We’ve already seen the Chevrolet Cadet-inspired British Ford Zephyr MK I; now let’s move forward a few years to visit its successor, the MK II. While the previous edition recalled the ’49 Ford, this one’s even more-Americanized styling took its inspiration from post-1952 American Ford sedans.
With over 150,000 produced, the MK I Consul and Zepyhr (above) were very successful models for Ford of Britain, but after a five-year run it was time for a serious refresh.
The transatlantic styling was the work of Colin Neale’s team, and it proved to be very popular with the press and the buying public alike. MK II prototypes had been up and running since 1954, extensive testing done throughout 1955, and in 1956 came the official debut. The Consul (above), powered by a 1.703 cc four, was once again the lowest trim level.
One step up the ladder was the Zephyr, which netted its buyer a powerful, newly-enlarged 2,553 cc straight six. The Zodiac (above) was the posh version, with two-tone paint, a revised front grille, distinctive rear styling and other niceties. The Zodiac shared the Zephyr’s six-cylinder engine. Collectively, the models were known as “The Three Graces”.
Again, the only factory-built body style was a four-door saloon. Like the MK I, a convertible conversion by Carbodies was available. Similarly, the five-door estate (wagon) was converted and sold by Abbotts of Farnham. These variants were extremely costly when new, and are sought after by collectors today.
Queen Elizabeth II was among many famous owners of an estate car; hers was given a bit of additional height in order to provide the royals with a little extra headroom, presumably for their crowns.
Australia went a different route, producing its own range from CKD (Completely Knocked Down) kits. Sedan, wagon and coupe utility (truck) versions were available straight from the factory.
One of the complaints about the earlier Zephyr had been its sometimes-hairy handling. In order to tame oversteer, the MK II wheelbase was increased by 3” to 107”; also, width increased significantly, to 69” from 64”. Engine performance was improved as well, with increased horsepower (from 68 to 88) and better fuel economy despite an almost 300 cc boost in displacement. The standard gearbox was still a three-speed manual, but overdrive–or, for the first time, a Borg-Warner automatic–were available. Front disc brakes, available since 1960, became standard the following year.
The aftermarket (at least in the UK) again catered to the Zephyr with go-fast parts like this Aquaplane intake manifold and triple carburetor. Zephyrs also proved popular with such boutique manufacturers as AC, which used its engine in its Ace and Greyhound sports cars. The engine also found its way into the Allard Palm Beach, Britannia GT, Fairthorpe Zeta, Lea-Francis Lynx and, perhaps most famously, the Reliant Sabre and early Reliant Scimitar coupes.
I find this modification rather humorous. The owner apparently spent enough time underhood to add this household-style light. There must be some good British car jokes there, so feel free to let loose.
There are two distinct flavors of Mk II Zephyr; the High Line, and the Low Line. The so-called High Line, produced from 1956-1959, features a more circular instrument cluster and a full horn ring within the steering wheel. In February 1959 Ford, taking a page from the hot rodder’s playbook, chopped the roof line by a couple of inches to create the Low Line. Other changes included added chrome pieces, most noticeably the headlight bezels. Keeping with contemporary trends, the instrument panel became more rectangular and the horn ring semicircular. With a nod to safety, the top of the dash was now padded. Our example is a Low Line, albeit one without the usual two-tone exterior. Actually, its gray paint looks rather like primer.
The three pedals you see indicate the presence of a three-on-the-tree manual gearbox. The interior, like the exterior, is very American-looking. The bits of wood were added by an owner who also installed auxiliary gauges and a radio. The seats on this example were quite mouse-eaten, but all the inedible bits seemed to be intact and accounted for.
The radio is a Sonomatic, taken from a 1960s Buick. It must have been installed quite a long time ago, when adding an AM-only radio was worth the trouble. While I quite like how the station selection buttons spell B-U-I-C-K, I nevertheless suspect that theme works better in an actual Buick.
