Ultra rare mk 1 Escort at upcoming auction

[Touring442]

lowdrag said:

I have to admit that it was, of all the BMW's I had, my favourite in the day.

That was the early one with the 9.75 compression engine. They really were 171 bhp - a really fit one would nudge 180 on four star. Later ones (Tech II) from 1988 lost the Bilstein dampers and because the engine had less power due to lower CR and the ECU set up for catalyst prep, BMW dropped the gearing from 3.64 to 3.91 that I felt spoiled it a bit. They all had LSD's though and the closer ratio box, actually 320i ratios but in the beefier 325i 'box.

I had a 1987 D plate one in Dolphin grey

These are deservedly a classic.

[1602Mark]

Touring442 said:

lowdrag said:

I have to admit that it was, of all the BMW's I had, my favourite in the day.

That was the early one with the 9.75 compression engine. They really were 171 bhp - a really fit one would nudge 180 on four star. Later ones (Tech II) from 1988 lost the Bilstein dampers and because the engine had less power due to lower CR and the ECU set up for catalyst prep, BMW dropped the gearing from 3.64 to 3.91 that I felt spoiled it a bit. They all had LSD's though and the closer ratio box, actually 320i ratios but in the beefier 325i 'box.

I had a 1987 D plate one in Dolphin grey

These are deservedly a classic.

A bit of 21st century love can give you something like this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oIKKBhj9gM&t=...

It sounds glorious.

[Zener]

aeropilot said:

1602Mark said:

Proof of just how slow those twin cam Escorts are.

https://youtu.be/catZDDtJLKY

As Marks says, not a Twin Cam, its a RS1600 with a BDA not a Lotus TC.

Superior engine over the old chain driven Lotus/Cortina TC IMO

[aeropilot]

Zener said:

aeropilot said:

1602Mark said:

Proof of just how slow those twin cam Escorts are.

https://youtu.be/catZDDtJLKY

As Marks says, not a Twin Cam, its a RS1600 with a BDA not a Lotus TC.

Superior engine over the old chain driven Lotus/Cortina TC IMO

Of course it is......its half a DFV in effect.

But, that superiority comes at a cost over the old TC, although the gap is perhaps a bit closer today with the cost of a new TC head casting.......even so, BDA rebuild costs are not for the faint of heart.

Still love the old TC though, and with a steel bottom end, big valves and a set of QED 420 cams they had a naughty and distinctive intake roar when 'on it'

[Mark A S]

aeropilot said:

Of course it is......its half a DFV in effect.

Glad you said that, i remember discussing this whilst watching a chap work on his DFV engined Hillclimb car, when i mentioned that a BD was in effect half a DFV, the owner got quite incredulous with me,,,,,,,,,,,,, I believe the Cylinder heads are VERY similar ?

[s m]

aeropilot said:

You just had a fked Twink (and many were by then)... as my P-plate Cortina Mk.3 GT 2.0 wasn't even quicker than my Mexico, let alone quicker than any of the 3 x 1974 RS2000's I owned (or the Twin Cam)
And a Mk1 RS2000 definately didn't have enough power to pop a halfshaft unless it had a lot of engine mods (it only 2 bhp more than the Cortina GT 2.0)
Anyway, RS Escort's were not for going fast in straight lines, they were for going sideways in

As they mentioned in the original road tests!

[wilksy61]

This lovely all steel fuel injected 1700cc BDA used to live in my Westfield, 202bhp

[Flying Phil]

Mark A S said:

aeropilot said:

Of course it is......its half a DFV in effect.

Glad you said that, i remember discussing this whilst watching a chap work on his DFV engined Hillclimb car, when i mentioned that a BD was in effect half a DFV, the owner got quite incredulous with me,,,,,,,,,,,,, I believe the Cylinder heads are VERY similar ?

I thought that the original BDA stood for Belt Driven Anglia and was a four valve head developed by Costin/Duckworth (Cosworth) they then were given the money from Ford to make the 3 litre F1 engine DFV Double Four Valve .....four valve head from the BDA.

[littleredrooster]

Flying Phil said:

I thought that the original BDA stood for Belt Driven Anglia and was a four valve head developed by Costin/Duckworth (Cosworth) they then were given the money from Ford to make the 3 litre F1 engine DFV Double Four Valve .....four valve head from the BDA.

I think the DFV preceded the BDA by quite a while, didn't it?

I always understood it stood for Belt-Driven 'A' Series (i.e. first of the line, later followed by BDG, BDX etc.) or possibly - according to a friend of mine - Belt-Driven Atlantic.

[aeropilot]

Flying Phil said:

I thought that the original BDA stood for Belt Driven Anglia and was a four valve head developed by Costin/Duckworth (Cosworth) they then were given the money from Ford to make the 3 litre F1 engine DFV Double Four Valve .....four valve head from the BDA.

Nope.

For a start BDA stood for Belt Drive Type A, and nothing to do with the Anglia.

Secondly, the money from Ford in 65 was for two engines, one for F1, the DFV (Double Four Valve) and one for F2, which was the FVA (Four Valve Type A) which was based on the Cortina crossflow block with gear driven DOHC.

