I’m one of those car guys who knows a lot about certain car models, a moderate amount about others, and nothing about a few. What I mean to say is, every so often I have to admit to walking around a car show, seeing something out of the corner of my eye and thinking to myself, WTF is that?

That is precisely what happened one day about 3 years ago as I walked around a local car show where I used to live in Pennsylvania.

This little (and I do mean small) blue hot rod looking thing with an inline six cylinder caught my eye and caused me to do a double take as I snapped some curious pictures from as many angles as I could. The front grill was funky looking and the car looked like it came right out of a Hot Wheels package.

What was it? It was a 1948 Ford Anglia.

What is a Ford Anglia?

The Ford Anglia is actually a British-designed (and built) car that began production starting in 1939. It looked like other typical 30s era cars, but this one was aimed at folks with a limited bank account in need of a more economical vehicle.

Even though they were meant to be more affordable cars, there were two different models of Anglia offered. There was a standard model as well as a deluxe that inherently came with better options.

The Anglia’s roof stood higher than other cars because many of the British population wore hats that needed to fit inside, and it was such a narrow car because it helped the car fit on the old English streets better. The wheel base was only 90 inches long.

Suitable for the small car, was an equally small 23 horsepower 933 cubic centimeter, four cylinder engine. While that’s certainly not a mover and a shaker, for a 1,740 pound car, it probably did just fine getting around town.

These cars were originally made by British, for British. But they eventually came to the United States and Canada in 1948, and were sold at select Ford Dealers throughout North America. With the importation of the 1948 Ford Anglia, certain changes were made to the cars.

Some of the changes were making them left-hand drive and sticking a slightly bigger engine in them, bringing the cubic centimeter count up to 1,172.

Horsepower and torque were rated at 30 and 46, respectively, and top speed for the American version was 62 miles per hour.

There weren’t many Ford Anglias being sold in North America, and many of them reportedly ended up in junk yards and were hard to sell. Because of this, less than 2,500 of them are still around today in any form. Most of them are heavily modified as gassers or other race cars like the one pictured.

And in fact, if it weren’t for the racing community, it’s possible that even fewer of these cars would have made it to modern times–if any at all.

Thankfully, people started to realize that these cars made great drag cars, even though rules were originally strict.

However, once the NHRA lifted up some of the restrictions on wheel base requirements and cars that had blowers, these little cars started to become quite popular for drag racing. Some of them were even turned into gassers.

As seen in the below picture of the car’s stats, this particular pictured Anglia still sports the same inline six 292 CI Chevy engine and a 4-speed transmission it used during its race days. It has a best quarter mile time of 11.86 at 123 miles per hour.

For a naturally aspirated six cylinder, that ain’t too shabby.

As a somewhat unrelated side note, one of the most famous cars in the world is a later year Anglia. If I were to be completely honest with you I never even questioned what kind of car it was when I first saw the movie: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The flying car, is a later model Ford Anglia.

The Ford Anglia is a classic part of automotive history. While certainly not the most popular hot rod in the United States, it had its role to play as a fast gasser on the track and no doubt helped to shape drag racing as we know it today.

With so few of these cars available, I’d say there’s a good chance I may never see one again and I’m glad I had this opportunity. Have you ever seen one in person?