MS-RT Ford Transit Connect (2019) IVOTY review

Date: Monday, November 18, 2019   |   Author: George Barrow

 

(Continued from page 1) There are also options, including upgraded bronze-alloy wheels as well as a sticker pack to help draw even more attention to the bulging body kit.

Black exhaust tips also make a decent addition, particularly on the Magnetic Grey of the limited-run Launch Edition.

Perhaps the option that these MS-RT vehicles are best known for, though, is the Maxhaust, which uses a marine speaker fitted underneath the van to create a realistic exhaust noise to blow your socks off. It’s controlled using a smartphone app, which sets the idle volume and subsequent peak revs noise of the ‘exhaust’.

It’s linked to the throttle and works seamlessly with the actual rising of the engine revs. It can even be disabled altogether if you want peace and quiet, but as a £1,500 option in a modified van costing £23,995 you’re unlikely to want to go completely incognito, are you?

Completing the spec for the first 40 vans is high-level kit from the standard Ford van including LED loadspace lighting, satellite navigation, reversing camera and bi-xenon headlights.

Up close with the van, you can really appreciate the work that has gone into designing these moulded parts.

Contrary to most aftermarket kits these aren’t just simple jelly mould-type parts; they have really complex shapes in them that complement the existing lines of the Transit. When making the rear bumper, for example, additional pieces have to be inserted into the mould to create the negative surfaces that would otherwise trap the freshly formed bumper in its own mould.

On the outside, these translate into the cooling vent scoops you can see at the edges. Examples like this can be found throughout the new body kit pieces and really help to make the additions seamless with the van, rather than like aftermarket add-ons.

On the inside the leather seats feel and look of the highest quality. They fit snuggly into all the contours of the original seat and aren’t just a pillowcase-like addition.

Then there’s the steering wheel. Our test vehicle has the standard sports wheel rather than the upgraded carbon option and feels thick between your hands. The chunky rim is contoured like a racing seat would be to grip your thighs and torso, except its grooves are for your fingers and thumbs. If we’re entirely honest it takes some getting used to and perhaps isn’t our cup of tea, but it’s certainly in keeping with the ethos of the van.

The rest of the MS-RT Transit Connect experience is really all rather standard – it drives and performs exactly as a regular van would. It’s nimble, nippy and really great fun to drive.

The ride is comfortable and the steering is sharp and communicative. The MS-RT enhancements do, however, cause a few lingering glances, which is pleasing for two reasons.

Firstly, the van is doing its job as a head-turner designed very much with the owner-driver in mind, but secondly because around the towns and villages near the Pontypool factory people seem to genuinely know what they are looking at and that’s because MS-RT is providing plenty of jobs and developing new skills for a local workforce in an otherwise highly deprived part of South Wales.

If you’re in the market for a fierce-looking Transit Connect (or a Transit Custom, as they still make one styling kit of the mid-sized van) then MS-RT is the place to come, and come in the knowledge that as it’s a QVM you’ll still get a three-year, 100,000-mile warranty, which is something that Citroen Saxo you ‘improved’ as a teenager never would have enjoyed.

MS-RT Ford Transit Connect

Price (ex-VAT) £23,995   
Load length  1,831mm
Load width. 1,226/1,538mm
Load Volume 2.6m³
Payload  860kg
Engine size/power  1,498cc/120hp  
Combined fuel economy 56.5mpg
CO2 130g/km

Comment: I love the sound of breaking glass

Did you ever see the Toyota Hilux in a glass box with the tagline ‘Break in case of apocalypse?’

It was housing a limited-run 50th anniversary edition truck that could certainly take on a zombie uprising. It has a special wheel and tyre combination and has been created in partnership with Arctic Trucks and Bilstein. Modifications include a performance suspension system, new 16 x 7.5 ET05 alloy wheels that are only available on the Invincible 50 and finished in satin black with a machined lip.

They’re fitted with 265/75R16 BF Goodrich KO2 all-terrain tyres, with the whole packaging raising the vehicle height by 40mm at the front end and 20mm at the rear. There are loads of styling tweaks to make it look even more rugged, but there’s just 50 of them out there and I’ve got my hands on one. It’s been let out of the glass box, which in this instance was broken in case of Brexit, and it certainly lives up to expectations.

The local farmers’ fields have not been safe since. I sense a head-to-head against a Ford Ranger Raptor in the offing…

George Barrow is the UK judge for the International Van of the Year, the prestigious prize awarded by leading European LCV journalists.

The International Van of the Year report is sponsored by

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