1965 was a great year for Britain: Tom and Jerry and the Thunderbirds hit our screens; Jim Clark won the F1 world championship; and The Beatles became the first rock band to perform in a stadium, apparently. But more importantly, the Ford Transit entered the UK market…

If you haven’t already worked that out – or you badly misunderstood the title – that means the Transit has been on our roads for 45 years. In this time, 78 derivatives and 600 ‘entities’ have been spawned, of which six million have been sold.

Not only does this make it the segment-leader in Europe then, in some countries ‘Transit’ is the name of actual class it dominates.

But even such world domination has its humble beginnings; in this case, it was with the aptly titled Mark 1. This was an instant hit due to its American styling and vast number of different body styles, which ranged from panel vans, pickups and minibuses, to name but a few.

The entry level Mark 1 would have set you back £542 in ’65, with the most expensive – a 15-seat bus – not even topping £1,000.

After over one million units of the Mark 1 were manufactured – including that awesome ice-cream flavoured one – production ceased in 1978 to make way for the Mark 2. Its facelift comprised most notably a longer nose, new engines and an updated interior and followed in the same vein as its predecessor, outselling virtually everything in its path.

1986 marked the end for this model however, and a more familiar Transit shape was introduced – no guesses for what the name was. It received a minor facelift five years later, but only lasted another three years in this form. Once again staying true to its predecessor, the next model – which stayed on the market for a further six years – was introduced.

It was now 2000: and what’s a new millenium without a new Transit?

Not a very good one, Ford must have thought, because we got another new model. This model took styling cues from the company’s New Edge designs and shared engines with the Jaguar X-Type; great news if you’re a white-van driver, awful news if you’re an X-Type owner we would have thought.

One new model and ten years later, we’re here – 2010 – and Ford has released a new 45th anniversary model named Sapphire. Unfortunately the price isn’t as nice as the Mark 1, but it’s good to see a Transit that doesn’t bear a ‘Mark followed by a number’ name.

It’s worth mentioning that the Ford Transit is much more than a mere decent-selling a white van; and we’ve got the pictures to prove it.

The Transit has actually been into space and was also sighted fending off an attack from a rather large dinosaur. These are all part of the collection of great pictures Ford has just released, which MT recommends you definitely check out.

45 years of the Ford Transit – in pictures

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