Ford Heritage Centre

[David T]

Yesterday, Paul, his son Alex and myself had the prvilidge to visit Ford's Heritage Centre at the Dagenham plant.

Temporary home of the collection

Boardroom desk and chairs from former central London office

Central clock by which all time card machines were synchronised

European van bearing the Transit name before being used for UK Mk1

Oldest UK Mk1 Transit - regulary used for marketing events

Rally team support vehicle

Supervan 3 - originally sporting GT40 running gear

1.0 Ecoboost - Road legal and 9th fastest around Nurburgring

Ford Racing Puma

Penelope's car from Thunderbirds film

UK LHD Mustang

Lotus Cortina

[David T]

RS lineage

Workshop normally in use for maintaining and restoring vehicles

'Normal' models also make up the colletion

Courier van with Focus Mk1 RS running gear created from two non-working vehicles in factory backroom project

1600E

Good collection of rally cars, each with significant provenance

RS200 engine bay

RS200 interior

Ford Model T that provided rides at the end of the visit. Model T on left is the last of 6 perfect re-creations done in 2012. Apparently drives identifcal to an original.

[steve m]

What a nice collection of Fords, I suppose my invite got lost in the post ?

steve

[andyf]

Looks like it was a good day out... great photos

[greenwoo]

you lucky barstewards, i've been keeping an eye open for mention of visits to this place for years.....

[David T]

And a short vid of the T in action. It was surprisingly quick and civilised to ride in(on).

https://youtu.be/Ije3po-0RkI

[SteveRST]

Wow, that looks like a fantastic opportunity. Loving the old RS Fords!
Thanks for sharing David.

[David T]

They have #001 of 500 of the limited edition matt black Focus Mk2 RS, which was very nice. There was an absence of RS Turbo Escort and Fiesta, but then some of the cars were elsewhere. They have a mint Sierra Cosworth.

Whilst some of the vehicles are immaculate, most are in an 'in use' state. This is not a concours showroom. The recent last off he line Transit has been panelled in the bacj and put into errands duties for a couple of decades until it becomes 'interesting'.

[Fury1630]

I've just got back from picking up the daughter's Pug from MoT (needed an Italian tune up to get though emissions. Who knew a 107 would do a sustained 60 in second ) up on the ramp getting it's ticket was an original road-going RS200. To quote The Fast Show - "I'm terribly sorry - I've just come".