CONCEPT OF FORD CLASSIC

                  CONCEPT OF FORD CLASSIC

The Classic was a quality model by Ford "suitable for the golf club car park" originally intended for introduction earlier and deletion later than actually occurred. The styling exercises were mainly undertaken in 1956 under Colin Neale. The main styling cues came straight from Dearborn, as they so often did, defining the car as a scaled down Galaxie 500, from the waist down, topped with a Lincoln Continental roofline. Other aspects of R&D followed, and it is likely a recognisably similar car could have been introduced in 1959 subject to different senior management decisions. In practice the run-away early success of Anglia (1959 on) used up most of the car manufacturing capacity atDagenham vindicating the decision to compete against the BMC Mini. (The Halewood plant did not open until 1963.) Ford therefore entered the 1960s with the small Anglia, Popular and Prefect, the big "three graces" launched back in 1956, and NOT the mid-size market Classic