Gallery: 100 Years of Ford in the UK

1 Sixties hit-makers Brian Poole and the Tremeloes (Poole is in the middle) are plainly delighted to take delivery of the new Ford Transit, first produced in 1965. By 2010, over six million of the vans had been produced.

2 The RS200, Ford's Group B rally car of the mid-1980s. Turbocharged, mid-engined, lightweight and four-wheel drive, 200 road-going RS200s were also built, to satisfy FIA regulations.

3 Roger Clark and Jim Porter show the amphibian side of the Ford Escort. Clark, who died in 1998, won four British Rally Championship titles with co-driver Porter, three of them in the Escort (1972, 1973, 1975).

4 Ford GT40 Mk IIs completed a 1-2-3 at the 1966 Le Mans 24-Hour Race. There were eight Mark IIs in the race altogether, across three different teams, with the Shelby-American team car of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon (No 2) proving triumphant. The race was the closest in Le Mans history with just eight metres separating the first and second cars. Car No 1 (Ken Miles and Denny Hulme) in fact crossed the line first, in accordance with the team's wishes: however, organisers declared the McLaren/Amon car the winner as it had travelled further over 24 hours, having started further down the grid. This photo was 'staged' as the race came to a close: the third-placed Ford of the Holman and Moody team seen in the shot was, in fact, 12 laps behind.

5 The Ford design office in 1957. By the mid-1950s, Ford employed over 40,000 people in the UK, working on cars like the Consul (over 600,000 produced, 1951-1962) and the Zephyr (more than 470,000 produced 1950-1962).

These images were among those released from Ford’s photo archives, to celebrate the centenary of Ford of Britain in 2011. Ford is the biggest-selling manufacturer in the UK: in 2010, it sold 280,364 cars here, enjoying a 13.81 per cent market share. www.ford.co.uk.

[Photographs: Ford archive]