Ford Zodiac Mk3

Cars

the status-wielding Ford for middle managers that aped Detroit's finest

Few cars of the British mid-century boom time swaggered with as much blue collar ostentation as the Ford Zodiac.

Coming across like an over-promoted shop steward who sold out the masses with chrome – the Zodiac took its fins and shine straight from Detroit.

The model was an upmarket version of the Zephyr 6, but came with the limousine-type rear doors, a sharper roofline and tail. There was a unique grille with four headlights instead of two.

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The car not only looked grander than its lower orders, it was more powerful too. The engine was a burly 2.5 six and put out over 100hp. There was also a new four-speed all-synchromesh gearbox with column change.

The thing with the zodiac was that if your neighbour owned one, he probably worked in a suit and you felt a little bit of resentment toward him. You, in that case, probably owned an Anglia.

BUT; that rear-end must be one of the most extreme ever created in UK car factories of that or any other period. Peaky, pinched and rakish, whoever was responsible for the penmanship knew how to assert a design aesthetic. If you owned a Zodiac you were putting yourself out there, and separate from, the workaday realities of Britain.

The class system encoded nicely in the car culture of Britain.

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