The later BDA (1969) was effectively the love child of the DFV and FVA with Cosworth's Mike Hall using design elements of both engines to create the BDA which used belt drive for the cams, and a head design almost identical to the DFV.

[aeropilot]

wilksy61 said:

This lovely all steel fuel injected 1700cc BDA used to live in my Westfield, 202bhp

[NewUsername]

DKP, you lucky bugger. 😁

[Touring442]

s m said:

As they mentioned in the original road tests!

Press cars had chrome 1600E RoStyle wheels that didn't suit it at all. The oblong headlights were reserved for the 'better' Escorts such as the Super, TC, 1300GT and later on the 1300E. They were were utterly useless which is why all the AVO cars had the circular lamps, as did the TC after @mid 1969.

The BDA was earmarked for the Mark 1 Capri and early press material made light of this. Building them to the required standard en masse was beyond Ford and other mass producers at the time - witness the Dolomite Sprint engine. Fine when carefully hand built, rubbish when not.

Toyota made the first proper, reliable twin cam engine with the Celica GT.

Ford however made the first production 16 valve engined road car no matter how much Dolly Sprint owners protest. Second was the 1972 Jensen Healey, third was the Dolomite in '73.

[Zener]

Touring442 said:

s m said:

As they mentioned in the original road tests!

Press cars had chrome 1600E RoStyle wheels that didn't suit it at all. The oblong headlights were reserved for the 'better' Escorts such as the Super, TC, 1300GT and later on the 1300E. They were were utterly useless which is why all the AVO cars had the circular lamps, as did the TC after @mid 1969.

The BDA was earmarked for the Mark 1 Capri and early press material made light of this. Building them to the required standard en masse was beyond Ford and other mass producers at the time - witness the Dolomite Sprint engine. Fine when carefully hand built, rubbish when not.

Toyota made the first proper, reliable twin cam engine with the Celica GT.

Ford however made the first production 16 valve engined road car no matter how much Dolly Sprint owners protest. Second was the 1972 Jensen Healey, third was the Dolomite in '73.

That BDA MK1 Capri IIRC was called a Red ****** something to do with a type of bird but dont quote me on that , Corolla GT Coupe RWD these were a piece of kit back in the day the TC motor was a gem they even beat Honda to it , on the correct 84 release year alloys too, and more fun than the FWD version

[Lily the Pink]

Touring442 said:

Ford however made the first production 16 valve engined road car no matter how much Dolly Sprint owners protest. Second was the 1972 Jensen Healey, third was the Dolomite in '73.

I don't imagine that Jensen would ever want to have claimed to have made that Lotus engine.

[wilksy61]

So the pictures below are of the top end of my (ex) BDA, the head had been skimmed and the inlet tracks bored true, all this lovely lot then was put together and mapped by Weber themselves at Aldon Automotive - I think it was the first BDA on there new Alpha throttle bodies which was why they mapped it themselves.

[aeropilot]

Touring442 said:

s m said:

As they mentioned in the original road tests!

Press cars had chrome 1600E RoStyle wheels that didn't suit it at all.

There was a reason for those rostyle wheels though.......see my earlier post about the FIA homolgation inspection at Boreham for the Twin Cam

[Mark A S]

wilksy61 said:

So the pictures below are of the top end of my (ex) BDA, the head had been skimmed and the inlet tracks bored true, all this lovely lot then was put together and mapped by Weber themselves at Aldon Automotive - I think it was the first BDA on there new Alpha throttle bodies which was why they mapped it themselves.

Lovely

Sat behind a few BD’s over the years, is there a better sounding 4 cyl engine!

First was a standard RS1600, nice, went ok [ better than the standard pinto ], quite smooth, great noise.

2nd [ in DKP ] 2.0 BDG on Lucas 8mm fuel injection, reputedly 255 bhp [ I doubt that though ] Horrible on the road, no part throttle facility, was great when giving it some though, sod all torque [which is why the Gp4 Escorts were so good on gravel, just enough torque not to overcome traction too much] peak power at 9250, revved to 10. Fabulous once over 6500, crisp and Very throttle responsive, not really a gravel spec.

3rd Turbocharged BDX, once semi sorted on blow through Dellortoes gave over 400 bhp, again though it was splutter splutter Bang bang up to 5500 then Wallop went like hell, again to 10000.

4th 2.0 BDG, on carbs, this BD was crap, the builder was not up to scratch.

5th 2.2 Irish built BDX again on Lucas 8mm injection, Stonking engine, good torque too, easily the best N/A BD I was fortunate enough to sit behind.

[aeropilot]

Mark A S said:

Sat behind a few BD’s over the years, is there a better sounding 4 cyl engine!

Nope.

Even better when its own its own in a forest and has that wonderful BD echo.....

Like this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf_NH8yoCgY

[wilksy61]

And in all its glory, the first Sprint I did at Lyddon Hill the first exhaust manifold tube didn't quite fit properly and that certainly popped and banged its way around - still one the class though.

I subsequently had a proper manifold built by Nick Paravani which was somewhat better and a Roy Lane box.