I liked them, and still do. I road rallied a Mk1 RS1600 in the early 80s that had lost its BDA and had a Cortina 2 litre Pinto. It belonged to my recently deceased mate who wanted to navigate and we had some good results in it. We went on to stage rally a Mk2 built from an ex-EARS Group 4 shell with a 16oo Kent engine with less success. In the 90s I owned the blue Mk1 in the earlier posting. It had a pokey 2 litre Pinto and I turned it into proper Group 4 car with a coil sprung rear axle and we did some European events. The thing about the Escorts, and I had a Vauxhall HPF2300 'Droopsnoot' rally car at one time, a BMW E30 M3 road car and a variety of other specialist track cars, was the balance. They were just so easy, and so enjoyable, to drive on low grip surfaces; so much better than the contemporary rivals. There really was nothing else so well suited to UK rallying. Much, much later, I did a little bit of work, mostly suspension set up, for another mate when he restored the ex-work Rs2000 that Roger Clark drove to win the 1974 Avon Tour of Britain. He kindly let me drive it a couple of times before he sold it for a lot of money!
Yes, it was fabulous in a much more muscular way than the Escort. I put twin 48 Dellortos on it and shortened the final drive with a Bedford CF crown wheel and pinion. Would do 99mph at 6500rpm in 5th gear, but goodness me it was quick to get there! I won't own up to what we did on the Snake Pass all those years ago; very irresponsible and I wouldn't condone it now. Somewhere I've got some old fashioned 35mm slides of it. If I find them I'll scan them and put them up.
I part owned a mk1 mexico in yellow, I dosn't matter if it's rusty, a vw , ford vauxhall,, ITS CLASSIC and there fore qualifies as being cool and worth saving, if it wasnt for us they would be traded in as part of a scrapage scheme or just scrapped, it's our duty to keep the classics alive, after all we enjoy doing it, Have a look at all the faceless modern cars that won't see 3o yrs let alone 50yrs, I for one support your cause, Any spelling and grammar mistakes are due to 1 to many navy rums on my 1 day off, long live classic cars
Cool, I’ll look forward to seeing them! Years back there was a burgundy droopsnoot sat rotting away on drive near the crossroads at Cromford, don’t know what happened to it. Bit closer to my parents, an Ambergate lad had a Chevette HSR 2.3 t/c, was absolutely mint but he trashed it through a wall near Belper
I love the mk1 and mk2 escorts. Cracking cars and I’m really looking forward to seeing this one being saved.
Don't forget, years ago you couldn't find a buyer for a e type jag, now regarded one one the best looking cars ever.
Looking forward to seeing more of this. A friend of mine has a mk2 rally escort. Snetterton last year, he’s not managed to rally it much this year. Might have some other photos if anyone wants to see. Iirc he’s had this car for 20-30 years. He had it, kids came along and now there old enough (late teens early twenties) he can afford to play again. Some sort of Vauxhall engine, twin cam I think and just recently a sequential gearbox.
a friend of mine used to restore E types, 1 a year made him a very nice living, then the bottom dropped out of the market , he had £50k in a part built car , it was more to te-trim the seats and roof than the car was worth, they’ve crept up over the last 25-30 years but nothing like when E type mania was in full swing
A mate of mine never owned one, but another mate had one of them campers with the spilt windscreen, worth a fortune them!
What are the differences between a Mexico and a Rs2000 on the Mk1 - is it engine size? I seem to remember they have AVO seam welded shells on the Mexico's - assume the RS2000's have that too?
