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Ford Prefect
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Ford Prefect was a line of British cars produced by the UK section of the Ford Motor Company, and a more upmarket version of its direct siblings the Ford Popular and Ford Anglia. Like its siblings, the car became a popular basis for a hot rod. Especially in Britain as both lightweight and it's very much suited to the four cylinder engines common in most British hot rods.
The cars progressed from a perpendicular or sit-up-and-beg style to a more modern 3-box structure.
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The Ford Prefect was introduced in 1938 and built by the Ford plant in Dagenham, Essex. The original Ford Prefect was a slight reworking of the previous year's 7Y, the first Ford car designed outside of Detroit, Michigan. It was designed specifically for the British market. It had a 1200cc sidevalve engine with thermocirculation radiator (no pump) and the ability to be started by a crank handle should the battery not have sufficient power to turn the starter motor running from the 6 Volt charging system. The windscreen wipers were powered by the vacuum ported from the engine intake manifold - as the car laboured uphill the wipers would slow to a standstill due to the intake manifold vacuum dropping to near null, only to start working again as the top was reached and the intake vacuum increased.
Post war, the Prefect design changed little in design until replaced in 1952. The headlamps moved into the wings and trafficators were fitted (internally lit semaphores springing out from the door pillars to signal left and right turns), though due to space restrictions these were left out on the Australian-built Ute.
In 1953 a much redesigned Ford Prefect was introduced alongside the similar Ford Anglia and remained in production until 1959. From 1955, the estate car version (the Squire) was introduced, mechanically identical to the estate car version of the Anglia 100E (the Escort) but with wooden strakes.
This was a reworked 100E body with the engine from the Anglia 105E, produced until replaced by the Ford Cortina. Not many were made, all in a two-tone colour scheme.
In addition to the UK, Ford Prefects were also sold in Australia, Argentina and Canada. The Canadian model was left-hand drive. The Australian model was also available in a Coupe Utility or "Ute" form that had an open rear tray area similar in design to an American pick-up but based on the sedan and not derived from a truck or commercial vehicle. It was also license built in Latvia by Ford-Vairogs as Ford-Vairogs Junior.
In Douglas Adams's science fiction/comedy series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, one of the characters is an alien who adopted the name Ford Prefect while visiting Earth, believing that the name would be "nicely inconspicuous". In the TV series, the character chose his name from a list including Anna Ford, Henry Ford and various other Ford automobile models. In the 2005 film adaptation, the character is seen to be nearly run over by a real Ford Prefect automobile.
- http://www.carsurvey.org/review_18867.html
- http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/1085/My_Prefect.html
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