for your Sunday afternoon pleasure, The 1976 Lombard Esso...

[v8250]

Haven't seen this for a long time, there's something here for everyone Fords, Opels, TR7, Datsun, Granada service barges and even flying Dolomites [BV72!], all the usual cockpit culprits and rare footage of the lovely Jill Robinson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79WL91RLTpk

[andym1603]

Thanks for posting this. A good watch, like how you could just borrow a diff from a spectators car mid rally.

[Mr Tidy]

Thanks for that OP - fantastic footage!

That all took place about a fortnight before I passed my driving test, so I remember the era well.

Whatever happened to all those light, nimble RWD cars? Wish someone made something like that now, especially with that sort of sound - had forgotten how good a properly sorted 4 cylinder engine could sound.

Brilliant!

[v8250]

Mr Tidy said:

Whatever happened to all those light, nimble RWD cars?

We can thank today's marketing people and green behind the ears junior engineers who have little idea as to making simple, light, powerful cars...instead they insist on packing their car designs [they call them client products] to the gunwales with unecessary weight laden computer driven guff and apps. The kind of unecessary tosh that constantly breaks down and has turned sensible cars in to over weight, over sized, under steering blobs of blandness...

[truck71]

v8250 said:

We can thank today's marketing people and green behind the ears junior engineers who have little idea as to making simple, light, powerful cars...instead they insist on packing their car designs [they call them client products] to the gunwales with unecessary weight laden computer driven guff and apps. The kind of unecessary tosh that constantly breaks down and has turned sensible cars in to over weight, over sized, under steering blobs of blandness...

40 years of legislative change may have had a bearing too...

[john7]

"The rear axle is held in place with a farmers chain"!!!

[john2443]

andym1603 said:

Thanks for posting this. A good watch, like how you could just borrow a diff from a spectators car mid rally.

"book it in to the main dealer down the road and get them to send the bill to me, I'll give you my card..."

[gdaybruce]

I loved the way that Ari Vatanen mucked in to get the diff changed, getting thoroughly oily in the process. No prima donnas in rallying (at least, not back then)!

[Sardonicus]

Must of been fun with no LSD fitted

[V8 Fettler]

There are still many events in the UK where RWD Escorts put up a good show. The only 4 cylinder engines with a decent exhaust note are made by Ford. BDA, approaching, in the forest, at night.

[coppice]

Quite so- often see these threads saying "oh woe , can't see cars like this now" when, in fact, you can . All you need to do is to attend a typical club rally and there are plenty of Escorts still going strong , still making that amazing noise and some driven quite superbly. A rally I saw earlier in 2015 had an Escort in top 5 beating hordes of Imprezas and Evos .

If you live in the North hop over to Croft on 27 December for Christmas Stages .

[supertouring]

There was an exact replica? Of the Chrysler Avenger at Oulton on saturday.

Rare to see such cars in the flash outside of a museum these days.