The Three Graces (Ford Consul, Zephyr & Zodiac MkII launch) - 1957

Made in 1957, this Ford film was made in a newsreel style to announce the launch of the new Consul, Zephyr and Zodiacs. It reports on the motor show staged by Ford at The Haringey Arena, and its VIP guests.

[@michelles2299]

My dad has a powder blue ford zephyr in the early 60s I remember plenty trips out to Southport in that car, my dad passed away 12th May 2024, 😔 4 days after his 89th birthday, God bless you dad thanks for looking after all of us 🙏

[@TheGreatest1974]

Amazing that a manufacturer was so proud of their cars that they would hold a show to showcase them. You wouldn’t get this today.

[@PhD63]

My dad had a powder blue ‘59 Consul and we travelled all around the UK in that car as children. It was pretty reliable as I remember apart from having to repair the rust every year. Helping my dad service that car was the beginning of my interest in all things mechanical, I went on to become an aircraft maintenance engineer and now I’ve just retired. Wow, where have all those years gone?

[@vincentl.9469]

The exhaust on the consul ran down the side on the nearside. These cars were unitary ;did not have a separate chassis. You can see the Amrican influence..looks like a Ford T Bird

[@leopoldonotarianni8663]

I have a 1958 Ford Zephyr 6 Mark II highline. Runs beautifully

[@johnhiram1207]

I had a 59 here in USA. Awesome little tank! Getting parts became difficult and she was rusty

[@ianstollery4922]

My father worked for Ford and was involved in the set up at Haringey. He took me to see the cars before the official launch. This video brings back many memories

[@paulthomas3841]

These are the car my Dad had in 60s when I about 3,or 4

[@williamkennedy5492]

I owned a 61 consul in green with a white roof, they were a starter car for every 18 year old in the area i lived in, But it rusted away , such fond memories and it came with a replacement ford engine, they had a red block original engines were dark blue. It cost me £65. As a kid my dad owned a Zephyr and i can remember coming back from holiday in Cornwall the prop shaft fell off, It was a very long night getting the car put back together.

[@user-tv4zy4px7b]

Back in 1990.,i used to drive my friends 1958.red and grey mk, 2.zodiac.that.car.was.awesom e🇿🇦👍🏿

[@operator91210]

What a cute little car. I would love a blue and white zodiac!

[@PonytailRuth]

Oh WOW I just love this video. I can't wait for our 57 MK11 Zephyr Highline to be fully restored back to exact original condition. We are half way there, but it is costing a fortune and it is hard to find everything we need. Thanks for sharing such a lovely historical video.

[@truthseeker9218]

We used to have a 2 tone blue and white Zodiac have many memories of riding in it when I was a kid. It had an extra set of 3 instruments on a rectangular panel attached to the lower part of he steering column and a hood ornament which when I asked a gentleman who was from the UK said were accessories available for the car when it was new

[@kentseary8776]

A powder blue Ford Consul convertible has always been a fantasy for me, I just love the tail light design on these early Fords. The Zodiac chrome trim and tail light assembly also very swish.

[@leonotarianni5410]

The consul is the cleanest looking of them all I agree

[@saxongreen78]

It's a sweetheart - I reckon it's more elegant than contemporary US Ford convertibles.

[@petergazey6287]

The 'Zephyr' name re-crossed the Atlantic after WW2, being sold by the Lincoln Division to Ford of Britain. My great aunt Josie told me on a visit to the UK in the early 1960s that she still received 6d (six old pence) for the use of the name. The name had been registered by my great uncle Ernest Davison and his partners James and Talbot when launching their Zephyr Light Car, to be built at their factory in Lowestoft just after the Great War. The economic downturn of the 1920s prevented production, but their Zephyr pistons had been used by Alcock and Brown in the first ever crossing of the Atlantic. The name was then - family history was a little vague on this - sold to Ford's Lincoln Motors division in the USA for use on their new Zephyr streamlined car. It later came back to the UK for Ford of Britain to launch its Mk1 Zephyr.

[@pcno2832]

Ford re-used it again for the Mercury version of the Ford Fairmont for 1978. The Zephyr and Fairmont were, fittingly, the first cars Ford built in the USA with Mcpherson-strut front suspensions.

