Ford Of Britain 100: Image Of The Week - 22/52

BRENTWOOD, UNITED KINGDOM – June 1, 2011: To celebrate the centenary of Ford of Britain in 2011 the company is exploring its photo archive to reveal rarely seen images.

Ford's unique relationship with Britain and its society will be illustrated each week by specially selected pictures.

The world of motorsport offers a unique combination of excitement and real danger. In 1901, two years before the creation of the company that still bears his name, Henry Ford won his first race. The developments pioneered by Ford in motor racing have often translated into better production cars. Today's race cars benefit from a level of engineering and technology only achievable through the advance of computers but that wasn't always the case.

This week's image features the British-built Ford V8 Pilot participating in the Monte Carlo Rally. With the standard car weighing in at nearly one and a half tons (3,248lb/1,473kg), the Pilot was hardly the ideal race vehicle. But in an era before space-age alloys and super-strong plastics it was the weight of the Pilot that made it robust enough to take victories in 1950 at the Tulip and Lisbon rallies.

Today, the strength needed to withstand the rigours of modern rallies can be achieved through careful design and lightweight materials. Advanced engineering means that the power-to-weight ratio of the 2011 Ford Fiesta RS WRC far exceeds the Fords of 50 years ago, as illustrated by Jari-Matti Latvala taking to the air in the 2011 Rally Italia Sardegna.