Features / 26 June 2022 / Albert du Toit

Amazing photos from the Ford Heritage Vault

Ford recently released over 5,000 archived photos and brochures of various vehicles produced by the automaker throughout its 119-year history via a website called the Heritage Vault.

The listings include never-before-seen images that have, until now, only been available to select individuals inside the Ford corporation.

There are amazing finds covering everything from the very first Ford “vehicle”, to custom Shelby-built creations and stately Lincoln convertibles.

There are also many interesting depictions of South African favourites like the Ford Escort and Sierra, as well as things we never even knew existed such as Ford garbage trucks.

It’s easy to spend more time than what is considered sane perusing the artwork and memorabilia inside the Heritage Vault, going on a virtual tour of Ford’s interesting and multifaceted history.

After doing so we curated the stunning photos below showing Ford’s journey from building rickety quadricycles in 1896, to service vehicles in the 1940s, to V8 muscle cars in the ’70s, to best-selling bakkies in the ’90s – and everything in between.