As reflected in my multi-part series, the Carlisle Ford Nationals has pretty wide and extensive coverage of Ford vehicles. I have covered most of the North American made Ford cars, but I haven’t shown you any of the overseas Fords. Surprisingly, there was a decent showing of these Fords and some pretty interesting finds among them. Fords built outside of North America fall out of my wheelhouse, but I still find them interesting nevertheless. There were quite a few trucks at the show as well, although many of them were modern or heavily modified, and I tended to focus on the older trucks.
This beautiful Ford Anglia is great way to start off. This was a wonderfully restored example and it belongs in the AACA. It’s amazing how much smaller these European Fords are compared to the American Fords of the day. Even compared to an American Falcon, it’s pretty tiny. In Canada, being a commonwealth country, we had a fair number of English cars, although I remember Vauxhalls, Austins and MGs, more than these Fords.
The Anglia 100 was built from 1953-1959. It was powered by a 1172 cc four-cylinder side-valve engine, which looked pretty tiny even in the little engine bay. Mind you, it didn’t need much motivation to move around. This Anglia was only 152″ long, and weighed about 1625 lbs.
One of the best known cars from Ford of Europe was the Capri. This small sporty coupe was loosely based on the Ford Cortina but had a distinctly sportier body, with Mustang-like proportions. The German-made version was imported and sold in US Lincoln-Mercury dealers in beginning in 1970. Initially it was powered by the Pinto 1.6L four; a 2.0L four was added in 1971 and the 2.6L Cologne V6 in 1972 (which later grew to 2.8L).
The Capri was redesigned in 1976, and the US market versions were called the Capri II. Newly added was the hatchback. This example here appeared to be a mostly original surviving car. It sports New York plates, and if it spent its life there, it must have been kept out of the inclement weather.
The European Capri stopped being imported to the North America in late 1977, but the Capri continued on in production until 1986 in Europe. In North America, it was replaced with these Fox-bodied Capris in 1979, which were really just a badge engineered Ford Mustang. Other than a few minor styling traits, the 1979 Capri shared nothing with its European predecessor except for the Cologne V6, which was optional for the first year. For 1983, the Capri got its unique “bubble” hatch window, which you can see in this yellow car above.
The Capri was only built from 1979-86 before Ford pulled the plug. Capri sales started out strong with 110,144 units being produced in 1979. However, that was the peak production, and it went down quickly from their. By 1984-86, there were only about 20,000 cars per year produced.
The Merkurs had a good showing; they were sold in the US for a brief period. There is a small but dedicated group of enthusiast who own these cars, and the examples that showed up were well-preserved machines.
Ford introduced the Sierra in September 1982 to European markets as a replacement for the Cortina and Taunus. In mid-1983, the XR4i, a sporty variant powered by the Cologne 2.8L V6 was added. Bob Lutz thought that the ride and handling of the XR4i was impressive and decided to introduce it to the North American Market.
The car was adapted for the North American market and it was decided to sell it under a new Lincoln-Mercury sub-brand, Merkur, as it was felt the new brand would have more cachet with European car buyers. One of the most significant changes for North America was the engine. The 2.8L V6 was replaced with a turbocharged 2.3L inline-4. Ultimately the Merkur XR4i was a failure in the North American market, and only 42,464 were produced between 1985 and 1989.
While the Merkur XR4i was a sporty 2-door hatchback, Ford also introduced the Merkur Scorpio as a 4-door hatchback (5-door) model for Merkur brand. Like the XR4i, the Scorpio was adapted from an existing European Ford, the Ford Scorpio. It was sold for three model years, 1987-89, and all were imported from Germany.
Ford may have been on the right track in believing that many European car buyers would not consider a Mercury or Lincoln. However, one of the problems with the Merkur sub-brand was that they were sold at Lincoln-Mercury dealers. It was unlikely that European car buyers would set foot in a Lincoln-Mercury dealer. Even it they did, the salesman were likely to have little knowledge and interest in Merkurs and were far more interested in moving Town Cars and Sables.
The Scorpio was powered by a 2.9L Cologne V6 engine that produced 144 hp. This resulted in rather sub-par performance compared to its competitors.
While the Merkurs were German Fords adapted for and sold in the North American market, this 1994 Ford Escort RS Cosworth is an original German market car. The owner had it imported to the US. The Escort RS Cosworth was the successor the Ford Sierra Cosworth. It was produced between 1992 and 1996. Only 7,145 cars were produced in that time. It also was used to compete in the World Rally Championships between 1993 and 1998. Note the engine orientation; these were AWD, and were actually based on the Sierra, but with Escort body panels.
