Ultra rare mk 1 Escort at upcoming auction

[RsToy]

RsToy said:

I must of bought it of the guy that You sold it to ? Maybe in 1985/6 , loved the Rs

Edited by RsToy on Friday 9th October 20:40

[wal 45]

aeropilot said:

I doubt it was sitting in the showroom like that, as a Vista Orange Mexico would have left the factory with black stripes and white vinyl roof wasn't an option at all, and if you ticked the vinyl roof option they didn't fit the stripes, and the car came with the triple pinstripes.
More like the car was a base pinstripe car the first owner added the white roof and white pinstripes to it?

That's where this thread has been great with info like that, I didn't know there were certain permutations you absolutely couldn't have from the factory. The car would have been about 9 years old by then so yes anything was possible. I was never an expert on the Mk 1's, I thought the only combination you couldn't have was Mexico wing and boot badges with the Mexico stripes (my friend had the correct 1600GT badges).

Unfortunately the car is long gone now as it was written off in the mid to late 90's in a non fault accident, real shame as I genuinely didn't see a better one condition wise (apart from the RSOC concours cars).

Slightly off topic before I had my RS2 I had a T reg black 1600 Sport with silver stripes (with black vinyl roof), until recently (and a PH thread) I didn't realise how close to unobtanium they were.

Please keep the info coming, nice to bring back some good memories about the old Escort (and Lotus Sunbeam) days

[aeropilot]

wal 45 said:

aeropilot said:

I doubt it was sitting in the showroom like that, as a Vista Orange Mexico would have left the factory with black stripes and white vinyl roof wasn't an option at all, and if you ticked the vinyl roof option they didn't fit the stripes, and the car came with the triple pinstripes.
More like the car was a base pinstripe car the first owner added the white roof and white pinstripes to it?

That's where this thread has been great with info like that, I didn't know there were certain permutations you absolutely couldn't have from the factory. The car would have been about 9 years old by then so yes anything was possible. I was never an expert on the Mk 1's, I thought the only combination you couldn't have was Mexico wing and boot badges with the Mexico stripes (my friend had the correct 1600GT badges).

Base cars were fitted with the stripes, and 1600GT badges as a default.
You could tick the box for the stripes to be deleted when ordering, in which case the pinstripes were added and the wing badges said Mexico. Again, tick the vinyl roof option (or the Custom Pack), and the stripes were deleted.
Stripes were never fitted by default to Black, Tawny or Copper Bronze cars. The white stipes were dropped when the colours were changed over in 72/73 (Sunset Red and Electric/Monza Blue being the only two colours that white stripes were fitted to)

Edited by aeropilot on Friday 9th October 19:48

[Ken P]

wal 45 said:

Slightly off topic before I had my RS2 I had a T reg black 1600 Sport with silver stripes (with black vinyl roof), until recently (and a PH thread) I didn't realise how close to unobtanium they were.

I had a T reg black 1600 Sport with silver stripes in the early 90's - didn't have a vinyl roof though (although the P reg Yellow 1600 Sport I had in the 80's did have).

Edited by Ken P on Friday 9th October 22:56

[s m]

Ken P said:

I had a T reg black 1600 Sport with silver stripes in the early 90's - didn't have a vinyl roof though (although the P reg Yellow 1600 Sport I had in the 80's did have).

Edited by Ken P on Friday 9th October 22:56

One of my friend’s had a late Sport in Midnight Blue before he got an RS2000 - great to see the old pics by the way

[neutral 3]

[200Plus Club]

84bhp from 1600cc and couldn't hit 100mph!
Today's youth don't know they are born with their 3 pot whizz bang fiestas and remapped Audis!
:-)

[s m]

200Plus Club said:

84bhp from 1600cc and couldn't hit 100mph!
Today's youth don't know they are born with their 3 pot whizz bang fiestas and remapped Audis!
:-)

True - it did just about manage 3 figures taking into effect the banking

But then if you look at the sporty comparators, there were 1.9 litre cars that couldn’t do any better!

