Ford is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Model TT – a forerunner to the modern-day van and pickup, including today’s Transit.
First launched in 1917, the Model TT was Ford’s first purpose-built one-tonne van. Owners could customise the chassis with a cargo bed to transport everything from letters to fuel. The Model TT was first launched in America and later built at Ford’s Trafford Park factory in Manchester.
The Model TT featured a cab that could seat one driver and one passenger. The engine was started using a cranking handle on the front. For a smoother ride, customers could choose modern air-filled rear tyres instead of solid rubber.
Hans Schep, General Manager, Commercial Vehicles, Ford of Europe, said, “It is amazing that while in some ways today’s vans are a million miles from the Model TT in how they have come on, they fundamentally do the same job as they were designed to do 100 years ago – providing a flexible means of keeping businesses on the move.”
The TT paved the way for the Transit, one of the most popular vans ever produced. Sales of the Transit passed its first million milestone in 1976, rapidly passing the next in 1985, 1994, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2013, which lined up end-to-end would circumnavigate the globe. On average, customers have bought a new Transit every 180 seconds during its lifetime.
