The British section of the Ford motor company has been celebrating its one hundredth birthday this year. Last year the company’s top selling cars accounted for almost 15% of the UK’s total car market sales, showing just how popular their products have become. Not only is Ford famous for its Cars, its commercial vehicles have also become household names around the world with the Transit van model becoming the most popular Commercial vehicle within the UK for just over 45 years.

To celebrate the centenary of the company, Ford have been touring the country with an exhibition that charts its history and shows off many models of both vans and cars that is has manufactured over the past 100 years. Travelling throughout the UK to locations such as London, Scotland and the South West to many different venues such as dealers and Ford manufacturing plants, the mobile exhibition also aims to promote its motoring leadership in the United Kingdom since its humble beginnings. As you would expect, visitors to any of the tour dates caught glimpses of some fantastic and extremely rare Ford vehicles from all ages of the company, it also included a collection of commercial vehicles too.

During the tour, Southampton got the chance to view the fabulous vans from the show, what is thought to be the most comprehensive collections of classic Ford commercial vans ever seen The eleven differing Transit vans ages added up to a grand age of 315 years and offered visitors the chance to see how dramatically the third best selling vehicle in Ford of Britain’s history has changed over the years. Members of the Ford transit van club were on hand to view the collection including the founding member, Van enthusiast and former employee Peter Lee who owns a total of nine Transit vans including one called ‘Motown Gold’. The 1980 Mark II SWB model has plenty of personalised features including heart shaped windows and a wonderfully decorated interior incorporating signed Motown records and even a drinks cabinet!

The finale of the tour was held at the Goodwood Revival 2011 festival. Goodwood of course being one of the UK’s most popular racing venues during its active years and was the ideal venue for historical motor celebrations. A 100 vehicle cavalcade concluded the Centenary tour at the revival event and organisers celebrated the success of the tour which was started off during August by the Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans. Not only did the general public get the chance to view and browse cars and vans of yesteryear but also view some of the latest additions from Ford.