These British Fords sold reasonably well in North America, but were rendered superfluous by the 1960 Ford Falcon; as a result, we would not see the 1962 Mk III version. Oddly, the prominently-featured yellow Consul semi-convertible in the above ad never was offered anywhere.
An early MK II travels down the assembly line. Worldwide Zephyr/Zodiac production totaled up to 301,417 units of all body styles.
My parents briefly owned an Anglia around 1959-60, along with a Karmann Ghia. Both of them were more traditional American car kind of people, and I never heard much good about the Anglia.
This is my first up close visit with a Zephyr. I kind of like it. It does seem more American than British both inside and out.
My father had the Consul which would never start damp mornings which happen often in Buckinghamshire England. I grew up tough as my elder brother and I seem to push it the two miles to school every damp morning (I swear I can still see the Ford logo even now embossed into my hand due to pushing this car).
The front suspension was always suspect as during cornering the coil spring would suddenly drop by wildly compressing, there was a sharp corner near where we lived (Bugle Horn). I can still see my late father wresting with the steering wheel when this always caught him unawares.
Dry the inside of the dizzy cap and it will start
The wagon conversion by Abbotts, reminds me a bit of the Simca Aronde 4-door wagon then Chrysler Australia (and was only sold in Australia, survivors are very rare) when Chrysler beginned to invest in Simca. http://www.flickr.com/photos/50415738@N04/6484641267/ I guess the folks of Simca and Chrysler was inspired by these Zephyr wagons.
There more pictures of this “hybrid” on this French site of the Aussie-French Aronde wagon
http://www.simcaworld.net/aronde/stationwagon/indexstationwagon.php
Aussie wagons are different and use squared of rear doors
There’s an Australian-built Zephyr wagon currently for sale here in NZ. You can see the squared-off rear door frames that Bryce notes: http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/ford/zephyr/auction-530284160.htm
Just curious…whatever became of all those storage yard classics in that Alberta field, after their sale/auction?
Did all the homeless cars find owners?
Perhaps one landed in your driveway?
About half of them are sold. A friend of mine bought one of them. I was going to buy a car we haven’t featured yet but the rear brakes were frozen solid. I couldn’t get the drums off for anything. The only thing we didn’t try was a torch but that might have gone rather badly with all the dry grass around. The field is quite marshy and muddy which would have made it hard to snag it as the borrowed trailer we had didn’t have a winch. So in the end I passed. They have a $250 min bid on each plus I’m a couple hours away which makes the rougher ones a tough financial choice.
I believe this one is still available. The body looked decently solid but interior needs work. The mechanical bits have been sitting probably for a close to a decade.
Yes, that’s always the rub isn’t it. Minimum bids and then figuring out how to get them home. Hiring a tow truck driver at $2.00 + per kilometre, very quickly eats into one’s treasure.
Looking back over the years at all the crap, (I mean treasures), I’ve hauled home, I sometimes think it would have been worth the while to have bought an old tow truck. Maybe yet.
I bought the two Vauxhalls, one a 1960 Velox, the other a 1962 Cresta. Won’t be fetching them until spring though, so I paid for storage until the beginning of May. Not a bad score for $250 a piece…
Is the SD1 in the top photo for sale?
Delightful writeup. This car’s roofline reminds me of the ’49 Ford, which is one of my all-time favorite Fords.
In the early 60s, I distinctly remember that a family across the street had a Ford Anglia and a Consul or Zephyr convertible like the yellow one above. They were very proud of the unusual half-top feature and were happy to show it off to the the neighborhood kids.
So it appears that some were imported to North America. If not the US, could it have come from Canada? Another neighbor had a ’64 VW Variant, which they brought from Canada two years before it marketed here as the Squareback.
British cars were very common in the late 50s/early 60s, at least in California. Vauxhall Victor, Sunbeam Alpine, Austin Healy, Hillmans (we had a Hillman Husky) and English Fords were all represented in our immediate neighborhood. Anglias and Cortinas were often seen, but I don’t recall spotting any other Consuls, let alone a convertible.
