Now as many of you know, I’ve been talking about purchasing a rally car and entering Targa Newfoundland for quite a while now. Well, I finally went out and did just that, and, as a lot of you have been asking me to write something about the car, here it is....

My new ride is a 1971 Ford Escort Mk1. Now many of you might never have heard of such a beast, it hailing from Limey Land and all that. However, the rally enthusiasts amongst you should instantly recognize the name.

Why? Well, the fact that the Escort (Mk1 & Mk2) was recently voted as The World’s Greatest Rally Car Ever on a popular television show might have something to do with that (The famous Audi Quattro took 2^nd place). Or possibly, it’s because video sites around the world are littered with clips of World Rally Champion’s piloting older Ford Escorts. In fact, even the great man himself, Colin McCrae (May he rest in peace) once owned and enjoyed playing with an Escort. His brother Alister also drove one, and their Father, 5 times British Champion Jimmy can still be found campaigning Escorts in the Historic competitions around Europe.

The list of famous Escort drivers reads like a who’s who of rallying history. The name Roger Clark obviously springs to mind immediately, but there were many more, such as Finnish legend Hannu Mikkola, Ari Vatanen, Bjorn Waldegard. In fact, I doubt that there’s a single rally champion who has never at least sat behind the wheel of the humble Ford Escort.

Both the Mk1 & Mk2 Escorts are renowned for being incredibly fun cars to drive, which is why so many rally driver’s desire one (Ken Block has actually just purchased a Mk2 and he has enough money and influence to drive anything he wants nowadays).

Being so light, and rear-wheel-drive to boot, Escorts tend to spend rather a lot of time going sideways. Of course, this is not simply done to please the crowds, although it does tend to have that effect. No, the car actually handles better when it’s slightly “upset” (particularly on gravel surfaces), and the sideways action can actually be a way of gaining more control over the vehicle. Rallying is all about power in relation to grip, and tires being forced sideways can have a tremendous braking effect on such a light car. It also enables the car to be positioned better for accelerating out of a corner. That’s why you will often see an Escort slithering like a snake towards a corner. It may look out of control, but the driver is really just setting the car up for a quick turn (Well hopefully!).

Sounds rather simple when I put it like that eh, but trust me, there’s a real art to driving one of these machines.

I actually used to own a Mk1 RS2000 in my youth, and growing up in an area of UK renowned for its rallying (North Devon / Somerset), I spent many a quiet and moonlit night ripping around the narrow country lanes trying to hone my RWD driving skills. Of course, that was over 20 years ago, so we’ve yet to see whether I’ve forgotten all that I learnt.

Anyway, back to the rundown on the car...

Make: Ford

Model: Escort 2 door

Manufactured: 1971

Engine: Honda S2000 2.0L V-tec (Detuned to 235hp, but with bundles of torque)

Engine Management: DTA (Laptop programmable)

Gearbox: Honda 6-Speed (Slightly modified)

Rear Axle: Wide Atlas with a Trans-X LSD

Additional Specs:

BODY: 
Shell was stripped to bare metal, fully strengthened and seam welded, then painted first in etch primer, then primer, and finally, its bright orange finish. The bubble wheel arches are all-steel. A strut brace was fitted to the engine bay for added rigidity. A 12pt Safety Devices roll cage was installed with additional door bars. An alloy fire wall was created in front of a custom shaped alloy fuel tank and stand. This was moved as far forward as possible to achieve the best balance over the rear axle

  
SUSPENSION

Front:
Group 4 front Bilstein struts with group 4 tarmac inserts. Anti roll bar removed and compression struts fitted with rubber roller tops and eccentric bearings. Custom made front cross member and steering rack, rose jointed TCA's and compression struts. 2.5 turn quick rack, custom made steering column, with a quick release steering wheel.

Rear:
4 link boxes, rods fitted with solid nylon bushes and rose jointed. Watts linkage with heavy duty bushes and rose joints fitted. Wide Atlas axle with the latest version Trans-X limited slip diff, with a 4.6 crown wheel and pinion. Group 4 Bilstein coilovers, rose jointed at bottom and heavy duty rubbers on top.

Wheels:
Group 4 Revolutions 8x13 rear and 7x13 front

Brakes:
Bias pedal box with hydraulic clutch. Willwood 4 pot Midilight calipers with 265mm discs on the front (The largest that will fit under 13 inch wheels). Sierra Cosworth rear calipers running with Ford Fiesta front discs. A hydraulic vertical fly handbrake was fitted (That’s the fun lever), and the original cable handbrake is still present. The car features custom made braided brake pipes throughout. 
 
Drive train:
2004 Honda S2000 engine producing 235bhp, and the revving up to 9200rpm. The V-Tec system was lowered to increase torque and to produce a slightly better power band. The Honda six-speed gear box was modified and the selector shaft shortened by 7.5 inches. The rear wide Atlas axle houses the latest version Trans-X LSD with a 4.6:1 diff ratio. The exhaust system features a modified 4 branch manifold and a competition twin box system running to the rear. The prop shaft, engine and gearbox mounts were totally custom fabricated. The car also boasts a DTA engine management system which can be programmed using a laptop computer, and the whole car was rewired from scratch using aircraft over braid.

