Bought in early '96 for £850 (try doing that nowadays) this was my first dedicated rally car. It had just been 're-done' as a Mexico and the bodywork was mint. Also included were fishnet Recaros, Full Safety Devices Cage, World Cup Crossmember, 2.0 Pinto, and 5 speed Sierra Gearbox, Capri struts etc.
Eddie and I put it to immediate use on the ANCC Road Rally Championship. Even back then in pretty standard form (1100 back axle etc) it was great fun to drive competitively. That year we did the The Ridings, St Wilfs, Rally of the Dams (1st Ford award), Danum (2nd o/a), and then to top up off the season we blew the engine up on the way to the Seven Dales (broken dashboard voltage regulator, followed by split hose on the same journey - what about that for bad luck..).
For 1997 we had a go at the London Counties championship, however this was when the lack of prep started to show. Alnite (clutch failed on start line), Kent (couldn't do the nav), Northern Lights (1st o/a), Morning Mist (leaf spring broke), Poxihen (diff blew), Auto Windscreens (burst 3 tyres, then suspension failed), Drystone (diff blew again), Danum (1st o/a), Preston (Caliper fell off), Beaver Interassociation (6th o/a). What a season!
By now the car was getting a bit more developed, stage prepared, pedal box, all steel diff 5.1 LSD braced disc'd axle, twincam roll bar, anti-dive, tramp bars, battery in boot, firewalled, adjustable caster, central fuel tank etc. I did the Wethersfield Stages in it (3rd in class - 1st ever stage rally) twice, and also the Robin Hood Stages (argument with gatepost).
It never did manage to finish the Preston Rally despite 4 attempts, but did have a lot of fastest times to its credit! I embarked on building a decent engine for it and had a fully built up full race head sorted out to make it more stage competitive, but then the 205 challenge then appeared on the scene and I started to concentrate on that as a means to being competitive without a huge budget.
Due to lack of space, I made the drastic mistake of selling this car in late 2001 just before the prices went beserk - it would be worth 5 x what I sold it for now, but I only had a single garage and 3 x 205s....
Found it! - 20th June 2009
It looks like my old Escort followed me from Essex to Wales. It now lives between Monmouth and Abergavenny! It was sold onto a local girl by the guy I sold it to in Essex. She had it painted red and fitted the arches, and then it was bought by Richard Higgs who's been rallying it since. There's a bit more information at the Dep-O Website.
Its now been fitted with perspex windows, a nice alloy tank (rather than the Fiat 131 tank that I had) and a few other small bits and pieces. Was great to see it still going and whats more the engine, box and axle haven't even been apart in the last 8 years - so I must have just got it nicely reliable before I sold it as well!
Was nice to see it again though.
Ford Escort Mk2 1100 Base (NOT!) - ONV266P
