Ford Model Y book

Sam Robert’s book Ford model Y-Henry’s Car-for Europe (Veloce, ISBN 1-901295-88-5, 129.99) certainly deserves a place in every historians’ bookcase. You may recall the dodgy handling from the Y’s transverse suspenders, its American styling against British box squareness, and how its 933cc unit outpaced our 750/ 850cc babies. But it should be remembered as Ford’s first ‘world car’, 165,000 of them were built at Dagenham from 1932-37, and also as the first marketable £100 saloon.

Roberts has given us a huge amount of Y data, in this book of good paper, and over 250 photographs, including those of sports, drophead coupe, racers and vans, specials etc. The Michael Sedgwick Trust helped Veloce to publish it. My Y recollection is of being asked to take two old ladies to their seaside holiday in one; they had two large suitcases and I had forgotten that there was no luggage-grid; however, the Ford did not object to tying one case on each side of the bonnet.

I drove several more Ford Ys prewar, one in a trial. Not a car to forget.