Retroford Magazine highlights OSF's 20 year history

OLD SKOOL FORD (OSF) 2004 to Present Day

Old Skool Ford has been a Club stand feature at the Classic Car Show for an amazing 15 years this year. We will be in Hall 8 on stand 8-090 this year and Retroford Magazine are following the whole journey over the coming weeks and months.

Old Skool Ford was started by a group of enthusiasts from the outskirts of South London who had an admiration for all things retro and blue oval that were made in an age before the advent of the hot hatch back in the 80’s. In the very early days of forums these enthusiasts, fronted by Darren Doughty, would meet up at various locations for a coffee, chat and then a spirited drive through the beautiful countryside of deepest, darkest Surrey.   Word got out that this was going on and the group grew.  Huge enthusiasm for the “Old Skool” scene led them to start their own forum and in July 2004, Old Skool Ford, also known as OSF, was formed.     

Darren managed to persuade an IT friend Paul to build a forum which, at first, was very basic; but remember that these were the early days of online forums.  This is where the fun started and they were able to advertise regular local meet ups. Soon after, there were enough followers to have small club stands at various Classic Shows around the south.

In a very short time OSF went from the initial 5 and increasing to a membership today of almost 16,000 people from across the world. At the peak of forum use, OSF were soon attracting 100’s of members to display their cars on their club stand at Classic Ford Show, Santa Pod, where they won “Best Club Stand” numerous times with circa 130 cars on stand one year. OSF had stands at Ford Fair at Silverstone as well as continuing with smaller local shows all over the country. The forum would be buzzing with activity as 100’s logged on to join in the chit chat after each show.   It really was a great big OSF family and you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing an OSF sun strip on an old Ford.

Around 2006, the need for speed led to the Old Skool Ford Drag Challenge (OSFDC) being formed. Full coverage of each of their 6 or so events a year were shown in Ford Magazines and at its peak, the OSFDC had up to 30 entrants for each round.

In 2013 a few people drifted away from the forum due to life changes; including Darren who handed the reins over to fellow admin Jo Peters and Scott Slavin.  They continued to run the forum successfully with new shows and regular meets for the many followers and, of course, the ever-popular OSFDC which ran right up to 2020; eventually stopped by Covid lockdowns and has not been re-started as key team members have moved on to competing at higher levels of Drag Racing.

OSF forums have weathered changes in social media, adapting well and still offering a place for OSF owners to share tips and help each other around the world.

Scott Slavin and Christopher Deacon took over running the club and in 2013 OSF became a registered member club with the Federation of Historic British Vehicles (FBHVC) and have been recognised by the DVLA under their V765 scheme.

Between Scott and Chris, they have run some very successful shows down in the West Country, including the annual Tour of the Moor since 2017. This event is always sold out and takes place over the vast Dartmoor National Park and surrounding area every May.

OSF has been present at the NEC Classic Car show every year for the last 15 years and has some hard-working club members to thank for their dedication in putting on a stand for people to visit at this prestigious event over that period.

The forum celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year and remains an active place for chit chat. There is probably no other Classic Ford forum that has accumulated so much information from 20 years of personal build stories, photos, questions and answers anywhere in the world. If there is another club out there that you can join for free (there is a voluntary annual subscription) and receive all this information and support, we’d like to hear about it. OSF would also like to put a shout out to their Sponsors from Vulcan Engineering, Adrian Flux, Peter Best Insurance Services and Abbeyfields Insurance, without whose support a free member’s club would not be viable.

Retroford Magazine is proud to be able to follow OSF to the Classic Car Shows 40th Birthday event, so come and support us in Hall 8 on stand 8-090 to celebrate OSF’s 20^th too.

You Know That - YKT!