MEET THE OWNER – JOHN BALL AND HIS FORD ZEPHYR-SIX MK. I
28th September, 2020
John became a devotee of the “Five Star Ford” back in 1967 when he bought a green Consul Mk. I – ‘and I passed my driving test in her’. By that time, Dagenham’s range of large cars was in their fourth generation, building on the success of the original 1950 – 1956 line-up. And several decades later Mr. Ball became the custodian of a magnificent red 1954 Zephyr-Six that he acquired ‘from a dealership in Kent’.
It is sometimes hard for a 2020 motorist to appreciate the impact of the Zephyr when it debuted at the 1950 London Motor Show. Its monocoque bodywork made the Anglia, Prefect and V8 Pilot look pre-war. Equally importantly, the 2,262cc “oversquare” six-cylinder engine achieved smoothness beyond the Standard Vanguard and the Austin A70 Hereford with their “Big Fours”. The Ford also looked far more contemporary than the Vauxhall Velox L-Type and slightly more glamorous than the Morris MS Six.
Motor Sport of 1953 raved that the Zephyr was ‘an economical, comfortable saloon of compact dimensions and modest price, which packed in an enormous amount of travel without tiring itself or its occupants’. Furthermore, it excelled on long journeys for it was able to cruise ‘at 70-75 mph with an easy stride, accelerating powerfully and taking ordinary hills in the highest ratio with little diminution of speed’.
In short, this was a car perfectly suited to the nation’s trunk roads, all for £829 1s 1d. When Martin Buckley tested the flagship Zephyr-Zodiac for Classic and Sports Car he thought ‘it was meant for a generation of post-war owners who didn’t want to grind gears or heave on steering and brake pedals’. Meanwhile, on the silver screen, George Cole used a Zephyr-Six to defeat Alastair Sim’s mad assassin in the delightful 1956 comedy film The Green Man.
TCV 586 dates from 1954 and John’s researches uncovered that she originally hailed from Cornwall. In terms of road manners, Mr. Ball describes the Ford as ‘nice and smooth and very comfortable with the bench seats - and she purrs along’. As for the public reaction – ‘many people wave and come over and say their Dad Uncle etc. owned one back in the day and seeing the car brings back so many good memories’.
The only real challenges to Zephyr ownership are the reverse parking - ‘there are a couple of blind spots and no power steering’- and driving in the rain. Dagenham fitted a vacuum-powered set-up to its larger cars until as recently as 1962 and as John notes ‘when you accelerate the wipers stop’. But such issues could never undermine the impact of the Ford that offered ‘Five Star Motoring’.
With Thanks To: John Ball and https://www.fivestars.co.uk/
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