[@ukbarton]

I remember the launch of these models and visited Dagenham works on a school trip to watch the assembly. The styling was based on the early US Ford Thunderbird.

[@Bogallan]

My dad had a Kenilworth blue over Newark grey Zodiac Mk 2 with an aftermarket Webasto sun roof. It was easily the nicest car we ever had. I think the Ford Zodiac/Zephyr/Consuls of that time were popular with teddy boys (the very few who could afford a car of any kind) because, along with the Vauxhall PA Cresta, they were the nearest thing to a 'yank tank' that was available in the UK. I'm surprised that Ford held its launch at Harringay Stadium as the connotations might have been a little bit too 'working man' for the image they wished to portray for the model.

[@asd36f]

Named after the Greek gods of beauty, charm and creativity?

[@MARSIPAANIKTFA]

NICE ONE.. I WISHD ID HAD ZODIAC AND ZEOGYR

[@robinburn4974]

I learned to drive in a 61 Consul, it cost me £30 and the big ends went😂

[@consul1957]

Yep, the Consul Highline rocks man!!!

[@leonotarianni7733]

I agree the highline Consul has the nearest and cleanest styling of the three .....and that front treatment screams 55-56 Thunderbird

[@davidf0071]

Love these videos. Interesting to see that in the opening shots there is not one Ford car, hardly any women in attendance and the exhaust emissions during the tests were horrendous.

[@grahamandrews9489]

My dad was the making these cars & I was taken to the factory to see the cars before they were even made? beat that lol

[@pcno2832]

5:15 I'm impressed with the handling demonstrations of these cars. Though the conditions vary, these cars seem to handle far more gracefully than those in 1950s promotional films for American cars. Even the Lincolns in Dean Martin's "Matt Helm" movies and in 1970s shows like Cannon, while they probably could corner harder, bounced all over the road compared to these cars. I wonder if the early McPherson strut suspensions put the handling of these cars ahead of the competition . The friction of the struts probably added some damping qualities, though it probably didn't make the ride particularly comfortable.

[@johnrroberts7900]

No, the ride was good. The bench seats absorbed some of the road shock. Using radial-ply tyres made the ride harsh though.

[@roddoney7568]

Mom had a Zodiak here in the USA when I was a kid in the early 70s. It was an old car then. Not sure of the year.

[@yonezawa1965]

I completely understand the need for a watermark, but one so obtrusive really spoils the experience of this wonderful film.

[@FordHeritage]

We try to make sure the watermark doesn't obscure too much of the film. Many other sites put a logo right in the middle. We do of course have to protect our assets as sadly sharing material online does make it vulnerable to misuse.

[@malcolmwhite6588]

@@FordHeritage wow. The three cars are so different ! - looks like one is two tone one is light and one is dark. Otherwise I couldn’t tell the three apart which is unusual back in the day common these days, though to all look the same

[@bertmeinders6758]

I believe that in Cornwall they were called Zeefire Zodiums....

[@adriancoppola3729]

Braking test in the dry, result - 38ft from 30mph not including reaction time - in the late 1950s with drum brakes and old crossply tyres. Today’s highway code says 50ft plus reaction time- absolutely bloody nonsense, over 60 years out of date. Modern cars, with modern tyres stop far more quickly. At 1g braking (many modern cars perform significantly better) a quick calculation shows the braking distance as 29ft. A Porsche 911 on modern tyres achieves in excess of 1.3g giving a braking distance of under 23ft

[@VinnyDaQ]

These models kind of look like 3/4 scale versions of the American 1957 Ford Fairlane.

[@TheOzthewiz]

@VinnyDaQ Not '57, more like 1955 Fords.

[@TheOzthewiz]

The Consul front end looks like a '55 T-Bird.

[@critchley3819]

Hi, I'm Aussie, had a Mk 11 when I young it was a great car to drive but the front steering & suspension was poor, it was still a better car than our early Falcons, we also had a ute Zephyr, the Y block US Ford V8 would bolt up to these and that made them a fast car, strange that the twin slave cylinders on the front had the bleeder on the bottom ? you poms had some great cars, but some where ugly like the cars arriving at the show, it's all good as I am a car nut..

[@hugebartlett1884]

How I used to admire the then fashionable whitewall tyres! Looking at the senior members of the organisation,I doubt they knew the back from the front. Good cars in their day,though. A lot more recognisable than today's singularly mediocre looking roadware.

