Ford Prefect E493A Saloon

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Designed specially for the British market, the E93A, or Ford Prefect, was the first Ford to be designed outside the USA and was introduced in 1938 following on from the 7Y.

A more upmarket version of its Ford siblings, the Popular and the Anglia, its American influence was clear to see. Built at Dagenham, it was to remain in production in one form or another until 1961 and was only available in Britain as a four-door saloon in the post-war era, although export markets also had the option of a two-door, a ‘Ute’ and a van. Robust and mechanically simple, it had a tough 1,172cc side valve engine mated to a 3-speed gearbox in a basic A-frame chassis with the familiar Ford transverse front spring.

From 1949 a new E493A version was available, now with headlamps integrated into the wings (in place of the old wing-top pods). Capable of over 60mph and 30mpg, at £412 including taxes it was the cheapest four-door car on the British market and provided countless families with reliable transport for years, being finally replaced with the more modern monocoque-built 100E in 1953.

This Prefect was bought new by a Trevor Timms in March 1953 who ran the car to and from his workplace five miles away until the early 1970s. He was then given a new company car and the Prefect was put away in his garage where it was to remain for the next 25 years. In 1999 his grandson Phillip Timms took an interest in granddad’s old car and over the next three years he sympathetically restored it, the process being recorded in photographs on file.

One family owned from new, it still has only 57,000 miles on the clock and is now in lovely condition throughout. The red leatherette interior is original and it still has the original radio and heater (both optional extras from new). When issued with its new MOT in June this year (with no advisories recorded), we are told that the tester remarked on the originality and overall condition of the car.

Said to drive very well, it comes with over 100 photographs of the car (from black and white pictures when it was new to a documented history of its rebuild) plus a workshop manual, intruction booklet and a quantity of useful spares.