DUNTON, UK - Think Ford Transit, and you’re probably imagining a hard-working tradesperson coming to the rescue with a van full of tools, but there’s another side to this iconic van, which turned 60 this year.
During the past six decades, Transit has also become a pop culture icon. From TV and movie screens, to being the roadie’s favourite for gigging bands and even serving as a basis for modern art – Transit has been there, done that, and got the tour T-shirt…
Transit in Music
From Robbie Williams to Sir Paul McCartney, when the some of the biggest stars in the industry needed a van for their music video, it was Transit that got the cameo. And while it looked great in the limelight, Transit earned its place in music culture with typical hard graft.
Long before music videos became commonplace, Transit was helping up-and-coming bands get from gig to gig, often travelling through the night carrying instruments, amplifiers and soon-to-be-famous rockstars. As a result, Transit quickly came to symbolise the scrappy beginnings of musical success.
Bands likes of The Tremeloes, The Coral, Slade, Amen Corner and Small Faces have been photographed with their trusty Transits down the years.
Transit on Screen
With credits including fleeting appearances in several Bond movies, an action-packed chase scene alongside Michael Caine in The Fourth Protocol and a gritty heist scene in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Transit has been a recurring sight on cinema screens.
Attempting to count how many on-screen appearances Transit has made is an almost impossible task… but that hasn’t stopped the Internet Movie Cars Database having a go.
So far, it has recorded more than 7,600 productions in which it claims Transit has appeared, making it the tenth most prolific TV and movie vehicle in the Database.
With Transit quickly becoming a familiar sight on Europe’s roads, it’s little surprise that the van has racked up screen-time in TV shows across the region from the 1960s and 1970s onwards. That included repeated appearances in shows like the legendary UK soap opera Coronation Street.
Other early TV roles were in popular UK series The Avengers, Z Cars, and The Saint; German crime drama Die Seltsamen Methoden des Franz Josef Wanninger; and French series Les enquêtes du Commissaire Maigret. Recently, Transit also had a starring role in the Spanish film, Un Mundo Normal.
How much would all this screen time have earned Transit if it was cashing cheques as an extra on set? We calculate around £4.5 million (€5.2 million) 1 – a nice little earner for a vehicle famed for its productivity…
Transit as an Art Form
Every Transit is a work of art, but it’s also provided the basis for some incredibly inventive pieces through the years.
When you’re covering as many miles as a hard-working Transit driver, your van is bound to get a little dirty. In 2018, Ford commissioned artist Ruddy Muddy to “paint” a Transit Custom by tracing graphics into road dirt on the van.
It was a fun way to deliver a serious message: Elephant in the Transit promoted the front seat of a vehicle as a safe space to talk about difficult or personal issues that can affect mental health.
In 2022, Ford also supported the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity’s Make it Visible mental health campaign with two vividly decorated Transit Custom vans.
And this year, graphic design company Publiburo won a contest in Belgium to wrap a Transit to celebrate the van’s 60th birthday. Van art doesn’t get much better…
1 Based on five days work per production at typical UK £120 per day rate.