These engine was a 2.0L Turbocharged 4-cylinder producing an impressive 224 hp, and it only had a curb weight of approximately 2800 lbs. In stock form, they were able to run 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 5.7 sec and had a top speed of 144 mph.
This was one of my favourite finds, a 1988 Ford Falcon Utility (Ute). Like the US market Ranchero and El Camino, this is a car based truck, in this case based on Ford of Australia’s XF Falcon. This Ute spend most of its life in Australia and contrary to its near pristine original condition, it had accumulated somewhere around 400,000 kms (250,000 miles).
This Falcon Ute is powered by a 4.1L inline six, which has its roots in the old Falcon six introduced in 1960. While Ford of USA was abandoning this engine by the late 1970’s, Ford of Australia updated it in 1976 with a crossflow head. This was later updated have an aluminum alloy head followed by EFI. This particular example is a carbureted crossflow six, and produced 131 hp@3750 RPM and 225 ft-lbs @ 2400 RPM.
I spoke with the owner for sometime and he was a very knowledgeable and friendly fellow. He advised me that he was lucky to find one in such condition as they are very prone to rust. Interestingly, he told me that the US Ford Falcon clubs refuse to recognize the truck as a genuine Ford Falcon and refuse to allow him to join. That just seems utterly ridiculous, but not surprising as many car clubs seem to be too close minded
While not a truck show, there was quite a large number of Ford trucks on the field. Many were later models, that had been jacked up and modified in that fashion, which really have no interest to me. There was some older trucks though too, with a mixture of stock and customized. This ’36 Ford pickup above was probably one of the oldest I saw, although it was heavily modified. I have several friends who like the style of vehicles from this era, but want more modern performance, drivability and comforts. Vehicles like this appeal to them.
I, on the other hand, would rather have something a little newer and closer to stock. This 1952 F1 Ford is more to my liking and was probably the nicest Ford truck I saw at the show. It was an impeccable restoration, and was brought back to be 100% correct, as it left the factory floor. It originally was sold in June of 1952 for a total price of $1717, including all options. This particular truck’s options were a heater, 6.50 x 16 tires, deluxe cab, 11″ clutch, rear bumper and electric wipers.
And surprise, surprise, a Ford truck with no V8 under the hood. A 215 inline-six that produced 101-hp powered this truck. It had a three speed column shift transmission, the first year Ford offered this in their pickups.
Another featured truck at the show was this 1969 Bronco. This particular Bronco is powered by a Ford 302 V8 engine. While the majority of this truck appeared to be restored to factory specs, the engine did have some modern components, such as an updated alternator and ignition system. While maybe that doesn’t meet the standards of a purist, at least it improves the drivability of the truck.
One of my favourite era of trucks, is the late 1960’s and the 1970’s. These trucks were modern enough to have some refinement and comfort while still being a traditional work vehicle. There was a good showing of Ford pickups from 1967-79. The 1967-72 trucks are commonly called “bump sides” while the 1973-79 trucks are called “dent sides.”
Pickups aren’t exempt from resto-modding as seen by this ’68 that has been heavily modified. It was a well-built truck, even if not necessarily my style. This truck even has patina, that everyone but me seems to like these days. When you clear coat over the patina, like this truck appeared to have, is it really patina anymore?
Much like how Meteor was created for the Lincoln-Mercury dealers to have a low-priced car, Ford of Canada had Mercury trucks for these same dealers. Since Canada was sparsely populated over a large geographic area, sometimes a Meteor-Mercury-Lincoln dealer might be the only Ford dealer in an area. Having Mercury trucks sold at these dealers ensure that Ford could sell trucks in all parts of Canada. Mercury trucks were badge engineered Ford Trucks with few differences to Ford trucks. As opposed to the “F-series” they were called “M-series.”
While not 100% factor correct, this truck is more my style. This 1968 is powered by a mildly modified 390 -4bbl engine, with typical modifications including a mild cam and headers. It has a 4-speed and 3.90:1 gears in the 9″ Ford rear axle. The owner of this truck has owned it since 1971, when he was in Grade 12. He completed a full restoration in 2009. The paint colour, chrome yellow, is the original colour.
Ford Motorsports built this restomod truck, with no expense spared. It seems to me “bump side” trucks are quite popular for restomods and performance builds, much more so than the dent side trucks that followed.