English Fords were definitely imported to the US during the fifties, until the 1960 Falcon came along. They were not uncommon, although the small Anglia seemed to have made up the major portion of the imports. The larger models like these were probably priced too close to a low-end US Ford.
I thought that some of the smaller English Fords continued to be imported to the U.S. in small numbers right down to the advent of the Pinto, though their sales had to have been minimal once the Falcon was on the scene and the 1958-61 recession (and accompanying import boom) ended.
The “full-size” Zephyr/Zodiac was definitely gone from U.S. shores by the the time the Mk III was introduced, if not even sooner. It couldn’t have been a big seller to begin with, for the reasons that Paul noted, and it was also very similar in size to the Falcon.
Quite true. The caffeine obviously hadn’t worked yet when I wrote that. The Cortina especially had a resurgence in the mid-late sixties. The Anglia seems to have petered out a bit earlier, at least in sales numbers.
Interesting to hear of an actual half top car. I’d understood they weren’t made. Perhaps low production from a coachbuilder.
Not sure about the MkII, but the Mk I was available with a half top. This one’s for sale here currently: http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/ford/mk1/auction-544059758.htm
In the summer of ’62, my father finally traded in our venerable, home-maintained, immaculate ’53 Ford Prefect for a magnificent 1960 Lowline Zodiac Automatic, just like the one in the pic. Top speed was just about 90 mph, with 0-60 coming up in around 18 seconds, and the fuel consumption was in the region of 22 mpg (Imperial) overall. Going for the Zodiac rather than the cheaper Zephyr got us grey leather-trimmed front and rear benches with central armrests, a clock mounted above the rear-view mirror (ideally positioned to bash your head in in the event of an accident), oh, and a cigar lighter! Brakes were unassisted drums all round. I remember the Old Man winding the beast up to an indicated 100 mph on the only long, straight bit of road near us, the look of triumph on his face turning to grim determination as we braked for the all-too-rapidly approaching terminal roundabout. We made it, but it was a memorable white-knuckle moment from which he took some time to recover! The car had various little quirks, my favourite being its habit of stalling if left idling for too long on a steep hill with a less than half-full tank of petrol – the last few gallons would slosh to the rear of the tank where the fuel pump pickup pipe couldn’t get at it and you’d then have to roll back down the hill onto the level to restart the engine. The six cylinder exhaust note had a wonderful, flinty, deep bass quality.and Father would often wind the window down when driving through tunnels. Sometime in late ’65, I accompanied my father on our last trip in the by then slightly dogeared Mk 2 as we drove south to Edinburgh for an appointment to test-drive an Imperial Maroon ’64 Zodiac Mk 3. We were both thrilled by the quiet-running, powerful Mk 3 with its fully-trimmed, softly-padded, thickly-carpeted interior and a deal was struck on the spot. Father and his twelve year old son swooshed out of the dealer’s compound in the new family car, past the old Mk 2 which was parked up at the gate. Neither of us gave so much as a backward glance.
Hey, good story! Sort of a miniature COAL, or Fords of my Father, if you prefer.
Great story. Thanks for taking the time to share it. Always excellent to hear from folks with first hand experience.
Awesome story! They did/do have a fantastic exhaust note too. Plenty of Kiwis have storys about doing the ‘ton’ in a MkII Zephyr/Zodiac – it was almost a rite of passage I think – definitely a sign of manhood. Apparently the aftermarket triple-carb kits made more than a ton a genuine possibility! The MkIII certainly made the MkII look very old very quickly, especially the Zodiac with that gorgeous Frua styling, so I can understand why you didn’t give it a second glance. Nowadays of course they’re both fantastic pieces of styling!
Thank you, gentlemen! I’m pleased you enjoyed my potted mini-story, If truth be told, I was my father’s greatest fan when it came to his cars and I always made sure there was a selection of convenient brochures to hand for new cars he couldn’t possibly afford! Years later when I worked for a Yorkshire Ford dealer, I finally got to sell him his first ever brand-new car, a ’74 Consul 3000 GT (as used in the Brit cop series, The Sweeney!)
