Ford Popular and The Small Sidevalves

By: Dave Turner . - AUTHORISED OFFICIAL REPRINT FROM MERCIAN MANUALS -

Few cars achieve the familiarity necessary to make their very name a household word - Ford's just pre- and postwar 'people's car' did it easily, quite simply as the Ford Pop. When Mrs Ann Average or Mr Joe Public are persuaded into confessing knowledge of pocket-sized cars they go for the Mini, the Beetle, the Morris Minor and the Ford Pop. That is justification for this book alone. These Fords were very, very popular and so they remain today, as the so-called classic car movement gathers impetus.

The Ford Popular, synonymous with the upright or 'sit up and beg' body style, is but one model name in a whole family of small sidevalve cars which started in 1932 with the 8 horsepower Model Y and ended some 29 years later with the last of the 100E models, in fact an estate and a van!

Dave Turner, longtime student of these hardy cars, has told the full story of the factory cars, the export 'specials', the foreign versions, the racing cars, the kit cat specials, even a fairground elephant (powered by Ford).

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