Fear AND LOATHING THE BLUE OVAL
The slogan went something like ‘There’s a Ford in your future’. ‘Bugger off!’ were always the words that sprung to my mind. Ford and I have never really got on in the manner of many of my friends so I’d say my relationship with the brand was distant. The accelerating blur of passing time has helpfully blanketed memories of a few Ford encounters which I probably wanted to forget. But I have to admit, now that I look at them, they are reappearing through the mists of time. What comes to mind more readily, to quote some uncharitable wit, is the letters Ford could stand for: ‘fix or repair daily’. Still, I have to ’fess up; there were several Fords in my past.
The 1960s ‘Ford Total Performance’ mantra hit motor sport in a big way even in the isolated backwater of Aotearoa. And here, as in most other places, by the end of the decade Ford’s sporty image had hit almost moonshot heights.
As a young motor racing addict in the Pukekohe paddock I was hypnotised by the blaze of colour, rakish shapes, and the
