Ford Escort RS2000 MK2 - an honest ad?
Discussion
What a refreshingly honest sounding ad for once. In a sea of ads today for a "barn find" this and "genuine patina" that, this ad caught my eye as a no nonsense breath of fresh air. I'm not in the market for one myself, but if I were I'd be more of a Dolly Sprint kinda guy.
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1072578
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1072578
Signal orange ( from memory )
Miss my S reg 78 Venetian red one, sold it in 2010 to a waster from France, for £5,500, who had me over by turning up with bloody Euros, hey ho.
A good pal bought one of the very last RS2 in Venetian red on a W plate ( KMH 432W from memory ) in late 1980 from Gates of Woodford. We used to hoon about Essex and east London together , me in my first 3 Litre Capri.
His RS came on Pirreli CN36s and they were awful in the wet and not good in the dry.
Miss my S reg 78 Venetian red one, sold it in 2010 to a waster from France, for £5,500, who had me over by turning up with bloody Euros, hey ho.
A good pal bought one of the very last RS2 in Venetian red on a W plate ( KMH 432W from memory ) in late 1980 from Gates of Woodford. We used to hoon about Essex and east London together , me in my first 3 Litre Capri.
His RS came on Pirreli CN36s and they were awful in the wet and not good in the dry.
Nice straight forward ad and looks lovely in orange, Capri 3.0S looked fab in that colour, don't remember seeing many (any?) Rs2000 in that colour at the time.
We had a Y registered RS 2000 which had come into the UK from Belgium and was somehow given an 82 - Y reg.
It was in that horrible terracotta colour and we resprayed it signal red.
Once we re-did all the black sections round the doors/window frames/rear reg plate panel - it looked fantastic when done.
I think we paid £1,000 for it (this was late 80's and people wanted hot hatches, at that time an XR2/Xr3/Astra GTE was way more exciting than an RS2000 mk2 - funny how times change.
We had a Y registered RS 2000 which had come into the UK from Belgium and was somehow given an 82 - Y reg.
It was in that horrible terracotta colour and we resprayed it signal red.
Once we re-did all the black sections round the doors/window frames/rear reg plate panel - it looked fantastic when done.
I think we paid £1,000 for it (this was late 80's and people wanted hot hatches, at that time an XR2/Xr3/Astra GTE was way more exciting than an RS2000 mk2 - funny how times change.
Or was that 3.0Litre S / RS2 colour called signal amber ?
I lived / breathed 3 Litre Capris in the 70s and 80s, but don't recall ever seeing a MK3 3 Litre S in that Orange / Amber, it was a scarce colour.
My 3.0 Litre S Capris were Venetian red T reg, Velvet metallic red S reg and the last one was Oyster Gold T reg.
I lived / breathed 3 Litre Capris in the 70s and 80s, but don't recall ever seeing a MK3 3 Litre S in that Orange / Amber, it was a scarce colour.
My 3.0 Litre S Capris were Venetian red T reg, Velvet metallic red S reg and the last one was Oyster Gold T reg.
Brads67 said:
aeropilot said:
Surely being that late build, it should have the dark chocolate interior, not black....?
SA market maybe different no ?Looking through the other adverts on their site, they're very upfront about stating if cars have been imported from South Africa (I suspect, to indicate that the cars have come from a warm, dry climate and so are therefore less likely to be rusty* )
In the case of the orange RS 2000, there's no mention of South Africa in the advert, which would lead me to suspect that it was a UK market car (looking at the honesty of their adverts, I'm sure they would confirm which market the car came from if asked).
If the standard interior was dark chocolate, could this car have been a special order?
(* NOTE: This is not to cast aspersions on the seller - This is just for general information: When people think of South Africa, they automatically think it's all a dry, hot climate, reducing the possibility of corrosion in cars to practically zero. However, not all of South Africa is the same. I used to work with a guy who came from Durban, and he said that one of the biggest problems with cars there was severe corrosion due to being on the coast, and the general climate. Basically, a car originating from South Africa should not automatically be taken to mean that the car is guaranteed to be corrosion free)
4rephill said:
If the standard interior was dark chocolate, could this car have been a special order?
