Van Wilder

The next time a Transit Connect pulls up alongside you at the lights, don’t assume you’re about to take an easy victory in the Traffi c Light Grand Prix. Because if it’s this one, you’re about to have your backside handed to you in the most surprising way…

- Dan Bevis 

Backbone of Britain’. That’s how Ford once marketed the Transit, and it was an entirely appropriate observation. Perhaps you drive one every day for work; if not, someone on your street probably does. And you’ll almost certainly have come into contact with one over the last few days – a Transit might have made a delivery to your office, or brought a parcel to your house, or helped you move home, or any number of other van-based activities. They’re so interwoven in the fabric of everyday British life that we often don’t give them a second glance. And sure, there are other vans out there, your Sprinters and Crafters and what-have you, but the Transit will always be the king of the genre: the original van that was designed to behave like a car, way back in 1965. It’s a cultural icon.

Naturally the fact that we often don’t give these helpful vehicles a second glance means that, were somebody to do something a bit sneaky with one, it’d totally fly under the radar. And that, you see, is exactly what’s happened here – Nigel Howgego’s Transit Connect may look like your local plumber’s urban runabout, but there’s something mischievous hiding beneath the surface.

So how’s this for a thought process? The Transit Connect was designed to replace the Escort- and Fiesta-based vans in Ford’s line-up, and being based on the international Focus platform it doesn’t actually share all that much with the bigger Transit – so why not turn it into a kind of covert hot hatch? That’s effectively what Nigel’s set out to achieve here although, as you’ll soon discover, he got a little bit carried away.