This was the ‘warm’ layer of stuff rather than the hot toppers though

I had a 1300 Mk2 that I got as a stopgap after my RS2000 was written off in a head on ( not my fault luckily so was able to continue with sporty stuff )
Bought a 1600 xflow to rebuild and put in it - in the end it was quite a good car for the lanes - fast acceleration, a bit juicy......but you wouldn’t have wanted to do 3 figures in it anyway!

[200Plus Club]

s m said:

200Plus Club said:

84bhp from 1600cc and couldn't hit 100mph!
Today's youth don't know they are born with their 3 pot whizz bang fiestas and remapped Audis!
:-)

True - it did just about manage 3 figures taking into effect the banking

But then if you look at the sporty comparators, there were 1.9 litre cars that couldn’t do any better!

This was the ‘warm’ layer of stuff rather than the hot toppers though

I had a 1300 Mk2 that I got as a stopgap after my RS2000 was written off in a head on ( not my fault luckily so was able to continue with sporty stuff )
Bought a 1600 xflow to rebuild and put in it - in the end it was quite a good car for the lanes - fast acceleration, a bit juicy......but you wouldn’t have wanted to do 3 figures in it anyway!

Most of my formative years were misspent in either 1300 or 1600cc mk2s hurtling down country lanes and at the time you felt it was more than enough speed given the brakes and handling of the time lol. A colleague even had the "sporty" Allegro which to be fair was nothing of the sort.
One of the big draws of the Mk2 as a youth was the fact you could tweak the engines or drop a 2 litre in on your drive in a weekend with mates and no one would be the wiser without having the bonnet up.
Happy days and part of the attraction still for me of a properly sorted tarmac rally spec mk2

[Tyre Smoke]

Mate of mine had a rare 4 door sport in orange. Can't have been many of them made?

Did look a bit odd.

[Ken P]

Tyre Smoke said:

Mate of mine had a rare 4 door sport in orange. Can't have been many of them made?

Did look a bit odd.

From memory I think the 4 door Sports (and 2 door Ghias) were only made for the first year (75-76).

[Tyre Smoke]

I think that would be right. His was on a 'P'.

[s m]

Tyre Smoke said:

Mate of mine had a rare 4 door sport in orange. Can't have been many of them made?

Did look a bit odd.

Could you only get the 4-door in Mk2 Sport flavour as a 1600?

[s m]

200Plus Club said:

s m said:

200Plus Club said:

84bhp from 1600cc and couldn't hit 100mph!
Today's youth don't know they are born with their 3 pot whizz bang fiestas and remapped Audis!
:-)

True - it did just about manage 3 figures taking into effect the banking

But then if you look at the sporty comparators, there were 1.9 litre cars that couldn’t do any better!

This was the ‘warm’ layer of stuff rather than the hot toppers though

I had a 1300 Mk2 that I got as a stopgap after my RS2000 was written off in a head on ( not my fault luckily so was able to continue with sporty stuff )
Bought a 1600 xflow to rebuild and put in it - in the end it was quite a good car for the lanes - fast acceleration, a bit juicy......but you wouldn’t have wanted to do 3 figures in it anyway!

Most of my formative years were misspent in either 1300 or 1600cc mk2s hurtling down country lanes and at the time you felt it was more than enough speed given the brakes and handling of the time lol. A colleague even had the "sporty" Allegro which to be fair was nothing of the sort.
One of the big draws of the Mk2 as a youth was the fact you could tweak the engines or drop a 2 litre in on your drive in a weekend with mates and no one would be the wiser without having the bonnet up.
Happy days and part of the attraction still for me of a properly sorted tarmac rally spec mk2

Very much so, you could never really look at a sporty Escort and know for sure what power it might be running

I liked the Mk1 1300 GTs as they were pretty punchy for a simple little engine. Obviously the light weight helped but they weren’t far off a Mk2 1600 Sport and you could throw them into bends. Such good fun as they weren’t overtyred
All stood you in good stead for double the power in a RS or hotted up Mexico/Harrier

[aeropilot]

s m said:

Tyre Smoke said:

Mate of mine had a rare 4 door sport in orange. Can't have been many of them made?

