I Drove The World’s Best Van And It Was Awesome And Terrible

I’m too much of a butterfly to be fully in the tank for any one car brand in particular. I can pick out something I like, or at least find interesting from most companies, but being able to reel off chassis codes or options lists to the point of being avoided in polite company is not something that really interests me, and people have enough reasons to avoid me anyway.  I do love hearing about what model years the Aztek had a HUD available, but part of being a car designer is not getting too blinkered about the broader strokes of car culture and the industry at large.  However, because of my background and where I’m from, like it or not one manufacturer has managed to stamp a part number deep within the core of my being: Ford.

The blue oval is woven through the blue-collar fabric of British life. East London and the southern parts of the UK in particular are Ford country. There’s been a sprawling Ford plant just to the east of London in Dagenham, Essex for nearly a century. As a wide-eyed youngster being driven past, I remember being wowed by the huge Ford sign towering over thousands of rows of freshly minted new cars in the seventies. Although Dagenham is still there as an engine plant, vehicle production has long since been offshored. The carcass of Ford operations in the UK is scattered over the rest of Essex: Motorsport at Boreham, no more. Advanced Vehicle Operations at Aveley, long gone. Only the Dunton Campus remains, splitting design and engineering responsibilities with Merkenich in Germany.

Ford UK and Ford Germany, previously separate autonomous entities, were shotgunned into an unwilling marriage by Detroit to create Ford of Europe in 1967. The first official fruit of this union was the Mk I Escort of 1968, but in true working class style they had already produced an offspring out of wedlock three years earlier in 1965 – the Transit van. With nine versions across four distinct model generations, since its introduction to North America in 2014 the Transit has become the second best-selling van of all time behind only the Volkswagen Transporter. Up and down the UK and now across the world, the humble Transit has been taking care of business for nearly six decades.

A Bit Of Transit History

The new-for-1965 Transit was a revolution in two ways. First it chucked the cabover orthodoxy into the trash. Instead of squeezing goods and powerplant into one cube like existing vans, it placed the engine and gearbox in front of the cube, freeing up more space for cargo. Secondly, it beefed up the underpinning passenger-vehicle mechanicals for better performance and car-like handling. No longer would drivers carrying a full load feel like a hippo attempting to use stilts. Stubby V4 engines purloined from the road car range meant there was no intrusion into the interior space, increasing comfort. If you want to understand why rationalization was needed between the two European Ford divisions, British versions of the Transit used the Essex V4 and German versions the Cologne V4, two completely different engine families.

Available in a mind-boggling array of commercial configurations for just about any honest job you can think of, the Transit’s combination of speed and payload also made it perfect for less honest jobs. In 1972 a spokesperson for London’s Metropolitan Police said that “Ford Transits are used in 95 per cent of bank raids. With the performance of a car, and space for 1.75 tonnes of loot, the Transit is proving to be the perfect getaway vehicle …”

Get Your Trousers On, You’re Nicked

Andy Laybourne has owned this rare Transit for just over four years. He has a job I can’t tell you about, but it involves fixing things with his hands, and as such he was well equipped to work on this. Andy’s four-wheel drive Transit isn’t fast, but speed is not required to get away from His Majesty’s Constabulary. Simply crunch the secondary gear levers into 4-Low and drive over them. The Transit’s popularity meant customers with specialist requirements were soon demanding go-anywhere conversions. In the UK most of these were done by County, but over on the mainland Renault four-wheel drive specialists SINPAR got together with their German distributor and Ford dealer Rau, to create the SIRA Transit in 1982. This 1984 Rau Mk II long wheelbase began life in Germany as a fire engine, equipped with a 2.0 liter straight four Pinto engine. In low-compression Transit form, this engine made all of 86bhp, making it a prime candidate for my ‘how the fuck does that move?’ file, but after this example came to the UK in the early 2010s the petrol engine was pulled out, and a 2.5-liter turbo diesel from a later Mk V Transit plumbed in. With a variable geometry turbo from a Mondeo, Andy reckons it’s now making about 125bhp.