Dent side trucks have seemingly been less desirable than the earlier bump sides, but as of late the interest seems to be increasing. This particular ’77 F-100 was powered by a 302-2V engine, had factory A/C and is an original black truck. While it was in great shape, the owner was asking a rather lofty $24,900.
The dent side trucks have long been popular with the 4×4 off-road crowd, likely partially due to the fact that much higher number of 4×4 trucks were sold during this generation than the previous ones. There were quite a few trucks from this era that were modified with off-road type modifications.
This ’79 F-150 Ranger was for sale on the swap meet side. It was a decent looking truck, other than the tacked on blue oval. In contrast to the black ’77, this one was bargained priced, somewhere around $3000 if I recall correctly. I thought it was a good deal for a seemingly fairly solid truck. My only concern was the newer paint. Based on the undercarriage, it was not from a rust free environment. So it’d require closer inspection to see what sins hide under that paint. Note the factory aluminium wheels on this truck.
There were lots of modern Ford pickups on site, but I don’t have much interest in Ford pickups after the 1970’s. The 1993-95 Ford Lightenings are one of the few exceptions though. Ford introduced the Lightning as a competitor to Chevrolet’s 454SS pickup. The Chevrolet, was essentially was a regular cab short box 1/2 ton truck that had a lo-po 454 from a 1-ton pickup. While the Lightning was an all-round performance package which was created by the SVT division. It had a high-performance 351W that produced 240-hp, an E4oD transmission, and a 4.10:1 8.8″ rear axle. The truck was lowered 2.5″ over stock, and had 1″ front and rear anti-roll bar while the steering was reworked for improved response. There were only 11,563 Lightening’s built over the three model years.
Of course no Ford show would be complete without some Cobras. Unfortunately I only saw replicas.
But this 1964 Shelby Daytona Coupe was closer to the real deal, being a continuation car. This car is CSX-7072 and it started life as a Shelby FIA roadster. With Carroll Shelby’s permission, a Shelby Dealer rebodied the car in 1998 to be a Daytona. Pete Brock, the designer of this car (and the 1963 Corvette), assisted in re-creating what the original Daytona coupe looked like during its first race in 1964. Other than the required modern safety equipment/modifications. as per vintage racing rules, it has been made to the exact specs of the original car. It is powered by a 289 V8, and uses Girling brakes, and Koni Shocks.
Henry Ford was a farmer at heart, and so Ford tractors have to be included to truly be representative of Ford. As you can see from this picture, there was a decent showing of vintage Ford tractors.
I am not a tractor guy, but I have a soft spot for these old N-series Fords. This 8N was very similar to the first vehicle I ever drove. At 8 years old, Dad let me take the helm on Aunt Kay’s old 8N when we were visiting her on her farm. We had a lot of fun with that old tractor.
How about this for something different, a hot rod 8N tractor. It had a Ford 302, a T5 transmission and used a F-150 rear axle. While I am not sure how much tractor is actually in this hot rod, it was a pretty unique build.
Like most swap meets, there were lots of interesting finds on the field. There were some pretty interesting engines for sale too, include this modern version of the Ford SOHC 427 FE.
There were also lot of model cars, neat old toys and other collectibles for sale. This old ’58 Ford toy car was a really neat find, but I recall it being very expensive.
And to finish off the swap meet, I saw this ’55 Ford golf car cruising around the fair grounds quite a bit. This golf cart was actually really well done, and was pretty well detailed.
That concludes my coverage of the 2018 Carlisle Ford Nationals show. I know many can’t make this show or have never been, so I hope you enjoyed the series. This show really does an excellent job at capturing a huge variety of postwar Fords. After attending this show, I’d definitely go back to Carlisle to a GM, Corvette, or Mopar show.
2018 Carlisle Ford Nationals Series
A fine bunch of pictures. I remember seeing a few of the square Anglias when my family moved to Central Florida in 1966. To me, these little English Fords have to be among the stodgiest-looking cars ever built. The fact that the pictured car is a two-door raises the sex appeal by a tiny increment. The reverse-rear-window later Anglias were much more common. They all seemed to disappear within a few years.
I love those 100E Fords. With the right wheels, the look quite purposeful, like a sporty NSU Prinz or a BMW 135iM. Mean and stubby. Like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas. I can recall when modified ones with Ford Pinto, Essex or Rover V8 versions were not entirely uncommon in the UK.