Interior:
Custom cage, Escort twin pod fiberglass flocked suede dash. Corbeau Pro Series seats made with GRP and Kevlar/alloy side mounts. 6pt 3inch TRS harnesses with aircraft buckles. Plumbed in & hand held fire extinguishers. Poly carbonate bronze tinted windows with sliders fitted, and the front screen is laminated and heated. Alloy door and rear panels. Smiths Motorsport white dials featuring a 1-10000 rpm rev counter and a 0-130 mph Speedo. Electric water temp, Electric oil pressure, Fuel gauge, Shift light, and a lightweight gel battery is fitted behind the co-driver’s footrest.

It holds a current UK Motor Sports Association (MSA) log book for Rally/Hill climb/Sprint, and meets all UK motor sport and road regulations.

The vehicle has already been featured in a number of magazines. Classic Ford in the UK did a 4 page spread on the vehicle, and even included a full pull out wall poster of the car. It has also been featured in Total Impreza, and in magazines in Greece, Spain, and Australia.

Basically, the reason why I opted for this car over a regular Ford-powered Escort was because of the reliability factor. Nowadays to get any real competitive power out of an old Escort, you either have to drop big bucks for a decent BDA/BDG engine or, you struggle along with the basic 2.0L Ford Pinto lump (Anyone who boasts of really high hp figures using that lump is telling what we Brits term “pork pies”...Lies).

Alternatively, you drop in a modern power plant with all the niceties of fuel injection etc. Several power plants have been used in the past. In fact, you can slip pretty much anything under the hood of an Escort, even a Rover V8 if you’re plum crazy enough. Engines like the Vauxhall (GM) Redtop work quite well, but these are a little too heavy in my opinion. That’s why I like the Honda unit... It’s a lightweight (Alloy) engine with plenty of oomph, even in stock form, and should I wish to add a little extra zap later, Honda parts are readily available in North America, and the engine’s proven to be good for over 300hp.

But why not purchase a Subaru or Mitsubishi I hear you asking? (Oh boy, is this ever going to get me into trouble). You see, although I love the EVO and STI as road going vehicles (You only have to read my reviews on them to figure that out), in North American rallying today, they’re sort of like posteriors....Everyone’s got one!!! (Maybe I shouldn't have said that, my mailbox will be full of death threats tomorrow) :-)

Seriously though, I really did want a classic rally car, and I’ve always looked back with fondness to my former Mk1 RS2000. There’s something rather special about piloting an old RWD classic which is hard to describe, therefore I won’t even attempt it. All I will say is, is that if you ever have the opportunity to get behind the wheel of one, jump at it (Hey, and don’t even bother asking!!!).

I like to look at them this way... The Ford Escort...It’s the rally world’s true working man’s hero!

So what am I up to now?

Well, I recently purchased a couple of OMP 3 layer race suits and a Peltor Rally helmet, and I managed to scoop myself almost the entire crew gear used by Team Canada in the 2005  A1GP (What I’m going to do with that I don’t know, but boy does it look good!!!).

Now I’m just seeking a good rally trip computer and someone crazy enough to sit alongside me to operate it :-)

Naturally, like every other driver out there, I’m always on the lookout for a few additional sponsors, so all enquires of that nature would be truly welcomed (On that note, I should make it known right here and now that I am prepared to wash cars and clean houses for potential sponsors). :-)

Now you may have noticed that I did not include the actual price I paid for the car, and there’s a good reason for that. You see, my good lady wife (Fondly known as “Er Indoors”) has made it quite clear that should some unforeseen financial calamity come upon us, we will not be selling the farm and living in a tent next to the Escort. Now unless I can persuade her to change her mind on that (The idea didn’t sound that bad to me), there is the possibility that my vehicle will one day come up for sale.

Want to guess at a figure right now? Well, to make that a little easier for you, I’ve included a couple of well known rally sites. Check them out as I’m fairly certain that you’re going to be more than a little surprised.

http://www.rallycarsforsale.net  (A great site for purchasing rally cars).

You’ll find a few of them for sale on here, although you’ll have to do the conversion into Canadian dollars for yourselves as most are priced in UK pounds or Euros. You’ll find that decent Mk1 & Mk2 Escorts on there are running somewhere around the $40-100k, although if you’re really looking for a nice one, you might want to check this one out http://www.rally24.com/rally-cars-for-sale/rally-car-3060.html Not a bad deal at $133,000 can, especially considering a real hum-dinger Mk1 recently sold in Italy for a tad over $289,000 Canadian Dollars.

For those of you who were a little freaked out by the above, but would still like to get a little more involved in the Escort world, there’s actually a Face Book page dedicated to it

Ford Escort (Europe): The Ford Escort – The Most Successful Rally Car in the World http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=12151042283

Of course, you could build up one yourself. Ratty street car body shells can sometimes be picked up for as little as a couple of thousand bucks. Mind you, for that, you’ll be getting the basic car in its 30 year rusty state, you’ll then have a pile of work ahead of you. Alternatively, a slightly tired (used and abused) rally unit can often be snapped up for around $20-25k. You’ll still have a fair bit of repair work to do, and for sure, some updating, but it would be a reasonable place to start. That’s the strange thing about Escorts, the prices fluctuate like crazy. It all depends on what it is and how well the car was put together. So if any of you fancy owning a piece of rallying history one day, drop me a line, I’ll be glad to help you find something.

Well, that’s about it for now, although I may just pen a few lines more on the history of the famous rally Ford Escorts over the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned to Carkeys.

And remember ....”Fast Ford’s Rule”!!!