Henry Ford will forever go down in history as one of the pioneering minds
behind the automotive industry as the founder of Ford Motor Company he was a
key figure in the development of the assembly line and mass production of
cars that middle-class Americans could afford I'm glad and here we have the 10
greatest vehicles born from the automotive defining legacy of Henry Ford
Ford was born on July 30th 1863 on his family's farm in Wayne County Michigan
the young Henry's passion for mechanics and machinery shone through at the age
of just 13 he constructed his first model car in 1896 the Ford quadricycle
in 1903 he set up Ford Motor Company and never looked back
number 10
the Ford Model T
the simple and affordable machine that kick-started
it all the average US worker back in 1908
earned roughly two hundred to four hundred dollars per year and Ford was
keen to provide an automobile that was affordable for the broad middle class he
therefore priced the Model T at eight hundred twenty-five dollars to start
with with the cost dropping as sales increased in fact prices hit as low as
$300 in 1925 the Model T was also designed to be robust reliable and easy
to fix if they did go wrong the cars were known as tin lizzies back in the
early 1900s and fifteen million were sold in the nineteen years they were
produced
number nine
skipping forward to 1955 next up we have the iconic Ford
Thunderbird this model was released to compete with the popular Corvette sports
car from Ford's rival General Motors initially the Corvette sold very well
due to its superior power but the Thunderbird eventually came good
outselling the rival by a whopping 23 to 1
in fact the Thunderbird was such a popular icon that generations of the
vehicle were still produced up until 2005 perhaps it was the classic and
classy styling of the original Thunderbird that proved so popular the
Thunderbird was just an all-around pleasant car to look at with its
colorful paint jobs white wheeled trips black soft roof and smooth body it could
shift a fair bit for the time to reaching 0 to 60 miles per hour in 11
seconds using a v8 engine
number eight
first released in 1964 the Ford Mustang is still a household name
to this day it has been elevated to an American automotive icon over the last
50 years with many on-screen performances including famously in James
Bond Goldfinger Ford really did their homework on this
design as they studied the car buyers market and found out the 1960s would see
an influx of teenage drivers they therefore came up with the Mustang a
loud car in both noise and appearance at an affordable price of $2,400 the
original model combined a great body with fashionable leather seats an open
top and an engine boasting 101 horsepower over 1 million were sold in
the first 18 months alone and four more generations of the vehicle have followed
through the years
number seven
from a classic road car to Ford's greatest ever race machine the Ford gt40
believe it or not the gt40 was actually born out of Ford's failure to buy out
Ferrari this was at a time when racing and winning was at the forefront of the
minds at Ford but after ten days of talks with the Italian car makers they
were snubbed for then turned to British company Lola and formed its own
engineering team that eventually created the gt40 mark-1 based on the lola mark
six after the car was hampered with various stability issues Carroll Shelby
took over the development and worked on a marque to this infamous improved
machine went on to achieve a 1-2-3 finish at the 1966 LeMans 24-hour race
the gt40 could reach speeds of up to just under 200 miles per hour and
boasted zero-to-sixty acceleration in 5.2 seconds
number six
the Ford Escort was designed as a long-term replacement for the
popular Ford Anglia and debuted in 1968 at this time many of Ford's competitors
were rolling out front wheel drive vehicles with success however Ford chose
to take another path with their front-engine rear-wheel-drive escort not
only was this decision a hit with the public with 4 million sales in the UK
alone but it was also marveled over by car correspondents alike people loved
the dog bone shaped front grille and the coke-bottle waistline of the vehicle
production of the escort ran all the way until 2002 with five different
generations of the beloved vehicle
number five
if you head out on to any busy street in 2019 you are likely to
see multiple ford transit vans on the road the van had a particularly strong
impact in the UK with its wide-body roomy storage space and American style
in fact it is still the third biggest selling Ford in the UK and currently
sells more than four times the number of the next four rivals all added together
the Ford Transit was first introduced in 1965 and is still going strong to this
day eight generations on
number four
if you have ever lived in New York or had a run-in with the US
Highway Patrol for that matter you will know all about the Ford Crown Victoria
this particular vehicle was released in 1979 and was well known as the yellow
cabs rushing through New York traffic each day
unfortunately production ended back in 2012 and the Nissan nv200 replaced the
Victoria as the cabbies choice famed for being robust and reliable it is no
wonder that the Ford Crown Victoria became a permanent fixture at the u.s.
landscape for so many years
number three
if you imagine the stereotypical classic us pickup truck
the chances are that many of you leave straight to the ford f-series the
vehicle was first introduced in 1948 and has been instantly recognizable ever
since with its american-style wide wheel arches and rounded edges since 1948 Ford
is produced well over thirty five million f-series trucks and in the 21st
century have averaged a sale for every single minute of every single day
number two
back to racing again and one of the greatest rally car is to never have a
shot at the top the rs200 was built specifically for group B racing in 1984
with production starting in 1986 it featured a mid-mounted turbocharged 1.8
liter engine and a lightweight four-wheel drive design that made it
lightning-fast across most surfaces however in its first year of competing
disaster struck as an rs200 crashed at the 1986 rally of Portugal killing three
spectators later that year two drivers died in a Lancia accident and Group B
cars were eventually banned from 1987
number one
we have already taken a look at the gt40 in this list but what
happened when Ford decided to revive the old classic to create a production
supercar in 2004 appearance-wise the GT resembled the
original pretty closely with its sleek and visually appealing design this new
model was however a few inches taller hence the retraction of the 40 from the
name as well as being longer and wider the supercar boasted a 5.4 liter
supercharged v8 engine zero to 60 miles per hour in just 3.2 seconds and a top
speed of 205 miles per hour
and there we have it ten amazing vehicles from the legacy of Henry Ford
what was your favorite car on our list or maybe your favorite was missing let
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