I have an affinity with them because my favorite kid’s TV character “Roland Rat” had one, and I remember my dad blaming them for his failure to learn to drive until his late 20s. The only car available to learn in his teens was his grandpa’s 100E Popular, and with his dad not only teaching him to drive but drive a non-syncromesh, there was some unpleasantness.
Here’s what they look like with some classy customization.
There’s an English fabricator on Youtube that goes by Urchfab that has an ongoing series in which he is mating a ’59 A100E body with a Mazda MX5 floor-pan and mechanicals. He’s calling it The Mongrel. I think he intends to go racing with it.
Cool, what a great junkyard so many cars there Ive owned examples of, I;m sure theres a complete A90 Westminster amongst the three shown too.
Great little project on the 100E and it will work better than what we did to them years ago.
Nice photos, as always. The last photo of the golf cart is a ‘55. Back on 1955, my dad purchased a new Sunliner in Torch Red and Snowshoe White. We picked it up after supper on Monday, June 27, 1955. The flashiest car he ever owned!
Sorry, that was a typo I missed in my proofreading. It’s fixed now.
I love the 1979(US) Capri! No bubble hatch for me though. Flat and angular all the way. Hood scoop and spoilers everywhere. It is where I diverge from my usual preference for conservative styling. Those still look awesome to me even being a malaise car in the beginning. Perfect body for a good restomod in my opinion. My ’82 Mustang GL hatch was a dog but I loved the shape. The ’79 Capri is that car with sexy hips!
Nice photos. I really like that 1952 F1, that would make a great little parts chaser. No fake patina, fake signage etc.
But on the opposite tack, I’d really like a Cobra replica but they’re all far too nice. I’d want my fake Cobra a 289 with obvious signs of wear and use..
My parents jumped into the late 50s import boom with both feet in 1958-59 with both a Karmann Ghia and a Ford Anglia. The Ghia was remembered fondly, but not the Anglia. My mother remembered it as cheap and tinny. It never appeared in a family picture. Both were replaced in 1961 with an F-85 wagon to accommodate a growing family.
As for the trucks, I love the F-1. Does anyone else hear the theme from Sanford & Son going through your head? I also like that yellow Mercury pickup. Does that pickup box go back to 1953 or was it used on the F-1 too? It ran all the way through 79, albeit with flattened out upper side panels.
Finally that brown and cream 79 Ford pickup is the exact color combo of the 79 Club Wagon Chateau that my best friend’s dad picked out when he traded his beloved 73 Royal Sportsman in on a new van.
Would had been cool to see some other Ford oddities at Carlisle like the Brazilian Galaxie and Corcel, Argentinian Falcons and these B100 panel truck/carryall from Mexico.
https://jalopnik.com/the-mexican-market-ford-b-100-is-the-three-door-ford-f-1825191099
https://www.imcdb.org/v878149.html
Well, I’ll be buggered. Mate, that Falcon ute’s come a long bloody way.
Looks so odd to see what is here an essentially worthless workhorse all minty at a car show.
That car has (pretty much) the same front floorpan and front suspension as the 1960 US original, as widened a bit in ’66. And the car you saw, (’84-on), if you removed the outer front guards and curved hood and replaced them with squarer ones, was released in ’79. It sold as photographed through to ’98. Later ones did eventually get the OHC engine and 4-speed auto, but a ’98 looked essentially like this. Probable the dies were amortised….
The owner is sadly right, they do rust quite destructively, inside the plenum chamber in all variations. And to fix properly it really means disassembly of the interior, windscreen, then “unwelding” and re-welding in replacement panels in a long and skilled process. In short, huge expense.
His description of the US Falcon club people instantly drains my will to live. I couldn’t ever join a car club: there’s always intensely humourless people like that, and even if small in number, they always somehow dominate. Not to mention the sheer ignorance – there were 450,000 Falc utes, all with directly traceable links to the US original, sold here for gawd’s sake! Sigh.
The F1 Ford is my pick from this lot too.
I wonder if those sorts of people are as fond of wearing blazers as they are in Britain.
This guy reckons it’s not a Falcon either.
Loving the tracto-rod.
*IIRC*, the Escort Cosworth wasn’t RWD, although the Sierra and early Sapphire Cosworths were. It was permanent 4×4 (AWD in American) with a 60/40 power split. I think there were some built with RWD for race series which banned 4WD, but they might have been built by independent teams.
Shoulda put on my blazer before I wrote that.