A later five-speed box has replaced the original four-speed unit, which in true Euro Ford plug-and-play fashion only needed the fabrication of a new mount to fit it into the engine bay. This transmits power to a transfer box with two speed ranges (slow and slower). Suspended from leaf springs front and rear are live axles with freewheeling hubs attached to Land Rover spindles up front. Don’t let this Transit’s aggressive ride height fool you though: axle articulation hasn’t been increased over the standard van. The Rau is more about access to difficult-to-reach areas than it is hardcore off-roading.

Handling the classic Ford grey plastic-covered key and jumping behind the wheel of the Transit is like a therapy cheat code – the sticking plaster of time ruthlessly yanked off to expose forty-year-old memories. Crank the motor into life and the long gear lever wobbles in tune with the vibrations from the diesel motor, giving the van a straight-down-to-business feel. Moving away this Transit feels unstoppable, and it probably is given the chunky tires and gearing that could pull a house down. These later five-speed Ford boxes were never as click-clacky as the old four speeds, the imprecision not helped by the sheer length of the gear lever but I didn’t fumble too many shifts. First or third to pull away it’s all academic here. It’s not fast by any definition of the word, but does squirt through its short gearing well on the boost. I kept thinking it wasn’t really that slow, but then realized the speedo increments are in kilometers, not miles per hour.

Free Lita Guv’nor!

Earlier poking around under the bonnet revealed a disturbing lack of hydraulic plumbing, leaving me expecting to pop a new hernia steering this big old bus. Somewhere in the past, one of the previous owners thankfully fitted an electronic power steering kit. Spinning the thin-rimmed, deeply-dished tri-spoke wheel requires little effort, but transmits only the vaguest perception of what the front wheels are actually up to. Broach the heady heights of about fifty miles per hour and the aggressive tread of the tires will add another ingredient to the din – an operatic aria layered over the noise of the motor and whine of the drivetrain. Andy says after about an hour at this sort of speed the tires also start getting a bit warm and squirmy, adding another element of directional jeopardy in addition to the Transit’s tendency to wander to the right if you’re not paying attention.

Although it might look like it should be hauling a priceless piece of motorsport history from the Ford heritage fleet to a wax jacket enthusiast event, appearances can be deceiving. The period Triplex livery and color scheme exists because Andy’s brother-in-law is chairman of the Classic Touring Car Racing Club, and campaigns a Gerry Marshall replica FREE LITA GUV’NOR (say this loudly in your best Hardigree in Oliver! cockernee accent) Capri. The Transit was the tow rig for this circuit bruiser until the logistics of the whole thing proved a bit awkward.  Andy got his talented hands on it about four years ago and apart from the paint job did all the restoration work himself, and he’s done an incredible job.

Inside Andy has bolted in seats from – irony alert – a Volkswagen T5. These means seats for your getaway driver and two goons up front, and seats for two more armed goons amidships. The rear bench, which converts into a bed Andy made himself. It will sleep and feed five, perfect for the away days it’s now used for. There’s a small pull-out kitchenette round the back, the top-hinged tailgate providing a useful shelter from the British summer when you’re trying to fry-up a British breakfast trackside. Despite no longer hauling a race car this Transit is used daily, taking Andy to work although he still has a few improvements to make to remedy two classic Euro Ford failings: rust and the lack of brakes. He wants to fit fiberglass front fenders to prevent regular tin-worm eradication sessions, and some four-piston calipers to help the Transit come to a halt. It does have brakes, but in all honestly you’re better off at the moment cramming it into first and holding on.

The fast Ford scene in the UK is frankly full of wankers. These people drove the price of a bloody Escort RS Turbo to nearly three-quarters of a million pounds. This scene tax is why I bought a Ferrari instead of one my favorite cars. Generation X-ers from my part of the world upon whom life has smiled now have the money to be extremely fussy about having the best examples of the marque, but Andy’s Transit drives a coach and horses through all that nonsense. It’s unique and more used, and just as much fun. It’s been a fire engine, a working van and it’s been invited to Goodwood. And it’s still out there earning a living, just being the best Transit it can be for Andy and his family. He still uses it for regular van-type jobs, filling it up with crap in-between daily driver duties and taking it to shows.

Getting away from Goodwood or getting away from banks, the Transit has been doing it all for sixty years. If Andy’s Transit is any example, here’s to the next sixty.

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