Ford Anglia 105e

The 997cc Kent that went under the Anglia’s bonnet in September 1959 is the landmark, not the rear window. Bore 80.96mm against a stroke of 48.41mm — a ratio of about 1.67 to 1, violently oversquare at a time when long-stroke side-valves were still normal in British small cars. The short stroke kept piston speeds down and let it rev; the ports are independent and non-siamesed, four in and four out; the oil filter and pump are a combined unit hung on the outside to keep it cheap to build; and the head is reverse-flow, inlet and exhaust on the same side. 39bhp at 5,000rpm. That engine became the Kent family and ran in one form or another to 1983 and well beyond in Caterhams and Morgans. As for the rear window — the wet-weather story was marketing, and the shape was copied from the 1958 Lincoln Continental. Ford did not invent it.

From September 1962 the 123E Super brought the 1198cc longer-stroke Kent across from the Cortina, 48.5bhp at 4,800rpm and just under 83mph claimed, and an all-synchromesh gearbox — the launch cars have synchromesh on the top three only. The four-speed box was Ford Britain’s first in a production saloon. Suspension is MacPherson strut front with coils, telescopic dampers and an anti-roll bar; semi-elliptic leaf springs and a live axle at the rear. 12 volt with a dynamo and a separate control box. The estate arrived September 1961, and the Thames 307E vans from June 1961, becoming 309E from October 1962 when they got the 1198, and rebadged from Thames to Anglia in 1965. A timing chain tensioner was added in 1961 — if yours rattles, it is an early one. In New Zealand the Anglia was assembled at Seaview, Lower Hutt; 2,118 of them in 1966 alone, 3.3 per cent of the entire market. Australia built them at Broadmeadows.