This month sees the 50th birthday of the Ford Transit, the iconic van that has become a staple of roads throughout Britain and the rest of the world. To celebrate this milestone we have compiled some interesting facts, all revolving around the Ford Transit.

• The first Ford Transit rolled of the production line on the 9th August 1965
• Over 8 million Transit vans have been sold worldwide
• 48 – The number of students that fitted into a Transit minibus in 1965
• 15 – The number of cars that a Ford Transit leaped over in 1985 as part of a fundraising campaign for Cancer Research and on completion became the first van to do so
• The Ford Transit has appeared in numerous films and TV shows including a chase scene with Michael Caine in the 1987 film ‘The Fourth Protocol’
• The Monster Transit – In 1994 the beloved Transit was transformed into a 4x4 monster truck that weighed 6.6 tonnes as well as huge balloon tyres mounted on axles from a U.S. military vehicle
• Ford Transits are not just the van of choice for the building, plumbing, carpentry and logistic trades. The Transit has also served the police, ambulance, fire and breakdown services
• The Transit Limousine – Also known as the Transit XXL, this one-off vehicle stretched 7.4 metres long with 4 sliding side doors, 7 leather trimmed chair with their own personal video screen
• Top Gear Transit - In 2005, an episode of Top Gear (remember that show!) took a Transit to the Nuerburgring where German racing driver Sabine Schmitz completed the circuit in just over 10 minutes. It won’t come as a surprise that she was significantly faster than the hosts
• 2014 – The Transit goes on sale in America for the first time replacing the popular E-Series model
• 2014 – The Move It, Make It, Work It, Transit TV Commercial was launched and you can watch it here:[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCYMPkCXkjQ[/embed]
• One million kilometres. That’s how many kilometres were recorded by a Transit’s instrument cluster earlier this year. The van was taken to the local dealer, not because it had a problem, but because the distance recorded had stopped working once it reached 999,999km
• 2015 – The Ford Transit turns 50! To celebrate, Ford created 4 golden Transit vans, 1 for each Transit model which toured the country in the lead up to the official birthday back on the 9th August

So there you go, bet you did not know a lot of those J. The Ford Transit, a true British institution – Here’s to another 50 years!

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