Are you familiar with Ford of Britain’s Mk. IV Zephyr, the car in this brochure that the guy kind of looks like he’s pushing? They’re interesting! Built from 1966 to 1972, what I find most exciting about them is that they’re one of the few front-engined cars of their era that doesn’t have a huge front radiator grille. It’s a great, clean, grille-free look. So few cars had the ‘nads to go grille-free, so I’m going to showcase some of the ones that did every now and then. It’ll be good for us all, I promise.
The Mk IV Zephyr is also interesting because it shares some notable traits with an old British car I used to own: the Reliant Scimitar GTE. Like the Scimitar, the Zephyr used an Essex V6 engine (a Ford of Germany Taunus V4 was available, too) and like the Scimitar, the spare tire was shoved in front of the engine, freeing up room in the trunk.
Damn, I love this clean, crisp front end! The air intake is below the bumper there, also like a Scimitar, and on higher trim models, Ford lost their bravery and stuck on a silly fake grille between the headlights. That’s a shame, I think, because there’s no shame in a grille-free face.
One more interesting Mk4 Zephyr detail:
What the hell is this icon on the dash? It looks kinda like a sci-fi ray gun. Did these cars come equipped with death rays? Is that legal? Also, is that second icon from the left a layer cake?
It can’t be a ray gun.
It’s a pre raygun era car.
Rear defrost? In the 60’s on this? dubious.
Washer would likely be a rubber foot bulb.
This didn’t answer it, but I have to share the official Ford “Explosive Gas” icon
https://www.fordfranklin.com/blogs/2870/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/light-table.png
I found a Shutterstock image from a 67 mk 4 with the 2 between parking lights and wiper labeled with text, PASS & FOG.
Can buy on eBay… https://www.ebay.com/itm/322149423763
Still don’t know what the Ghostbusters capture switch does. Last one high beam?
Y’all are right. Electric window washers
Standard equipment across the range included an adjustable steering column, that spare wheel in the engine compartment, a heater and Aeroflow ventilation. On the plusher Zodiac, you also got electric window washers, two-speed wipers, a cigar lighter, rev counter, clock, ammeter, and reversing lights as standard
Yes, more of this please. Do rear engine cars count? I like Corvairs, Beetles, X19’s and older 911’s if rear engine cars count. Also C2 & C3 Vettes almost don’t have a grill. My 66 A100 doesn’t either.
Also, leave out any of the current EV’s. Seems like current designers haven’t figured out what to do yet. Especially TESLa.
He seems to be pushing all right. Didn’t the court issue a restraining order after the last time?
Barney, the man in the purple jacket/shoes with white turtleneck, just slammed his hand in the trunk (er…Boot) again and is yelling expletives…again.
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He’s pushing it out of the ditch it’s just understeered into. Seriously, these tubs were complete boats. The Mk1 Granada that replaced it was so much better.
The understeer was worse if you ripped out the V6 and replaced it with a V8.
Quite easy, apparently, lots of room once you relocated the spare tyre.
Didn’t these originally have a straight six?
Fools. That painted metal front end would probably be subject to more damage from flying stones.
This is a car for people who like milk bottles and burlap.
excellent call back!
Hmmm – recalling that this is a British car of the 1960’s I am figuring that the ‘raygun’ symbol is for invoking a major electrical problem in case the car fails to do so automatically, as designed.
“Lucas, I am your failure”
How long have you been waiting to use that?
Eh, no matter; well done, sir
Come over to the dim, flickering side.
Not a well designed symbol by any means but surely it’s the washer switch right?
Park Lights – Defrost – High Beam – Wipers – Washer – Fog Lights
That’s one happy car!
The only icon I’m fairly confident in is what I believe to be the wipers. The rest I would figure out by pressing buttons while traveling at a high rate of speed and hoping for the best. Also, no external mirrors on the brochure but at least one extra one in the photograph? Interesting.
what’s with all the mirrors? also that “raygun” icon has to be the Bond Oil Slick button
That guy is creepily, way too happy to be behind the vehicle. Maybe it correlates to that ray gun button icon….
I was thinking dead fish, myself.
Maybe it’s Ray Wert’s father?
It almost looks like a fart symbol.
That’s what leads me to believe it is the windshield sprayer–the cloud is liquid, rather than gas.
I’m baffled myself, notice how the lines roll back on itself? Like a smoke screen? Obvious answer is NOT obvious here.
Is the cake the defroster and the ray gun the window sprayer? Those are my actual guesses.
I would definitely abuse a Ray Gun in traffic.
The oven is their answer to the hot dog cooker. How else can you can have tea and biscuits while on the road?
I vaguely remember. My dad had one.
remember……..????????
It’s killing me not knowing what ncbrit remembers!
Lol. That the car existed and what it was like.
From left: Parking Lights, Convection Oven (not JUST for layer cakes, but mostly), Deflector Shields, Signal Flag, Electro Gun (early directed EMP device), Parking Light Launcher (the parking lights could be deployed ahead of the vehicle to provide better guidance and limited forward sensors).
Unfortunately, at the time, the return guidance systems on the parking lights were kind of terrible, so you wanted a lot of spares. You were as likely to run one over as successfully return it to the port.
I really want that second-from-the-left one to be the rear window defroster. B/c I voted this for this design in the discussion a few weeks back on what the symbol should rationally look like.
But it’s probably actually tea cake warmer or something. Damn.
I think that it is actually the defroster. And the ray gun is the window sprayer, I think.