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There’s a star... man
© FordUntil today, you probably had no idea a Ford Transit made it to the moon. But wait a minute, we smell a rat – since when did astronauts wear baseball caps? Welcome to the weird and often wonderful world of Ford Transit press photos. After 58 years in production, there are plenty of them…
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Ford Transit: an entire family of vans
© FordThe first Ford Transit left the production line in Langley on 9 August 1965. Since then, well over eight million Transit and Transit Custom vehicles have been built, shifting from a single model to an entire family of vans. There can’t be anyone in the UK whose life hasn’t been touched by a Transit in one way or another.
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Ford Transit: electric dreams
© FordThis early Mk1 Transit is owned by Ford UK and still wears the livery of the now-defunct General Electric Company. It’s part of a permanent collection at Ford’s new Heritage and Innovation Centre in Daventry.
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Ford Transit: king of the castles
© FordNeed to deliver nine bouncy castles? You need a Ford Transit, preferably the full-size version pictured here. Let’s hope it wasn’t a windy day, or this press photo could have ended badly.
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Ford Transit: getting you moving again
© FordBreakdown companies have come to rely on the Ford Transit to help get us moving again. If you’re left stranded by the motorway, seeing one of these in your rear-view mirror will be a welcome sight. That said, does anyone else think the manner in which the two chaps are holding those tools looks a little sinister? Lock, stock and two smoking manifolds?
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Ford Transit: keeping you connected
© FordBT has traditionally been one of the Transit’s biggest customers in the UK. Travel to most towns and cities, from Exeter to Edinburgh, and you’ll see a BT Openreach van parked somewhere.
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Ford Transit: express delivery
© FordYou know how it is. You take a day off work, wait at home all day, only to discover that special delivery you arranged isn’t going to turn up. Hardly surprising – this delivery driver looks terribly confused.
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Ford Transit: cooking on gas
© FordBack in the day, the electricity board provided your electricity and the gas board supplied your gas. Simple. Today it’s all too confusing. Still, at least we know the Transit is still a van.
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Ford Transit: make mine a 99
© FordOf course, the Ford Transit isn’t just there for the nasty things in life, like a blocked drain. Some have been converted for use as ice cream vans…
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Ford Transit: for the morning commute
© FordThe people who help keep the trains moving travel to work in a Transit. Which means you can get to work, too.
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Ford Transit: a lotta bottle
© FordBut that’s not until after you’ve had your cereals, which may have been drenched in milk delivered by a Ford Transit…
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Ford Transit: sounds a bit fishy
© FordOr maybe you had kippers for breakfast, mummy dear, mummy dear? They got to have ’em in Texas? But perhaps not in Teddington.
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Ford Transit: give us this day…
© FordMoments after this photo was taken, the bread delivery man discovered – to his horror – that he had failed to apply the handbrake on his Ford Transit. The incident made the front page of the local parish news, relegating the cricket scores to the inside front cover.
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Ford Transit: pigs in Transits
© FordRemember when you had sausages delivered to your home? No, neither do we. Notice the cheery look on the face of the pig adorning the side of the Transit. Compare that to the look of horror on the face of the pig on the back. Now he knows what sausages really are…
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Ford Transit: excellent trunk capacity
© FordThe art director may have misinterpreted the instruction to demonstrate ‘trunk capacity’ when this photoshoot was taking place.
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Ford Transit: splash it on
© FordNo, that’s not Sir Henry Cooper showing us his amazing eight-finger left hand. One of Britain’s best-ever boxers was actually a greengrocer during the day. And of course, he drove a Ford Transit.
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Ford Transit and Michael Caine
© FordHere we see Michael Caine on the set of The Fourth Protocol in 1987. He’s looking grumpy because someone has just told him a joke involving blowing blooming doors off. Not a lot of people know that.
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Ford Transit and Gary Rhodes
© FordGary Rhodes was once voted Britain’s 12th favourite celebrity chef. He finished just behind Rusty Lee. This may not be true.
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Jackie Stewart 1973 road advice
© FordSir Jackie Stewart giving road safety advice to school children. It seems sensible enough. Quite why he’s doing it in what appears to be Austria or Bavaria is anyone’s guess. Today’s lesson: why you shouldn’t drive standing up and with the door open.
