sedan into an estate / wagon in a way that had me absolutely convinced it was an Abbott of Farnham body, when it is in fact a completely unique as no such body was ever built by Abbott.

Ford Prefect Farnham, Classic & Retro Action Day, Castle Combe

When tested the 36hp 107E, sold with the strap line “with a power of difference from Ford”, reached 60mph from rest in 27.2 seconds and had a top speed of 73 mph, optional extras included a heater, windscreen washers, radio and leather upholstery.

Thanks for joining me on this “With A Power Of Difference” edition of “Gettin’ a little psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be visiting Windsor. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Classic & Retro Action Day – Castle Combe

The day after attending Goodwood Festival of speed David Roots invited me along to Castle Combe for the Retro & Classic Action Day which was a mixture of car show and track day.

MG TC, Classic & Retro Action Day, Castle Combe

In between the rain and thunder there was a fascinating array of vehicles to see like this 1946 MG TC.

Healey Duncan Drone, Classic & Retro Action Day, Castle Combe

Like some of the storied vehicles at Goodwood, some at Castle Combe had tragic tales to tell. The Healey Duncan Drone was built with a throw away body to keep the list price, and attendant 66% taxes, down on the domestic market. Extras for this car would have included a second seat and the spare wheel. This particular car took the start of the 1949 Mille Miglia at 6:25 am with James Cohen and Reg Hingett aboard. 35kms later Reg was dead after their car collided with a bridge and while James would eventually be repatriated back to the UK, he too would succumb to his injuries.

Ford Squire Cosworth, Classic & Retro Action Day, Castle Combe

In Latvia the Ford Prefect was built under licence as the Ford-Vairogs Junior I am not sure they would have had an estate / station wagon variant because the UK Ford factory was so busy they farmed out production of the Prefect Estate known as the ‘Squire’ to the coach builders Abbots of Farnham who were given brand new off the assembly line Prefect saloons / sedans to convert. This particular vehicle, built in 1960, is officially shown as no longer having it’s original 1,172 cc / 71.5 cui side valve motor good for 71 mph, but instead the official capacity is given as 1993 cc / 121.6 cui which is usually the sign of the presence of a 200hp motor taken from a Ford Sierra Cosworth or similar.

Datsun Fairlady 1500, Classic & Retro Action Day, Castle Combe

Before Datsun got the Jaguar E-Type inspired Fairlady ‘Z’ series up and running in 1970 their sports cars tended to follow the lines of the slightly more mundane MG’s and Triumph’s of the day. Above is a 1965 Fairlady with a 1500 cc / 91.5 cui 4 cylinder motor.

Ford Escort Cosworth Estate, Classic & Retro Action Day, Castle Combe

In 1969 I was lucky enough to travel overland from Durban in South Africa to Mufulira in the back of a Ford Escort Estate Mk 1 with my folks, over following holidays we made it as far as Malindi in Kenya in the same car. In 1977 when my folks came back to the UK they bought a Ford Escort Estate Mk II not unlike the one seen above. The gentleman who own’s the yellow car tells me it was his first car, unlike my folks, he has swapped out the original 1300cc / 79.3 cui motor for a 200hp Ford Sierra Cosworth unit which would probably get him from Durban to Malindi days if not a week faster than we could ever have hoped to do it.

ALFA Romeo 33 Cloverleaf 2, Classic & Retro Action Day, Castle Combe

My first visit to Castle Combe in 1987 is indelibly linked to the memory of friends race winning #143 ALFA Romeo 33 which got wrecked, after he had abandoned the car at Quarry, by an errant ALFA Sud. My friend was unhurt and he came back toward the end of the season with another car to score a win. Seeing the later Red ALFA Romeo Cloverleaf 2 33 above in the paddock brought those memories flooding back like it all happened yesterday.

TVR Tamora, Classic & Retro Action Day, Castle Combe

Finally I was parked opposite this lush Opal White Pearlescent TVR Tamora and couldn’t take my eye’s off it while sat in my car waiting for the thunder and rain to abate. The owner tells me that while the car was undergoing various mechanical upgrades by ex TVR factory personnel he had the car resprayed, at £300 pounds a tin the paint is not cheap the whole respray came in at an eye watering £7,500. About ten times the value of my Golf and probably two or three times the sum I have spent on every one of the twenty or thirty cars I have ever bought combined ! Still it was without question worth it, there is only one other Tamora painted the same colour.

My thanks to David Roots for inviting me along to Castle Combe.

Thanks for joining me on this “Classic & Retro Action Day” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Hitchhikers Guide To Disambiguation – Ford Prefect

Many readers may think Ford Prefect is the character Ix from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse who disguised himself as an out of work actor after getting stuck on planet Earth for 15 years while visiting the Earth to update the Guide in either the radio comedy, tv series, book, radio adaption of the books or film ‘The Hitchhickers Guide to the Galaxy.

Ford Prefect

In fact a Ford Prefect, note not “PERFECT” as many have incorrectly read and or heard the second word, is a motor car which Ix mistook for a superior form of life when visiting earth in the Sci Fi comedy.

Ford Prefect, Atwell Wilson Motor Museum, 2011

The Ford Prefect was in production from 1938 to 1959 in four distinct evolutions.

Ford Prefect, Atwell Wilson Motor Museum, 2011

With the front wings incorporated into the overall 3 box design of the body we can say for sure this is a series 3 or 4 car.

Ford Prefect, Atwell Wilson Motor Museum, 2011

The absence of a rakish small chrome strip from the front of the existing chrome waste strip down to the wheel arch further suggests this is an earlier 100E Series 3 car which was in production from 1953 to 1959.

Ford Prefect, Atwell Wilson Motor Museum, 2011

The tax disc in the front window of this car suggested that it had stopped being used as a daily driver in 1979 which seems strangely at odds with what looks like a vehicle that is more than capable of passing an MOT (a safety inspection required in the UK before a vehicle can be taxed) when I saw it at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum where many of the cars are regular runners.

Powered by a 1172 cc / 71.5 cui 4 cylinder side valve engine mated to a 3 speed manual gearbox the Series 3 Prefect was tested as being capable of accelerating from rest to 60 mph in 32.2 seconds and having a top speed of 71 mph.

Ford Prefect, Atwell Wilson Motor Museum, 2011

The four door version of the otherwise visually similar Ford Popular and Anglia models was also built under license in Latvia where it was sold as the Ford-Vairogs Junior.

Ford Prefect, Atwell Wilson Motor Museum, 2011

There was an estate / station wagon of the Ford Prefect known as the Squire while the estate / station wagon version of the similar Ford Anglia was know as the Ford Escort. For reasons long forgotten in the mists of time the French and Greek translations, among others, of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy incorrectly give the name chosen by Ix while staying on earth as Ford Escort, though Ix probably chose that name for the same reasons as he chose Ford Prefect in the English version, and most other translations of the book, namely to an alien it probably looks like cars are the most intelligent species on the planet.

Thanks for joining me on this Hitchhikers Guide edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow when I’ll be trading in Science Fiction for a big Voyager. Don’t forget to come back now !

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