Meet The Owner – Tony Croft and his Ford Prefect 100E

Last year Tony acquired a car that now appears to hail from an impossibly remote time: smog, Woodbines and such telephone numbers as WATerloo 2193 (“Press Button A, caller.”). Today, many Britons associate the name “Ford Prefect” with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but 70 years ago Tony Hancock probably dreamed of owning a new 100E parked outside 23 Railway Cuttings.

Tony’s Prefect was registered in November 1954, and is powered by a 1,172cc side-valve engine, married to a three-speed gearbox. It is also a prime example of one of Dagenham’s most important small cars. When the Anglia and Prefect 100E made their bows at the 1953 Paris Motor Show, they represented a major step for the company. They were Ford GB’s first unitary-bodied small cars with styling reminiscent of a scaled-down Consul Mk. 1. They even boasted flashing indicators, unlike the semaphore trafficators on the rival Austin A30 or Morris Minor Series II.

The Prefect was only available with four doors and, befitting its upmarket status in the range, featured luxuries beyond the dreams of suburbia – namely twin sun visors, extra chrome and even a passenger windscreen wiper. The price in November 1954 was £560 14s 2d – the same as a four-door Morris Minor, but more expensive than a four-door A30 at £504 10d.

Canley offered the Standard 10, which was an equally strong rival but more expensive at £580 10s 10d, while there would be no lightweight Hillman or Vauxhall saloons until 1963. As for the Slough-built 2CV, few prospective 100E owners would have considered it, despite the very reasonable £564 19s 2d price. The Citroën was a car for bohemians, while the Prefect was for the respectable – and very sensible – motorist.

Motor Sport liked the Prefect’s Anglia stablemate, saying it “stands out because it performs briskly and handles so delightfully in spite of the generous capacity of the body its side-valve 1,172cc engine is asked to propel”. Meanwhile, Ford commissioned a splendid PR film, highlighting the “parcel shelf” and “adjustable seats for long legs” among many other attributes:

Nineteen hundred and fifty-nine marked a change in Ford GB’s small car line-up with the arrival of the Anglia 105E. The outgoing 100E version of the same name was further de-trimmed to create the ‘New Popular’, while the facelifted Prefect 107E had a 997cc OHV engine and four-speed transmission. Production ended in 1961, while the Popular 100E maintained Ford’s side-valve tradition until 1962.

Nearly seven decades after his Prefect left the factory, Tony is greatly enjoying 100E motoring. It is a reminder that a top speed of around 70 mph was perfectly adequate for 1954-vintage trunk road motoring. In fact, Tony tends not to travel above 50 mph, while the gearbox “has three ratios, with synchromesh on second and third. It took some time to become used to the gate.”

All British Fords had three-speed transmission until the arrival of the Anglia 105E – which was also their first car with electric wipers. On Tony’s Prefect, the vacuum-powered set-up works from the inlet manifold. He remarks: “They work well when the Prefect is stationary!” When climbing a hill or attempting to reach 40 mph, the system makes various creaking and wheezing noises.

But such idiosyncrasies are part of the 100E’s charm, together with its B-film spaceship-style instrument binnacle. Tony’s Prefect has undergone restoration from a local firm, and the result looks as though it has emerged from that Ford sales film. After all, the Prefect is the car representing “5-Star motoring”.

With thanks to: Tony Croft