Did look a bit odd.

Could you only get the 4-door in Mk2 Sport flavour as a 1600?

They certainly offered a 4 door 1300 Sport in Europe (as well as a 4-door 1600) right through to 1980, can't remember about the UK.....probably as already said, they did early on for pre-77 and only the 2 door after that.

[s m]

aeropilot said:

s m said:

Tyre Smoke said:

Mate of mine had a rare 4 door sport in orange. Can't have been many of them made?

Did look a bit odd.

Could you only get the 4-door in Mk2 Sport flavour as a 1600?

They certainly offered a 4 door 1300 Sport in Europe (as well as a 4-door 1600) right through to 1980, can't remember about the UK.....probably as already said, they did early on for pre-77 and only the 2 door after that.

You’re probably right - I know they did the 1600 as a Mordor for a limited period but Ford are masters at doing the ‘only available for 2 months run’ to use up shells/engines etc

Here’s an old mag from the mid-80s with what people were doing with their cars anyway.

Thought it was interesting after the ‘Minder/Sweeney’ Ford discussion on the recent other thread as there is some info on the Minder Escort ( in the opening credits where it sits in the background )

[1602Mark]

s m said:

Mark A S said:

Yes, when the Lotus Sunbeams came out, they were a fair bit faster than a standard RS Escort, indeed with a bit of head work plus cams, 200 bhp from a LS was a VERY nice upgrade, much more road friendly than a 200 bhp pinto! As you correctly said, not many modded the BD's for road use due to the expense.
Having had a couple of LS, one standard, one modded i always thought the Escorts handled better with a much better balance.

Never got to drive the Lotus Sunbeam in standard or modded form but passengered in it a fair bit
So much quicker than the ti.

Even now the performance shows up a modern day 200bhp sporty car like the GT86 and its ‘skinny tyres’
Lotus managed better acceleration on 185s





Certainly gives an idea of how quick an Escort might have been with145/150bhp. We did notice as soon as we’d got our Escorts up to that performance he moved the goalposts by upping his Lotus to near 190/200bhp!

Much as I like the E21 that's quite a premium over the competition. Mind you, I always think of the 2002 being much more 'Escort' in the way they drive. I think the front suspension and the way the ARB locates is part of the reason they don't feel very nice on the limit? Not forgetting the shimmy they were dogged with. My old track E21 was pretty well sorted but I don't think it was as quick, or as nice to drive, as an equally well sorted Escort. Even when I finally persuaded Kyle Clinton to fabricate quick-racks for the woefully slow steering! It was a vast improvement over stock 4 turns between locks though.

[Mark A S]

Ken P said:

I had a T reg black 1600 Sport with silver stripes in the early 90's - didn't have a vinyl roof though (although the P reg Yellow 1600 Sport I had in the 80's did have).

Edited by Ken P on Friday 9th October 22:56

Goodwood, in the good old days, gravel paddock, no under cover areas, people are spoilt these days going there for some track use
Mind you, the original track surface was a fair bit grippier when wet as it is now!

[Ken P]

Mark A S said:

Goodwood, in the good old days, gravel paddock, no under cover areas, people are spoilt these days going there for some track use
Mind you, the original track surface was a fair bit grippier when wet as it is now!

Yep, Goodwood pre-Revival. did my first SV there in the early 90's in the Silver Mex.

I guess it's good what they've done now, restored to a flavour of what it was like in order to run the Revival, but I preferred it as it was.

Edited by Ken P on Sunday 11th October 13:39

[1602Mark]

Quick aside, were RS2000 MK2 available as flat front from the factory, or did they all have the nosecone fitted?