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Ford Transit: Deal or no deal
© FordNoel Edmonds visited this school in Redbridge back in 1978. He ran a Q&A session with the children. The first question was who had the widest flares. The man on the right seems to have got Noel’s vote.
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Ford Transit: silence is golden
© FordThis picture shows sixties chart sensations, The Tremeloes, stood in their modest back garden in London. If you’re wondering why the chap on the left is looking so miserable, he drew the short straw in the ‘who is going to wear the dodgiest trousers’ competition.
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Ford Transit: Merry Xmas Everybody
© FordOf course, the Ford Transit has been the backbone of many fledgling rock and pop acts, transporting them from gig to gig. Here’s Wolverhampton’s favourite band, Slade, not in any way dining out on their Christmas hit of 1973.
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Ford Transit: No Way Sis
© FordOnce heralded by Noel Gallagher as “the second best band in the world”, No Way Sis were an incredibly popular Oasis tribute band. They were very good, but unlike the real thing, you never got the impression they were about to have a fight.
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Ford Transit: The Coral
© FordIndie band The Coral also put their faith in a Ford Transit. The group has supported the likes of Blur, Supergrass, Oasis and Arctic Monkeys.
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Ford Transit: broadcasting live
© FordDo you remember Radio Luxembourg? If you don’t, you’re better off asking your parents. Back in the day, the radio station used a Ford Transit to get around Europe.
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Ford Transit: family holidays
© FordWho hasn’t been on a school or college trip in a Ford Transit? As a 12-seater, it makes for a worthy alternative to the standard MPV. It allows us Brits to engage in some uniquely British pastimes…
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Ford Transit: lions
© FordIn the 1960s, lions still roamed freely in the UK. The government employed a team of animal experts to keep them from getting too close to children and small dogs. In hindsight, painting the Transits to make them look like zebras was probably a bad idea.
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Ford Transit: more lions
© FordThe lions made camping a rather hazardous experience. Here, a young family are holidaying in a pre-developed Milton Keynes, blissfully unaware that a pack of lions have been attracted by the smell of extra lean bacon.
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Ford Transit: a night at the opera
© FordWe bet you a tenor that none of these people arrived at the Glyndebourne Opera in the back of that Ford Transit. Tenor? Opera? Get it? OK, moving on…
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Ford Transit: paddle steamer
© FordIn the days before smartphones, social media and Fortnite, the British used to keep themselves amused by doing all number of weird and wonderful things. Ford got in on the fact by launching this Transit-based paddle steamer. It was last seen off the coast of Brittany.
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Ford Transit: Motown funk
© FordThis chap likes nothing better than to spend time painting pictures of his favourite Motown greats on the bonnet of his Ford Transit…
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Ford Transit: spice up your life
© FordAnd these people won the prize for the ‘Best Ford Transit doing an impression of a Spice Girl’ competition. This Transit from the mid 1980s was dressed as Ginger Spice.
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Ford Transit: an early selfie
© FordThis is an incredibly early example of a selfie. Hidden inside that chocolate Ford Transit is an Instamatic camera. This photo subsequently went viral in the accounts room and the warehouse.
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Ford Transit: might as well jump
© FordBack in 1996, the RAF’s Harrier Jump Jet display team took delivery of three Ford Transits to travel around the country. We’d make a joke about giving you wings, but that would be too obvious.
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Ford Transit: it’s a dog’s life
© FordThis man travelled from Denmark to visit the Crufts dog show. His dog was unimpressed, claiming his owner should have bought a Rover.
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Ford Transit: supporting Escorts
© FordThis could only be the 1970s. Penthouse magazine sponsored a team of racing vehicles, which – rather brilliantly – were Escorts. A Ford Transit was chosen as the support vehicle. James Hunt and Gene Hunt would have approved.
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Miss Transit 1967
© FordYes, that really does say Miss Transit 1967. Different times, lad. Different times.
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Ford Transit: charity worker
© FordThe Ford Transit has done an awful lot for charidee. Not that it likes to talk about it. The Homepride man was the designated driver for the day.
