The Ford Transit is celebrating 40 famous years. Justin Hynes joins in.
WHAT'S the most ubiquitous vehicle on the road. The one that's always there. Getting in your way at lights, sitting in the overtaking lane on motorways, chugging wheezily along oblivious to all around it.
Mini? Starlet? Some class of generic cube built by Korean panel beaters with all the imagination of a pencil-necked number cruncher?
Think again. Think hard. What's always there, with some Neanderthal at the wheel, ciggy in one hand, big gulp in the other, red top tabloid on his lap, open at page three, the paper making a handy table for the bacon butty that's slowly dribbling brown sauce down the pneumatic body of Nikki (21), whose hobbies are horse-riding and arc-welding. Yup, it's the Ford Transit.
Would you believe it, the Transit hits its 40th birthday this year. Back in the mists of time, the workers of Ford's Langley factory stood idly buy comparing Brylcreem styles, opinions on the Beatles' Help album or whether anyone could stop the appalling march of Manchester United towards the division one title. And out of this mess came the Transit.
What a vehicle! Introduced to replace the smaller and largely unsuccessful Ford Thames, the Transit was radical in terms of commercial vehicle design. Its broad track and US influenced styling gave it two things previous vans lacked - an appealing look and greater capacity.
It also had another major advantage over its rivals - it could handle. Most mechanical components were adapted from Ford's car range of the time and thus. Most of its rivals wallowed and leaned precariously when thrown into a corner at anything above strolling pace, but the Transit could be launched into turns with abandon.
Not surprising that it became, and still is the vehicle of choice for the criminal element looking to ship purloined goods away with alacrity. A quick google of the words Ford, Transit and Crime instantly brings up 202,000 hits.
Television was quick to recognise an iconic image . . . a battleship grey, stubby-nosed Mk1 Transit full of "slags" being chased at full tilt through London's docklands by mad, bad and dangerous Jack Regan and hard man George Carter in a Mk2 Jag or a Ford Granada.
But the Transit atttracted legit concerns too. Well, semi-legit, for the humble Transit was the only transport worthy of some of the world's top rock bands, all of whom would cram themselves into the back beside piles of guitar amplifiers and Hammon organs to trek up and down the highways and byways in search of fame and fortune - and, of course, the attention of willing groupies who would be treated to an "up close and personal" look at their heroes on a usually flea-bitten Persian rug in the cargo bay of Ford's workhorse.
PROG ROCK dinosaurs Genesis though would never have dreamed of such shenanigans. Far too cerebral for that kind of malarkey. But not too good for a Transit however - their 1973 tour programme, in support of their Foxtrot album, even mentioned their faithful transporter. Lodged between details of roadies and road managers is the small print - Band Transport: Ford Transit, short-wheelbase van for band and Ford 3-ton D-series truck for gear.
But Genesis were mere journeymen compared with the royalty of Irish showbands of the time. In the world of ballroom hops from Castlebar to Castletownbere, the Transit ruled, ferrying the likes of Dicki Rock and Red Hurley from one horde of screaming girls to another. Most were standard commercial vans with a couple of the side panels hacked out, windows fitted and some aircraft seats bolted to the cargo bay floor. Luxury.
But the kings of all were the band called Stage 2 who had not two Transits, one for gear and roadies and the other for the band members. High style.
The Transit though wasn't just used for blags on banks or bagging neophytre rock chicks midway up the M6. A major attraction for commercial concerns was the sheer number of body styles it was available in - from standard long and short-wheelbase versions to pick-ups, minibuses and crewcabs.
If you wanted it, Ford would build it for you. Which is why your earliest memories are probably of a Mr Whippy Transit pulling up outside your house on a summer afternoon, complete with the presence a hairy hippy trying to beat "The Man" by flogging 99s. Or a Transit kitted out with a kitchen full of deep fat fryers, plastic punnets of greasy chips being served up by the selfsame hippy - except with more spots this time.
Ford even set about taking VW at its own game, building a "Freeway" high-top version to take on the VW camper van.
As the Trannie hit its 30th birthday, Ford Ireland undertook to find the oldest one in Ireland and came up with a then 28-year-old camper van in Letterkenny. Owner Michael McGarry recently reported that 10 years on he still has it.
Perhaps the ultimate Transit was the Supervan, a Trannie on the most potent kind of steroids. Launched in 1971, it was fitted with a 400 HP version of the high-performance 5-litre V8 engine used in Ford's Le Mans-winning GT40 sports cars. The most famous version of Supervan was the Mk2, which made its debut at a truck grand prix at Donington in 1984. The work of Auto Racing Technology in England, Supervan Mk2 was powered by Ford-Cosworth DFL engine, the long-stroke version of Ford's famous F1 engine, the DFV. It wasn't too shabby on the road, being clocked at 174mph at Silverstone later that year.
NOSTALGIA for the Supervan hit a height in 1995 on the Transit's 30th anniversary when the original was sent to DRL Engineering who undertook a complete rebuild, repowering it with a 644bhp, Cosworth HB F1 engine, the same powerplant that propelled Michael Schumacher in his first outings for Benetton in 1993. The van now sits in Ford's heritage museum alongside another wacky Trannie, the World Rally Transit, which combines all the features of a load-carrying rally support vehicle with higher performance and rally-car-style interior and exterior. Based on the rear-wheel-drive version of the new-generation Transit, the WRT features a tuned 200bhp version of the Ford Duratorq diesel engine. It even features the seats, steering wheel and intrumentation from a 2001 WRC Ford Focus.
But these are the exotica. For most of us, Transits bring to mind just one thing - "white van man". The phrase, used to describe the legions of delivery people, plumbers, painters, decorators, tradesmen of all description was, apparently, coined by British radio DJ Sarah Kennedy in 1997 to describe the kind of driver who cut her up in traffic on her way to work at 4am.
Since then it has come to personify the driver of Transit vans. With more tattoos than teeth, a permanently evil leer across his face, white van man is always ready with a bon mot for the convertible-driving blonde at the traffic lights, always prepared for the none-too-subtle lean-in while trying to cross lanes on a motorway, always triple parked on a one-way street unloading lengths of 4x2. "Look, pal, I've got a job to do", he'll say if you complain that you can't get past his battered and bruised white Mk2 Transit that has ferried him, his tools and his shiftless workmates from botched job to botched job since 1979.
It's hardly fair. Five million trusty Transits have rolled off production lines the world over since 1965. They have carted everyone, from rock stars to royalty, plumbers to policemen to and from work for 40 years. Surely not all of them are white?
Search for Ireland's oldest Transit
The John Creedon Show on RTE Radio 1 has launched a campaign to find Ireland's oldest Ford Transit van. The legendary van is celebrating 40 years of production.
Specialist Irish publication for the refinishing and auto repair parts industry, the Bodyshop Journal, is offering €1,00 to the designated charity of the owner of the oldest Ford Transit in the Republic or Northern Ireland. In addition, it will work with the owner to organise a complimentary face-lift, if needed.