Vintage View: A look at two of the shining lights in Ford's history

You don’t have to know your cams from your ham sandwiches to enjoy the display of proudly maintained vehicles at a vintage car rally. Some things just have a rightness to them — they sing. The juicy scent of crushed grass, the chat with the owners recounting their find, watching someone getting a cheery tow (again) in the May sunshine, it’s all great gas for a spring or summer’s day.
The history of Ford in Cork crosses the century line this year and the company’s intrinsic place in the social and economic journey of the city and its people is being celebrated all over this newspaper. There’s the fascinating timeline from the assemblage of the first Fordson tractors of 1919-1922 (Henry Ford’s legendary ‘automobile plows’) to the bitter sweet sadness of 1984 when despite epic struggles, the factory at the Marina closed.