RE: Ford Escort 1600 GT (Mk1) | Spotted

RE: Ford Escort 1600 GT (Mk1) | Spotted

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WayOutWest

891 posts

73 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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s m said:
I got a 1.3 78 Mk2 in 86 that was really solid - used by a farmer’s daughter to take hay bales in the boot to her horse a mile or 2 away. Parked in an open barn and her Dad had sprayed everything underneath in old engine oil - crude but effective rust proofing
Put a modded 1600 in it and it was a cheap but fast runaround. Sold it for much more than I paid and it was still going up to about 1990 when it exceeded the the then owner’s skills

I had a red 1.3 just like that, with a Mountney steering wheel, K&N filter and a four branch manifold and single box rally exhaust system.
Slow and very loud.

s m

23,837 posts

218 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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biggbn said:
I'd take the beetle out of that selection of cars!! That said, I've never got the old Ford bug but a two door mk1 is a pretty little car and would be, I'm sure, huge fun.
I think that was his girlfriend’s car - for me that wouldn’t compare fun factor wise with the Escorts or Lotus - but would be boring if we all liked the same!

s m

23,837 posts

218 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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WayOutWest said:
I had a red 1.3 just like that, with a Mountney steering wheel, K&N filter and a four branch manifold and single box rally exhaust system.
Slow and very loud.
It went much better with the 1660 in it that’s for sure hehe

cerb4.5lee

37,112 posts

195 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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They are great photos thanks s m. cool

I wish that I was 10(ish) years older so that I could've experienced cars like that too. driving

andygo

7,134 posts

270 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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A couple of my Mk 2's:








s m

23,837 posts

218 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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cerb4.5lee said:
They are great photos thanks s m. cool
Thank you - I have loads of old photos of my ( and friends cars )

Easier now to take a phone pic of them than to scan them in

nismo48

5,238 posts

222 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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andygo said:
A couple of my Mk 2's:







thumbup Great photos..My first car was a 1971 Mexico.. Bought for £500 in 1980 a great car and for the time quite fast and nimble!!
A good DIY car too, easy to work on and modify too..!!

Mr Tidy

26,769 posts

142 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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Well now we're posting photos of MK2s here is one of mine!


xtreme ant

46 posts

124 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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Here is my Mexico recreation.Taken in 1985
1700 cc twin 40s,Mexico three rail box and Mexico rear axle and brakes,and 140 mph clocks.

OldSkoolRS

6,970 posts

194 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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Mr Tidy said:
Well now we're posting photos of MK2s here is one of mine!

Nice...BVR and speakers on the parcel shelf too. I prefer Venetian red too, black is a pain to keep clean, though 20+ years in my garage probably doesn't help. paperbag




Just needs a wash, honest guv. wink

Mr Tidy

26,769 posts

142 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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OldSkoolRS said:
Nice...BVR and speakers on the parcel shelf too. I prefer Venetian red too, black is a pain to keep clean, though 20+ years in my garage probably doesn't help. paperbag




Just needs a wash, honest guv. wink
I loved Venetian Red and it had to have speakers on the parcel shelf in the 80s.

While black may be a PITA to keep clean at least you still have yours!

Mine went in 1984 for about £2,500. frown

OldSkoolRS

6,970 posts

194 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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Mr Tidy said:
I loved Venetian Red and it had to have speakers on the parcel shelf in the 80s.

While black may be a PITA to keep clean at least you still have yours!

Mine went in 1984 for about £2,500. frown
Hasn't run for a lot of years, so an engine rebuild is on the cards too after I've finished the welding (strut tops and that's it since it's been garaged and dry weather use since about 1985). I bought mine for £1k in 1995 so I guess it counts as a shed? Only issue is that if I sell it I have to split the profit with my parents...

Mr Tidy

26,769 posts

142 months

Thursday 24th November 2022
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OldSkoolRS said:
Hasn't run for a lot of years, so an engine rebuild is on the cards too after I've finished the welding (strut tops and that's it since it's been garaged and dry weather use since about 1985). I bought mine for £1k in 1995 so I guess it counts as a shed? Only issue is that if I sell it I have to split the profit with my parents...
Looks like you ought to keep it then!

fttm

4,060 posts

150 months

Friday 25th November 2022
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Bagshot was a car breaker come the end , rough as feck .

anonymous-user

69 months

Friday 25th November 2022
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fttm said:
Bagshot was a car breaker come the end , rough as feck .
Yeah, it's been allowed to fall into disrepair now. I think the main pit area is now used for storage by (I think) BCA. Some of the lanes are still used by army lorries. But some , used at one time by rally clubs, are now not maintained at all, and overgrown.

I remember, back in the day, a Mk1 Escort came flying round a particular bend known for it's deep potholes, and broke its axle. Rough is certainly the word.

VR6 Eug

733 posts

214 months

Friday 25th November 2022
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The 1600gt was basically a Mexico, it definitely wasn't a "x flow twin cam head with twin carbs" it was powered by OHV 86hp Kent 1600GT engine with a twin choke webber 32/36 carb, all Mexicos and 1600gt had 2000e 3 rail box and some Mexicos were badged on the front wings as 1600gt.

s m

23,837 posts

218 months

Friday 25th November 2022
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OldSkoolRS said:
Nice...BVR and speakers on the parcel shelf too. I prefer Venetian red too, black is a pain to keep clean, though 20+ years in my garage probably doesn't help. paperbag




Just needs a wash, honest guv. wink
Nice

My first Mk2 RS2000 was Venetian Red - had the plate BDA 8T. I remember when my friend bought his RS1800 from Mike Youngs down South ( basically twice the price of a decent RS2000 in the mid 80s ) he was interested in getting the plate off my car but couldn’t as his car was an earlier year. That RS was written off by an out of control BMW but I did notice it was resurrected later on and given a colour change to black.

Second RS2000 was a black one - like you say, an effort to keep clean but looked nice when it was


OldSkoolRS

6,970 posts

194 months

Friday 25th November 2022
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Imagine being able to go to that car park in your photo today and drive the TR7 convertible, 205GTi or the RS2000 presumably in almost new condition. smile

Johnnybee

2,360 posts

236 months

Friday 25th November 2022
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A friend built this mk1 GT. It's pretty much one of the cleanest mk1s you will find.








Brand new zetec engine


greenarrow

4,222 posts

132 months

Friday 25th November 2022
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J4CKO said:
The impression now is that every RWD Escort was some RS drift monster driven by Wannabe Hannu Mikolas, there were old Escorts with extra lamps on and various other mods but by and large nothing like the perfectly turned out examples now, in the eighties they were old sheds by and large.


The typical ones I remember were generally driven by old blokes, fag in the corner of their mouth. The caretaker at my primary school had one, all roll ups and creosote. My grandad had one before his Chevette phase, then a Fiesta MK2 and culminating with a Metro 1.1.

Or old ladies in a 1.6 Ghia in Beige going to church.
Totally agree with this sentiment. I briefly owned a Mk2 Escort estate in 1990 and it was a hateful thing. Broke down on me several times and the worse incident was the windscreen wipers giving up in Shaftesbury one evening, leaving me trying to navigate my way home on a dark and rainy A350, it was terrifying!

As a Ford fan myself (but the later RPJ generation Fords) I get why these Escorts are nostalgic and valuable and a Mexico or RS is a lovely thing, but for £26,950, for my 1970s bread and butter car fix, I would find the nicest AlfaSud I could find and buy it, with probably about £16K left over for something else! Now that was a 1970s car that was dynamically superb out of the box without any mods (I still regret selling mine) and considering the low numbers left, very undervalued in today's heated market!