I actually added that detail, and got it wrong, mostly. Yes, they were AWD. These cars were actually built up from a Sierra platform/chassis/drivetrain, and then had Escort body panels added. My point was to note the N-S engine orientation. I’ve fixed the text now.
Cc: CC
Frankly, I find it unforgiveable that such important, fundamental errors could be made on what is a public website, and I see no reason why it should not be raised as an Item for the Disciplinary Sub-Committee at the next meeting. I note, with pen no. 3 from my blazer top pocket, that this is not the first time an error has been made by you, and I hereby forewarn that, because of such, under clause 127(1)(b)(ii), as Deputy Sub-Chair of the Sub-Committee aforementioned, I shall regrettably be tabling a Motion for your removal from the site.
Unfortunately, because of his association with bringing the error to light in a public fashion (Clause (332), I shall also be be calling for the removal of Mr tonito, and, because I suspect he is allied, Mr tonit.
With sincere fullsomeness,
Yours In Righteousness,
Mr J Baum, Sub-sub-Committee Deputy Acting Chairperson
Wait, what? In the lead photo, is that a “crying doll” leaning on the front bumper? I had hoped that fad was dead. But on a truck related note, as a former owner of a ’62 Ford F-100 unibody, I wanted to ask if the Australian Ute owners had heard of the body / frame twisting issues on their vehicles as well. I wanted to ask this question earlier when the F-100 article was up, but I was too slow! Practically every time I took the truck somewhere I had some one tell me the story. I never had any problems, by the way.
The Aussie Ford Utes were unitized construction which would be stiffer than the Ford pickups. Don’t forget there were North American “Utes” with the Ranchero and the El Camino and they had no issues with twisting issues. They both had much stiffer bodies than those Fords and even when they used BOF construction, they would have had much more torsional rigidity.
With enough abuse you could get stress cracks in the body, but it would take a bit. Same goes for any vehicle really. When I was at the Holden proving ground a couple of years ago they talked about testing a Falcon ute basically to destruction when they first came out with a 1-tonne load rating in 1994 or 95. I’m not sure if they had the same in the early days, but my Outback ute had a warning to reduce the load to 750kg in rough terrrain.
A friend of my fathers bought a 94-96 ute that was traded at the Ford dealer he worked at, after about 10-12 years old as a workhorse (running all over servicing industrial pumps) it had 345k miles (550k km) but still drove tight as a drum.
Some cool cars there, 100E Prefects and Anglias infested the roads here and were the basis for many ‘boy racer’ cars of my youth but first you had to ditch the prewar engine and gearbox while beine tough old things they were also incredibly gutless and the three speed gearbox had huge gaps between gears, Fortunately later Anglia,Cortina or Consul classic power trains fit right in and then you have more power than the brakes can cope with but that all retrofits too, done well they become quite fun little cars but in granma spec walking is faster,
The early Capri also came in 3.0 Essex V6 same engine as the Zephyr/Zodiac was fitted with but with higher compression heads, fast in their day and later replaced by the Cologne engine, actually the entire Ford engine range was installed in Capris 1300cc four for the economy minded 1600cc for acceptable power, 2.0 V4 Essex and 3.0 Essex, order what you want or swap it in shade tree style,
that entire range will also fit the humble 100E, yes they were popular with car nuts of my age.
Ford also sneaked in a few V4s on Capris
The engines listed for the Capri were for the US market, not Euro or other world markets. But thanks for sharing this other info!
I don’t think the Cologne V6 was optional “for the first few years” in the Fox Capri. It didn’t even make it through the first year (1979) due to supply problems and was replaced by the larger but less powerful US-sourced 3.3L inline six partway through the model year. At least that’s what happened with the Mustang.
The early-’79 models with the Cologne V6 sported chrome “2.8” badges on the front fenders in the same size and font as the much more famous 5.0 badge. The lackluster 3.3 apparently didn’t warrant a callout.
Yes, it was only offered in 1979 like the Mustang. That sentence was altered during editing which is why it was incorrect. It’s been fixed now.
Here’s a ’74 Ford Capri RS 3100, which I caught at the All British Field Meet in Kenmore, Washington, a few years ago.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/12119356@N00/albums/72157695673739052
“he told me that the US Ford Falcon clubs refuse to recognize the truck as a genuine Ford Falcon and refuse to allow him to join. That just seems utterly ridiculous, but not surprising as many car clubs seem to be too close minded”
I hate car clubs just for that reason.
Vince I go to the Chrysler show every year. Let me know if you decide to make it out next year