Very few Mk2's were 'special order'..... IIRC, there was no 'special order' available with the Mk2, well not unless you worked for Ford or had serious VIP credentials with Ford.P7 was the trim code for chocolate, but I can't remember when black interior ended? I can remember that there was a choice of chocolate or beige in the last 12 months or maybe less of the production, but pretty sure black wasn't for the end of production?
You have to be very careful buying a Escort from SA
My MK2 1600 sport that was supposed to be a running driving car only to find out it had been "South-African Ified"
Carbs were scrap
Heater matrix leaked (when re-connected up)
Seats were welded to the seat tracks!
Track rod end lock nuts and TCA arm bolts were all loose
Servo booster was split
The fresh paint job has bubbled and cracked
The floors that you thought looked original had fiberglass in them.
The flywheel coming loose.
All of the above is why it has sat on axle stands for the last 2 year as I don’t have time for another project car! I paid top market for it at the time.
Do I blame the seller ? not really no all the bodges were hidden quite well, like I said they all look good but then have been made to look that way in SA before them come over here. By all accounts they had a hard life as they would have in the UK but without the rust, well mostly.
My MK2 1600 sport that was supposed to be a running driving car only to find out it had been "South-African Ified"
Carbs were scrap
Heater matrix leaked (when re-connected up)
Seats were welded to the seat tracks!
Track rod end lock nuts and TCA arm bolts were all loose
Servo booster was split
The fresh paint job has bubbled and cracked
The floors that you thought looked original had fiberglass in them.
The flywheel coming loose.
All of the above is why it has sat on axle stands for the last 2 year as I don’t have time for another project car! I paid top market for it at the time.
Do I blame the seller ? not really no all the bodges were hidden quite well, like I said they all look good but then have been made to look that way in SA before them come over here. By all accounts they had a hard life as they would have in the UK but without the rust, well mostly.
chippy348 said:
You have to be very careful buying a Escort from SA
My MK2 1600 sport that was supposed to be a running driving car only to find out it had been "South-African Ified"
Carbs were scrap
Heater matrix leaked (when re-connected up)
Seats were welded to the seat tracks!
Track rod end lock nuts and TCA arm bolts were all loose
Servo booster was split
The fresh paint job has bubbled and cracked
The floors that you thought looked original had fiberglass in them.
The flywheel coming loose.
All of the above is why it has sat on axle stands for the last 2 year as I don’t have time for another project car! I paid top market for it at the time.
Do I blame the seller ? not really no all the bodges were hidden quite well, like I said they all look good but then have been made to look that way in SA before them come over here. By all accounts they had a hard life as they would have in the UK but without the rust, well mostly.
What you mean is you have to be careful buying an old Ford, regardless of where it comes from.My MK2 1600 sport that was supposed to be a running driving car only to find out it had been "South-African Ified"
Carbs were scrap
Heater matrix leaked (when re-connected up)
Seats were welded to the seat tracks!
Track rod end lock nuts and TCA arm bolts were all loose
Servo booster was split
The fresh paint job has bubbled and cracked
The floors that you thought looked original had fiberglass in them.
The flywheel coming loose.
All of the above is why it has sat on axle stands for the last 2 year as I don’t have time for another project car! I paid top market for it at the time.
Do I blame the seller ? not really no all the bodges were hidden quite well, like I said they all look good but then have been made to look that way in SA before them come over here. By all accounts they had a hard life as they would have in the UK but without the rust, well mostly.
If you can trust the seller and have at least a little knowledge in looking at cars then you would spot at least some of that before buying.
chippy348 said:
By all accounts they had a hard life as they would have in the UK but without the rust, well mostly.
Mostly indeed.If any old car spent a lot or most of its life in SA in somewhere like Durban, with it's humid, coastal salt laden air, its will likely be as rusty as any car from the UK.
20 grand and he can't even be bothered to change the oil and chuck a £15 cam belt on it? I can't comprehend spending that much on an Escort and that's coming from someone that RS was untouchable 25 years ago.
They were great at what they did but you can get a proper car for that money.
They were great at what they did but you can get a proper car for that money.
Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff