TODAY in Ford History -- April 4

Reader:

On April 4, 1951, Ford Motor Company announced plans to import its revolutionary new small English Ford Consul to the U.S. The plans, however, were soon scuttled by surging U.S. demand for larger, faster, flashier cars built in the States. Decades would pass before the Consul’s leading-edge technologies were available to U.S. motorists. The four-cylinder Consul and its six-cylinder Zephyr stablemate were the first Fords with overhead valve engines and monocoque body construction. They were also the first production cars in the world with the new MacPherson strut independent front suspension, now an industry standard.

Brief:

On April 4, 1951, Ford Motor Company announced plans for U.S. import of the revolutionary new, small, English Ford Consul, which had caused a sensation six months earlier at the London Motor Show.

However, slow U.S. sales of earlier English Ford imports and postwar demand for larger, faster, flashier American cars scuttled the plans to import the Consul, depriving U.S. motorists of its leading-edge technologies for decades.

The first all-new post-war Ford products in Europe were the four-cylinder Consul and its six-cylinder Zephyr stablemate. They were the first Fords with overhead valve engines and state-of-the-art monocoque body construction. The Consul and Zephyr also were the world’s first cars with the MacPherson Strut independent front suspension, now an industry standard.

The four-door, five-passenger, rear-wheel-drive Consul weighed 2,480 pounds. With 47 horsepower and 92 cubic inch displacement, the inline four had a top speed of 75 miles an hour and fuel consumption of up to 37 miles per gallon.

Material shortages, the huge demand in Europe and distinctly different postwar tastes of U.S. motorists forced Ford to scrap plans to bring the Consul to North America. The English Ford Anglia and Prefect models had been sold in the U.S. since 1948, but sales fell far short of projections as America’s cheap gasoline, booming economy and changing lifestyles favored a new generation of larger, more powerful and stylish U.S. cars.

In Europe, however, the Consul and Zephyr revolutionized car styling, mechanical design and manufacturing. Key features included a 12-volt electrical system, hydraulic clutch and four-wheel hydraulic brakes. And advertising touted the cars’ “one-piece windscreen and rear windows, curved to give wider vision and cut down night glare from oncoming vehicles.”

From 1951 to 1956, Ford of Britain sold 231,481 Consuls, including just 3,749 convertibles—now considered collector items.