When the formula was first established, it ran on road tires, used road gearboxes, and a price cap was placed on rolling chassis - the intention was very much to create an affordable form of single-seater racing.

Geoff Clarke of Motor Racing Stables (the circuit's resident race driving school) was responsible for its creation, although others have tried to claim this as their idea. The first Formula Ford car was Team Lotus' 1966 Type 31 which was derived from the Lotus 22 Formula Junior. Unlike its great rival as an entry level formula, Formula Vee, the Formula Ford cars use full racing suspension setups.

Formula Ford racing exists in two main forms: National Series run around the world using the 1600 Duratec engine, (which replaced the heavier but not significantly more powerful Zetec engine in 2006); and a mainly amateur, club-racing series attracting serious enthusiasts using the now elderly 1600 Kent Engine with which the formula ran from mid-sixties to mid-nineties.

The car can provide drivers with their first insights into how a racing car feels to drive and how to properly set up a car, or it can provide a relatively inexpensive way for drivers to campaign purpose-built racecars for many years.

Many championships are run around the world for Formula Ford including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Asia, and South Africa. Each run instrinsically the same rules and regulations with minor variations for local conditions.

A Formula Ford car is one of the more distinctive-looking open-wheel race cars because it does not have wings to create aerodynamic downforce, one of the reasons the series has persisted for so long in motor racing.

Top speeds in the National Class are as high as in the other Junior Formulae of BMW and Renault, but the cornering speeds are lower due to the downforce-producing aerodynamic aids on the other cars. Handling is entirely down to mechanical grip, and the lack of wings ensures that cars following another are not aerodynamically disadvantaged, allowing close racing with plenty of overtaking. Series' rules may permit slick tires or treaded tires. As the rules limit modifications, all cars are relatively equal and produce close racing results. Still, Formula Fords allow suspension and braking bias changes, if not aerodynamic options like winged cars.

Formula Ford engines, which typically develop about 140/115 hp, are capable of propelling them from 0–100 km/h in less than five seconds, reaching top speeds of nearly 235/220 km/h (150/140 mph). The engine is usually a stressed member of the chassis, as in larger and more advanced Formula cars.

In order to reduce cost, chassis are steel space-frame, unlike the monocoques found in other types of single seater racing.

Formula Ford racing cars can be fitted with different engines. After some very early races with the 1500 cc Ford Cortina GT engine, the formula rapidly adopted the OHV 1600 cc Ford Kent engine, using production blocks with little special preparation.

In 1993, Ford replaced its Kent block engine with the more modern and more powerful 1800 cc 16-valve Zetec. The formula originally mandated production gearboxes, wheels and tyres (and a maximum cost for the rolling chassis, although this was long since abandoned), but Formula Fords now use racing gearboxes and, in some championships, slick tyres.