Box-fresh Ford Escort rally car for sale
703-mile Group N Escort is the closest thing you'll get to a brand-new '90s rally car
Seems like everyone’s having a crack at ‘reimagined’ Fords at the moment. MST has been bringing early Escorts into the 21st century for a few years now, recently unveiling its bonkers RS2000-based Evo-X at our Annual Service back in August. That same month, newcomer Vision 148 took the wraps off its Carbon Piranha, an almost cyberpunk take on the Sierra RS Cosworth, and as of last week, Boreham Motorworks has joined the party (or should that be fiesta?) with a 10,000rpm Escort Mk1 RS.
What’s particularly interesting about the Boreham car (aside from the way it looks, screaming four-pot and 800kg kerbweight) is that it’s been given the seal of approval from Ford itself. Not only does this mean its cars can wear the Blue Oval and get their own Ford chassis numbers, it also opens up a treasure trove of potential restomods. Boreham’s already working on a reimagined version of the RS200 Group B car, but what comes after that is anyone’s guess. If it keeps the rally theme going, then perhaps it’ll be a reworking of the Escort RS Cosworth - a bit like the car you see here.
Okay, so the Mk5 Escort isn’t nearly as pretty as the original, nor does it have the single-mindedness of the RS200, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t ripe for a Boreham-style revamping. While not an especially successful rally car in period, taking just a handful of WRC wins, its mere presence in one of rallying’s golden eras has cemented it as one of the great homologation heroes. Of course, it helped that you could go to your local Ford dealer and pick up an RS Cosworth that looked almost identical to the one being driven by Carlos Sainz and Juha Kankkunen, from the flared wheel arches to the ginormous boot spoiler.
However, the car we have here is neither a road-going RS Cosworth nor one of the original WRC machines. Instead, it's a Group N car, meaning it’s mechanically similar to the road-going RS Cosworth, albeit with a stripped-out interior, chunky rally tyres, a roll cage and strengthened suspension mounts. This example, however, has been upgraded to ‘Group N+’ spec, as it benefits from uprated engine components, including racier camshafts, and is now delivering north of 300hp - putting it on par with full-blown WRC machines of the era.
Normally, you’d think an old Group N car would make a fine basis for a restomod build, but you might want to think twice about mucking about with this one. See, once it’d been received by its original owner, a Jakarta-based rally enthusiast, in the early '90s, this Escort competed in just a few stages before being parked up in the back of sizeable collection and remained there untouched for many years. It was then shipped off to Australia, where it again sat dormant, before returning to the UK last year, as you may have seen on an episode of The Late Brake Show.
Since then, it's been given a thorough (and pricey) restoration to get it back into working order, and arguably looks better now than it would have done back in period. Staggeringly, it’s covered just 703 miles, and is somewhat of a legend in rally circles as no one knew of the mythical delivery-mile Escort’s whereabouts until recently. As such, it packs a punchy price tag at £150,000, which is admittedly a good deal cheaper than a full-blown WRC car but still a significant leap over an RS Cosworth, though this 408-mile example comes mighty close. Then there’s the conundrum of what you do with it: keep it as the fabled box-fresh Escort, or set it free in a historic rally series of your choosing? We’ll let you decide on that one.
At £150k I think its reasonable in comparison to a road going Escort Cossie, and a bargain next to the £360k Boreham Works Escort from earlier in the week.
At £150k I think its reasonable in comparison to a road going Escort Cossie, and a bargain next to the £360k Boreham Works Escort from earlier in the week.
Obviously it's very unlikely that this car will ever be used for competition, but it would be eligible for the European Historic Rally Championship as of next year, as it's being opened up for cars up to 1999. It would certainly be a fun way to do the championship, though obviously not on the same level as the full Group A cars.
The only other thing I would take issue with is the suggestion that the Escort Cosworth was not a successful rally car. Eight rally wins doesn't sound like a lot, but I think the Impreza 555 only scored 10/11, so the Escort wasn't massively far behind. They arguably should have won the title with François Delecour in 1994, but he had his infamous Ferrari F40 accident so missed a chunk of the season. By 1995 it was perhaps getting a bit long in the tooth, and it suffered more than some others when the size of the restrictor was reduced, but the the bigger problem in 1995 was that Ford farmed the running of the cars out to RAS Sport, instead of running it themselves. The WRC version of the Escort won a couple of rallies in 1997, against the mighty Impreza WRC and Evo IV/V, which was pretty impressive given how out-dated the platform was by that point.
Perhaps more importantly, while Ford didn't win the world championship with the Escort Cosworth, it won pretty much every regional championship there was to win. Patrick Snijers and Malcolm Wilson won the European and British championships respectively in '94, I think Escorts won the French and Italian championships three times on the bounce in the mid-90s, Frank Meagher won the Irish Tarmac Championship in '95 in one, it won the Middle East Championship a few times too.
I have an old Ford dealer poster somewhere suggesting it won something like 30 championships so, while it might have under-achieved in the WRC, to suggest that it was "not an especially successful rally car in period" is doing it a massive disservice, especially given the level of interest in national and regional championships during that era.
Makes this, the winningest ex Gwyndaf Evans Gp N Sierra 3 door, look like an incredible steal - https://www.iconicauctioneers.com/1985-ford-sierra...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QafxgoXKFmk
I actually would prefer it plain rather than liveried but I guess it would be easily reversable.
Makes this, the winningest ex Gwyndaf Evans Gp N Sierra 3 door, look like an incredible steal - https://www.iconicauctioneers.com/1985-ford-sierra...
At £150k I think its reasonable in comparison to a road going Escort Cossie, and a bargain next to the £360k Boreham Works Escort from earlier in the week.
Car bought.
Car sits around.
Car is for sale.
Not the action I'm looking for.
I remembered that 3 door from watching the BRC on TV as a youngling.
Less than 1/3rd of the price and a competition history that nothing similar can replicate.
Not really sure what's going on there as it sold for less than some middling road cars.
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