Ford of Britain 100: Image of the Week

BRENTWOOD, ESSEX, UNITED KINGDOM – July 21, 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.

As "The Car You Always Promised Yourself", the Capri offered refinement and a high level of comfort, a feature the creators of this week's image seem keen to promote. Or perhaps they just wanted to suggest more literally that the Capri was a dream car.

When Henry Ford made motoring affordable for the masses, could he have imagined how much time 21st century motorists would spend behind the wheel? An old saying advises "invest in good shoes and a good bed because if you are not in one you'll be in the other", but we also spend considerable time in our cars.

Today, sleep is still on the minds of Ford engineers as they develop technologies to help reduce the thousands of accidents caused annually by drowsy drivers.

Ford's Driver Alert system provides a visual and audible warning if it detects the driver is losing concentration. Lane Departure vibrates the steering wheel to alert the driver if the vehicle inadvertently drifts across lanes. And for slow moving traffic, Ford's Active City Stop, ensures that a momentary lack of concentration doesn't result in a costly collision, by automatically applying the brakes if the system calculates a collision is likely.

This reassurance should be one reason Ford drivers don't suffer from sleepless nights.