[@tomservo56954]

What's really the difference between them?

[@Simon-1965]

I always thought that the three graces are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!

[@glpilpi6209]

I'm sure these started to appear in 1956 . 57 was a few months into production.

[@andysp8845]

Glpi lpi my dad bought one in late 56

[@wordsmith52]

yes, I thought they were launched at the 1956 motor show. 3 years run to 1959 then the lowline run took over until 1962. Pity they didn't introduce auto box until 5 years later as the mk2s were coming to the end of their run.

[@nickjervis8123]

@@wordsmith52 I have a 1958 Hi Line Zephyr Farnham in the garage that says you are wrong.

[@wordsmith52]

@@nickjervis8123 ..about what?

[@paulhill3923]

yup ya right

[@mr-wx3lv]

Ford had already took car design in Britain to a new level in 1950 with their consul/zephyr, they had to do something new to keep up with the American design ethos. But why no twin headlights on the zyphyr?!, would have looked so cool..

[@TheOzthewiz]

The lights were fine, the grille looked a little odd, though.

[@billguyan9626]

Yes, surely an oversight. They did eventually with the Consul Classic in 1961, along with the coupe version the Consul Capri.

[@paulofaraco2205]

Eddie Cochran faleceu 1960 , Ford Cônsul que ano ? Died in what year ?

[@fredfungalspore]

there is only one thing those fords needed that was a good heater 😂

[@TheOzthewiz]

In the US, gas heaters were an option.

[@pcno2832]

@@TheOzthewiz I think water-fed heaters were available on a lot of models by the 1950s, but the Corvair offered an optional gasoline heater for those who couldn't live with the standard exhaust-warmed heaters on air-cooled cars. I was born in the early 1960s and don't remember ever seeing a car without a heater, but my mother still had a scary-looking kerosene heater she used in her car while in Finland .

[@TheOzthewiz]

@@pcno2832 I owned a '61 Corvair Monza when it first came out. I picked the car up on a VERY COLD January day in Minnesota, I remember being toasty warm even with the standard heater. I also had owned a '56 VW Type 1, also with the standard heater, the difference between these two vehicles was like night and day! The VW heater was so inadequate, that my feet would freeze on a short trip at highway speeds due to the cold floor board during sub-zero temperatures. BTW, the Corvair DID NOT use exhaust-warmed air (unlike the VW) to heat the passanger compartment. It used "direct air heat" that was collected by the engine cooling fan. This led to problems with odors entering the cabin do to oil leaks which I did not experience because I traded the car at 6000 miles. Thanks for replying, CHEERS.

[@TheOzthewiz]

My '58 Zephyr had a gas heater, INSTANT 90degrees on cold Minnesota Winter days!

[@paulofaraco2205]

Minuto 7.20s 🏁👍🏁😃

[@leonotarianni7733]

I want a lab coat now

[@esssexboy]

But too far back for me give me a MK1 Granada 3.0S and i will love you forever

[@nighthawk6298]

I need to get mine out from hybernation!

[@harringayonline]

You mean Harringay Arena (two r's). :o)

[@SE16Proud]

I deserve to be publicly flogged and put in stocks i banger raced over a 100 zephyrs and zodiacs mk1.mk2.s and mk 3.s its absolutely criminal and i can.t sleep at night i adored those cars and had a few prime examples for road use had a beautiful 2 tone blue mk2 zodiac i raced mainly at Harringay.Crayford. Walthamstow and many more including Lyddon hill i used a mk2 zodiac fitted with triple su carbs fully gas flowed head six branch exhaust manifold and a floor change gearbox omg memories is very painful🤔

[@Kogaion78]

was consul 2 reliable ??....on wiki is 1225 kg!.........hefty for rather small car...... *chevy 150 is around 1500 kg......that's much bigger like 5m per 2 m car.......))

[@PhD63]

“Ladies and Gentlemen, the Three Graces” LOL, there’s not one lady present.

[@johnd8892]

They comment on one lady at 5:00.

[@PhD63]

@@johnd8892 Was that the “Yes madam, they are real” comment?

[@gitforbrains]

Couldn't spot a single woman at the tables!

[@johnd8892]

They comment on one lady at 5:00.