For a long time Ford in Britain were one of the most conservative of car manufacturers - tried and trusted was their motto. It was not until 1976, seventeen years after the birth of the Mini (which sent everyone else rushing to bring out similar spec products) that Ford dared to design a front-engined car with transverse engine.

Just occasionally, however, they seemed to have a rush of blood to the head and experimented with some strange ideas. The Ford Anglia of 1959 was one of these, heavily influenced by American styling and sporting a reverse-slope rear window that made it stand out like a sore thumb amongst other cars in their range.

To European eyes it looked strange and yet the car sold in large numbers. It was cheap, cheerful, nippy and handled pretty well for the time. Its great secret was the 105E engine - a little powerhouse that never gave up. But no-one seems to have told Ford; they must have thought it was the reverse slope window that made the car sell so well for, in 1962, they brought out the Consul Capri with the same feature.

The Capri flopped worse than the Edsel in America. In 1964 Ford gave up on it and concentrated their efforts on the much more conventional Cortina that was to prove their bread and butter for twenty years. The Capri name made a comeback as a cheap fastback with sporting pretensions in 1969 and this too proved very successful. But the reverse slope rear window was gone forever.

Yet those cheeky little Anglias really had something. Ask anyone who once owned one and they get a faraway, misty look in their eyes as they recall the good times they had in their Anglia.