Black and white photograph showing an Anglia in early 60s suburbia. - at Old Classic Car Forum
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Black and white photograph showing an Anglia in early 60s suburbia.
Oldclassiccar - visit the classic cars homepage (C) R. Jones 2008
 

Anglia 105E - a British car from the 1960s.

Ford Anglia - the 'anglebox'

One of the best selling cars of the 1960s was Ford's 105E Anglia, just like the one shown below. 45 SFM is seen parked in a typical British driveway. It looks to be in very clean condition, with just a few oily marks on the drive to suggest that it had already covered a few miles. Any fears of a breakdown were mitigated by the re-assurance of the RAC breakdown badge, plastic type, fitted to the Anglia's grille.

As well as being a popular 2 door saloon for family buyers (they never marketed a 4 door version of the 105E), the 105E also leant itself to tuning, with many "boy racers" learning about the art of tuning on the Anglia's four pot engine. A photo of just such a tweaked Anglia can be seen on this page.

I'm interested in comparing views of an area, separated by the years, to identify differences that have taken place. I wonder what this British road scene looks like now, assuming it hasn't been cleared for a road development!! Most metal window frames will have been replaced with PVC double glazed units, and houses will have sprouted TV and satellite aerials no doubt. The road shows no signs of painted markings, whats the betting that single yellow lines, and awful speed-humps, now spoil this view?

The 105E Anglia went on sale late in 1959, as a replacement for the rather outdated, if still popular (!), 100E. The 997cc OHV engine was also used in the 107E, a curious addition to the Ford catalogue that was also introduced in 1959, but only lasted 18 months. It employed the 105E's engine yet retained the 100Es boxy styling. Perhaps Ford were hedging their bets, in case their traditional buyers were put off by the 105Es flashier styling.

Two versions of the Anglia were initially available, the poverty-spec base 105E, and the two tone Deluxe, which is the model shown below. A couple of years later the 105E cars were joined by the estate car, and 5/7cwt vans.

In '62 the 'bees knees' of Anglias was launched, the Super. This employed the Cortina's 1198cc four pot, and came with two tone paint, more opulent interior trim, and extra chrome as standard. Production of the 105E lasted til late in 1967, by which time the all-new Escort Mk1 was ready to hit the dealerships. No performance version of the Anglia was built at Dagenham, but many people took the opportunity to breath on their own vehicles, with an industry building up to support these enthusiastic modifiers (just as happened with BMC's new car for '59, the Mini, although they did go on to produce performance versions of the Min at the factory).

In recent years interest in the Anglia was given a further boost by it appearing in one of the popular Harry Potter childrens books. A legion of Anglia fans ensures that examples will be preserved, either in standard or modified form. Various clubs cater for the Anglia, including the Ford Anglia 105E owners club, and finding parts is helped enormously by the number of specialist that supply parts for these Fords. If modifying Anglias is your thing, take a look at 105speed.com for information on some interesting engine upgrades.

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