Ford Popular

The Ford Popular is a car from Ford built in England between 1953 and 1962. When production of the older Ford Anglia and Ford Prefect was stopped in 1953 the Popular was developed as a budget alternative. The Popular was based on the old, prewar-style Anglia. It was powered by a Ford Sidevalve 1172 cc four cylinder engine. The car was very basic. It had a single vacuum powered wiper, no heater, vinyl trim and very little chrome. Over 150,000 Populars were made. This car proved successful because, while on paper it was a sensible alternative to a clean, late-model used car, in practice there were no clean late-model used cars available in postwar Britain due to the six-year halt in production caused by World War II. This problem was compounded by stringent export quotas that made obtaining a new car in the late 1940s and into the early 1950s difficult, and covenants forbidding new-car buyers from selling for up to three years after delivery. Unless the purchaser could pay the extra GBP100 or so for an Anglia 100E, Austin A30 or Morris Minor, the choice was the Popular or a prewar car. In 1959 the old Popular was replaced by a new version that was in production until 1962. As the old version it used the Anglia shell, the 100E this time, and it was powered by an 1172 cc sidevalve engine. In later years, these cars became popular as hot rods since the late 1950's when people started drag racing them due to their light weight construction. Ironically this started in the United States but became the definitive British hot rod, which it still is today.

Revival - 1975-1980

In 1975 the Popular name was revived for an absolute base model of the newly released Ford Escort Mk2. This model was bare on luxuries, and had a standard 1.1 litre OHV Kent motor, 12in wheels with cross ply tyres and drum brakes all round.

Ford Popular in Television Shows

In 1970, a Ford Popular was extensively modified by the British Broadcasting Corporation to become "Bessie", the Doctor's sprightly Edwardian roadster on the long-running science-fiction television show, Doctor Who. A black Ford Popular (EBW 343) was also used in the Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch "Mr. and Mrs. Brian Norris' Ford Popular". In a spoof of epic journeys, the Norrises (Michael Palin as Mr. Norris and Graham Chapman in drag as Mrs. Norris) set out to see if the journey from Surbiton to Hounslow was possible; they were thwarted by the Thames and had to finish the trek by rail.