In a modest number of rooms on the other side of the world, a small team of archivists has dedicated itself to preserving Ford’s history. But the Australian piece of the puzzle is missing.
It’s been exactly a decade since I drove these highways in Michigan. It was the beginning of my months-long zig-zagging road trip across North America, and I’d just set off in my 1995 Ford F-150 Flareside V8 pick-up.
This time around I’m also in an F-150, but on loan from Ford for my visit to the company’s Heritage Vault in Detroit. It all feels oddly familiar.
Despite the brand-new V6-powered F-150 sharing little in common with my single-cab V8 from 1995, there is still something nostalgic about travelling these same roads in a Ford pick-up. The quintessential American vehicle – and the exact reason I’d chosen it back in the day.
This time I was in town for an exclusive look inside the Ford Heritage Vault – a series of rooms filled with archives from the company’s history. My tour guide, archivist Ciera Casteel, had heard about my earlier road trip, and as a welcome had laid some original brochures from the mid 1990s advertising the F-150 Flareside.
Located at the Ford Engineering Laboratory, driving into the car park means passing dozens of pre-production engineering evaluation vehicles from recent years. Many are still in their camouflage, despite already being revealed to the public, and with various wires and tubes taped to their panels. Near the entrance are two camouflaged SUVs – Chinese market models – plugged in and recharging.
The Ford Heritage Vault houses anything and everything from the company’s past. From a full-size styrofoam version of the Ford Bronco – which was used to help create a catalogue of swappable accessories – down to Hot Wheels cars, internal documents, reels of advertisements from decades past, clay models, and something like three million pictures.
Arguably the coolest piece is another full-size styrofoam model – this time of the Ford GT supercar. Perfect to hang on the wall of my lounge room, I think.
But despite a recent push to digitally upload historical brochures and images from Ford Australia, Ms Casteel tells me the Heritage Vault has so far been unsuccessful in obtaining the company’s physical archives from its Australian arm, due to local laws banning the export of important historical documents.
Even with Ford having climate-controlled rooms for film stock and photo negatives at the Detroit facility – rooms specifically built to preserve its historical documents – original items showcasing Ford Australia’s past are being held in a generic warehouse in Melbourne’s north where they are subject to the city’s heat, humidity, and cold.
As reported by Drive in November 2022, Ford Australia has so far been unsuccessful in getting permission from the Australian Government to send its historical documents to its headquarters in Michigan – all in the name of preservation.
And it’s a job Ms Casteel and her small team take seriously. When the dilapidated Ford Engineering Laboratory building began its restoration, slabs of concrete were removed and sent to the Heritage Vault – all because the graffiti on those slabs were considered important pieces of its history.
While it’s clear the Australian Government’s intentions were good when it banned historical documents from leaving the country, it’s also clear the best way to preserve the legacy of Ford Australia is to ensure it’s catalogued and kept safe from decay – so future generations can appreciate what was achieved here.
The F-150 is as quintessentially American as the Falcon ute is Australian. But while the F-Truck is still being proudly made, the Falcon, Territory, and other Aussie models are now relegated to the history books. It’s time those books are preserved.
The post We visit Ford’s Heritage Vault, but its Australian history is under threat appeared first on Drive.