The new 1954 French Ford had much the same styling but used a V8-60 engine. Later in the year the factory was sold to Simca who kept the car in production until 1962 as the Simca Vedette. A 58 facelift provided it with a wraparound windshield and revamped front and rear fenders. The Gallic version always included a station wagon (“break de chasse” in French parlance). AGB
Very interesting point about the Vedette. There was quite a debate online here in New Zealand last year about the similarities between the MkII Zephyr and the ’54-’57 Vedette. It was claimed that the windscreens were interchangeable, and that the doors were also close enough to swap (the exterior skins were a little different and required minor work to fit, but the internal structure and hinge/latch hardware locations was alleged to be practically the same). I’ve been unable to find out more, so took the claims with a grain of salt. But it’s an interesting proposition nonetheless. Coincidentally, my late Uncle owned a ’59ish Vedette V8 from new for a couple of years. His sister (my grandmother) had bought a ’59 Plymouth Belvedere new at the same time, and they were quite competitive! The Belvedere was enormous by comparison, but being the old flathead 6, it was thoroughly thrashed by the Vedette for performance.
The 50s Vedettes were very similar indeed to the mark II Fords, and with their side-valve V-8s made an even better noise. But they were not very quick. I once stayed with a family who had a green one – it made a wonderful ‘burble-urble-urble’ sound …
A final insult to that line came when Simca fitted a paltry 4-cylinder engine to the Vedette body shell and called it the ‘Ariane’. Gutless is not the word …
I think the absence of a decent 6 might have been related to the French taxation regime. Plus fuel was relatively expensive in France at that time.
Ford Aussie stopped production of Zephyrs in favour of the new Falcon EPIC FAIL, Compared to the Zephyr the Falcon is a POS The Zephyr earned its reputation for toughness in car rallies all over the world. The Falcon fell to pieces on city streets it was absolute junk.
Its really an amazing post and I enjoyed reading it. I have been fan of all the given ford models since from chilhood. My grandfather drove the car Queen Elizabeth II for three years.
Ford Storage
Hi,
Nice article, but surely you should be writing about the glorious bronze Rover 3500 SD1 in the background of the first picture.
That was a true iconic classic, and I’d be keen to read the North AMerican take on it.
There were two SD1s – both were automatic and in poor shape. The CC is coming though.
Ooo, big SD1 fan here (is there a more handsome hatchback out there?), can’t wait for the CC!
Looks like the royal wagon might have the tall roofline to allow for the raised rear seat (check the position of the seat back top)
My grandfather had one of these lying on its side next to a farm shed in the 1980′s, after the driveline had been removed. I don’t know how long it sat there, but probably 10-15 years.
The Zephyr looks in surprisingly good body condition considering the time spent outside. The Rover P6 beside the Zephyr deserves its own story as well – another rare car in North America.
Your wish is CC’s command: http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/storage-field-classic-rover-2000tc/
My father had one of these as a company car in 1960 (I think it was a 1959 model.) He always said he preferred it to the various Holdens he had subsequently.For a bit of trivia, Brian Epstein had a Mark 2 Zodiac when he first met the Beatles in 1961, which impressed them a great deal.
Amazingly, I passed a MkII Zephyr convertible today on the way home from work. It was outside a garage, roof down, bonnet up, surrounded by people – judging from the incredibly shiny paint (burgundy and white), bright white interior and gleaming chrome covered engine I’d say it was a fresh restoration that had just been wheeled out. And then passed a gorgeous blue sedan nearer home – two Z-cars in one day is quite a rare but enjoyable occurence! The MkII holds a special place in our family history – I shared the following story on the MkI Zephyr article, it’s worth repeating here too.