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Ford Transit: ape expectations
© FordStudents at the South Bank Polytechnic raised money for the Imperial Cancer Fund. Which is excellent. But can anyone explain what the ape on a lead is doing there?
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Ford Transit: remember you’re a Womble
© FordMore charity work here, with Orinoco of The Wombles doing his bit. At least we think that’s Orinoco. If anyone knows better, answers on a postcard please…
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Ford Transit: milking it
© FordAnd here’s a milkman helping out in the age of austerity by delivering a crate of milk to a poor and impoverished neighbourhood.
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Ford Transit: music to our ears
© FordFinally, as far as charity work is concerned, this man did his bit for the local community by building the noisiest Ford Transit in the world. Oh how the people on his street used to look forward to him coming home, complete with 65 amps, 61 subwoofers and 155db of sweet music.
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Ford Transit: Supervan 1
© FordWhen the Ford Transit goes bananas. This is the original Supervan, which was powered by a 5.0-litre V8 engine from the GT40. It could reach speeds of up to 150mph.
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Ford Transit: Supervan 2
© FordAnd this is Supervan 2, with its F1-based Cosworth V8, which was enough to propel the van to a top speed of 174mph. Is that bonkers enough? No, well read on…
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Ford Transit: Supervan 3
© FordBecause this is Supervan 3, based on the same rolling chassis as Supervan 2, but with a V8 engine revving up to 12,000rpm. Top speed was a mad-as-a-box-of-frogs 200mph.
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Ford Pro Electric Supervan
© FordOne of the unlikeliest stars of last year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Ford Pro Electric Supervan is a modified Transit with the small matter of 2,000hp. Four electric motors and a 52kWh battery mean it can hit 62mph in less than two seconds – as demonstrated by Le Mans racer Romain Dumas on the famous Goodwood hillclimb. Cooler than all the supercars? We think so.
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Ford Transit: Pro Electric Supervan
© FordThe Electric Supervan uses components from the new E–Transit Custom, but its steel spaceframe chassis, double wishbone suspension and composite panels are entirely bespoke. Thanks to four-wheel drive (with one electric motor per wheel) and racing slick tyres, the Transit has huge traction and grip. The Ford Sync media system offers a choice of drive modes: Road, Track, Drag, Drift and Rally. There’s also a Tyre Cleaning Mode for ‘creating impressive burnouts’.
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Ford Transit: a bright spark
© FordHere’s a more ‘real world’ electric van. The new E-Transit has an official range of up to 196 miles from a 68kWh battery mounted beneath the floor. Interestingly, it’s also rear-wheel drive, although you’ll search in vain for a tyre-smoking Drift mode.
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Ford Transit: monster truck
© FordNot your average Ford Transit. This monster truck used axles from a US military personnel carrier and an automatic transmission from a London bus. Good luck getting rubber for this thing from your local tyre fitters.
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Ford Transit XXL
© FordThis Transit XXL measures 7.4 metres long and was built to celebrate the Ford Transit winning the International Van of the Year in 2007. Weirdly, despite its size, it could only seat seven passengers and the driver.
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Ford Transit: jumping for joy
© FordYou’ve gotta love this photo. It looks like stuntman, Steve Matthews, is going to make it, but it was rather cheeky of Ford to put a Vauxhall at the end of the 15-car line.
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Ford Transit: feeling the chill
© FordHere’s the new electric Ford E-Transit undergoing cold-weather testing in a laboratory. In warmer conditions, the van offers a zero-emissions range of 196 miles.
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Ford Transit: window cleaning
© FordHere we see a relative of George Formby doing a modern version of the classic hit, When I’m Cleaning Windows.
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The oldest Ford Transit
© FordWe’re led to believe the Transit on the right is the oldest in Britain. That’s as maybe, but is that a mooning Bart Simpson sat in the van on the left?
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Ford Transit: 2 million by 1985
© FordThirty-eight years ago, the two-millionth Ford Transit rolled off the production line in Southampton. Curiously, botanist David Bellamy was on hand to mark the occasion.
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Ford Transit: the future
© FordThe Transit, in all its many forms, has been Britain’s number one van for nearly 60 years. With much of our shopping now delivered direct, plus a new electric version hitting the streets, its time at the top certainly isn’t over yet.