My Dad’s first car was a New Zealand-new 1958ish MkII Consul High Line that he bought in 1965ish. It was affectionately known as ‘Connie’, and was one of the reasons Dad met Mum in 1966. She had gone home on the school bus to stay the night at a friend’s place in a small forestry milling settlement in the middle of New Zealand. When they got off the bus, Dad was somewhere near with his Consul, and Mum remembers asking her friend “Who’s the guy with that car?”. Mum was 16, Dad was 19, and three years later they were married (I came along 4 years after that). ‘Connie’ made it through the first few years of their married life, but was traded on a MkII Cortina before I was born.
Connie was identical colours to the one pictured below (except she was a High Line and the pic is a Low Line). Mum and Dad’s favourite ‘Connie’ story is about the day Mum was driving it and the crankcase breather (or something) got blocked; the dipstick got blown out of the engine with a tremendous racket and lots of oil. The car recovered fine, but Dad still thoroughly enjoys reminding us all at family get-togethers of the day that “Dallas blew Connie up!”. But if it wasn’t for ‘Connie’ leading to Mum to get to know Dad, I wouldn’t be here. So for the MkII Consul/Zephyr/Zodiac line, I will be forever grateful!
Spectacularly gorgeous MkII Zepjyr ute also for sale here in NZ. I never noticed before, but it wears Consul taillights, whereas the also-Oz-built wagon uses the Zephyr taillights. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/ford/zephyr/auction-544099371.htm
All the aussie made utes used the consul tailights, mostly painted but some people chromed them, there was a difference in shape depending if they were Buttlers or lucas.
“The Zodiac (above) was the posh version,” Quote.
I presume Americans understand this.
A cousin of mine, who was a serious car guy and part time racer, owned a Zephyr convertible for a time, with a “continental kit”, only I didn’t know it was called that in the 50′s.
My brother in law had a Consul estate which he inherited from his father.I drove it a few times – OK if you were not in a hurry. I have an idea the estates used to rust more quickly as the paintwork was not factory original.
I wonder when someone will do a piece on the much misunderstood ford consul classic and its sister car the very pretty ford consul Capri made at ford daganam from 61 63 both an epic failier and blown out the water by the cortina and corsair incidentally the classic was designed by the guy who did the Edsel.lol
Prime Minister Harold Wilson owned a Consul Classic, which rather put me off, although the Capri coupe version was stylish in a vulgar sort of way (totally unrelated to the better-known Capri that came later).
I bought a 1960-ish Mk II Zephyr in 1973 for £80 in London, and ran it for a year. Wonderful exhaust note, as others have mentioned. The gear change linkage would sometimes lock up, and I learned how to dive down under the bonnet and shove one of the links in a certain direction. The general feel of the car was very solid and surprisingly modern almost 20 years after the first Ml IIs were introduced. A much better interpretation of American styling than Vauxhall managed mostly, and closely allied to Detroit Fords of a certain vintage. My faith in the tank-like construction of the Zephyr was shaken when I jacked it up, at which point there was a ‘crump’ and the jack disappeared up through the bodywork, most of which consisted of fibreglass filler …
I would have loved the convertible, but I wonder how well they weathered …
Amazingly for the day, it had one of those vacuum-operated wiper systems than wiped frenetically when you didn’t need it, and did nothing when you did.
Hello I am looking for exterior rear view mirrors of Ford Zodiac.
thank you,
Ferran
I have a Mk 11 1960 ute and the brakes are, well you know what the brakes are like.
I read above that disk brakes were introduced in 1960, how can I convert my brakes?
Any advise would be most appreciated.
Rich T
Easiest way would be to just buy a set of struts complete with discs from a disc-braked model and pop them in (with the associated brake plumbing etc). Add a booster if you want one (must be Ford ones that fit/could be made to fit; or a remote booster like Hillman Hunters used). Mk III struts may fit too. If there are Zephyr forums online they could help with the details.
The “Royal” Zephyr estate is on display at Sandringham here in Norfolk, along with many other vehicles used around the estate, from the earlier most basic shooting brakes to the expected Rolls-Royces. The museum section at Sandringham is well worth a visit for classic car enthusiasts.