Mk2 Escort Rally Car for the road (all costs recorded)

[Niponeoff]

I've had a lot of cars over the years, this is my latest project and is intended to be a long running build, because I like spending time in my garage.

Firstly, unlike other projects, I intend to document every single penny spent. With my fellow PH'ers inputs, hopefully I can save a few quid or maybe save others a few.

I realise this may disclose the pricing and labour of businesses I use, but I don't intend to use favour or mates rates, just honest work and pricing available to any of us, current at the time. It will cost what is required, or what I decide to do myself and maybe I'll make mistakes along the way, but I intend to enjoy them.

The car is a genuine RS2000 group 4 escort, bought and bid on eBay. I actually lost the auction but the seller contacted me to see if I would be interested after the sale fell through. I should have asked myself why.....















I work overseas for months at a time and only get a couple of weeks off, so viewing a car before I buy is virtually impossible. (This will also account for slow updates) I tried to get a friend to view, but it was hard to coordinate, so I did a video call.

Everything looked fine, saw it running and i was happy with the price. So the car was bought for the last bid price as I felt like I was getting a good deal. He also said he would throw in the sill stands and most importantly, there was no rust!



Costs to Date:

£35,812.00
£35,400 … Mk2 Escort -
£192.00 … Transport - Steve Fletcher
£120.00 … Storage - Local
£100.00 … Storage - Local

Engine - £16,467.47
£237.60 … Starter WOSP LMS043 Pinto 110T - Competition Supplies
£4.80 … Cosworth Core plugs - eBay (xpower-eng-ltd)
£225.07 … Alternator Bracket - Millington
£16,000 … Millington 2.5L - Millington

Transmission - £5,303.04
£4,000 … Quaife 60G with gear display - eBay
£76.00 … Shipping 60G - Shiply
£435.12 … Helix Cover 63210G (345KG) - Mardi Gras Motorsport
£202.03 … Helix Sprung Plate 56-2001 - Mardi Gras Motorsport
£17.40 … Carriage - Mardi Gras Motorsport
£174.00 … Bell Housing RS2000 - McGill Motorsport
£155.40 … HD Concentric Slave - MST
£46.20 … HD Release bearing - MST
£46.50 … 60G mounting Adapter - MST
£8.95 … Shipping - MST
£8.69 … Viton Seal 30x42x7 - eBay (hendersonbearings)
£6.00 … Bell housing Grommet - eBay (s2tdave)
£7.49 … Bell Housing and Starter Bolts SS - eBay (wrightsupplier30yr)
£7.59 … M8 A4 Cap Head Bolts (gearbox) - eBay GWR
£42.83 … Dirt Plate - RetroFord
£6.72 … Dowel gearbox pinto (2) - Ford
£5.14 … 5/16 UNF x 1.5" HT (10) - eBay (GWR)
£9.72 … M8 x 1.0mm x 50mm HT (10) - eBay (GWR)
£6.00 … Bell housing Grommet - eBay (s2tdave)
£5.63 … M8 x 1.0mm 45mm HT (6) - eBay (Kays)
£5.63 … 5/16 UNF x 1.75" HT (10) - eBay (Kays)
£15.00 … 3mm Clutch Slave Shim - Evans and Sons
£15.00 … 6mm Clutch Slave Shim - Evans and Sons

Pneumatic Shifter - £43.51
£25.00 … Gearbox Actuator bracket - eBay (saras-shop)
£20.00 … Bracket for CQ2 piston CQ-C032 - RS Online US

Exterior - £405.11
£33.74 … Wheel Centre Caps - eBay (racinggeardirect)
£99.99 … Super Oscar 9" (sim) 3205 (pair) - eBay (bonnie calista)
£95.98 … Super Oscar 9" (sim) 3208 (pair) - Bowers Parts
£61.40 … Cibie Covers 9" (4 off) - Bowers Parts
£4.76 … H3 55w Bulb (4 off) - Bowers Parts
£16.54 … Wiring Kit (2 off) - Bowers Parts
£47.90 … QR Spotlight Brackets Black - MST
£8.00 … Sun Strip - eBay (blanca3465)
£17.90 … Blue Broad Stripe 3" - eBay (autoxpress-uk)
£18.90 … Black bumper Bolts - eBay (stahlbrite_uk)

Interior - £85.52
£425.00 … Cobra Sebring GT - eBay
£15.45 … RS Horn Push - MST
£7.98 … A2 Stainless M5 x 12mm - Screwfix
£4.09 … A2 Stainless M5 x 16mm - Screwfix
£108.00 … Steering Wheel 340mm Suede - Competition Supplies
-£475.00 … Sold - Cobra Sebring GT

Misc - £19.55
£7.36 … M6 x 50 Schnorr Washers - eBay (kayfast1)
£7.58 … M8 x 50 Schnorr Washers - eBay (kayfast1)
£4.61 … M10 x 20 Schnorr Washers - eBay (kayfast1)

£58,136.20

Edited by Niponeoff on Sunday 2nd April 10:05

[tvrfan007]

I like that!

[LuckyThirteen]

This could be brilliant

[P. ONeill]

In for this one. Incidentally I know someone who has way north of a quarter of a million pounds into a MK2. Madness Ted.

[finlo]

Someone's pinched the sparkplugs!

[brownspeed]

in. love it!!!

[Caddyshack]

Looks lovely, I assume there is a BUT coming?

[littlebasher]

Niponeoff said:

On first glance, i thought "That's one big fking spoiler"

[Caddyshack]

littlebasher said:

Niponeoff said:

On first glance, i thought "That's one big fking spoiler"

That would need a spoiler alert.

[Niponeoff]

The car was in storage at blyton so the first task was getting it to my home in the Midlands.

I had another escort in my garage at the time, which would now be sold to make way for this one, but being December wasn't going to happen quickly. So found a storage place within walking distance from my house, not the cheapest, but convenient. Shipley was employed and transport booked



+£192

Car went straight into storage and the chaps there sent me a few snaps.







Hmm, this doesn't look right... Anyway.



Storage for the month: £100 + £20 admin or something.

Car looks great and I'm looking forward to getting home to see it!

Edited by Niponeoff on Thursday 30th March 10:23

[braddo]

P. ONeill said:

In for this one. Incidentally I know someone who has way north of a quarter of a million pounds into a MK2. Madness Ted.

Some sort of rally winner?


Hats off OP, looking forward to this!

[Niponeoff]

There is a slight back story to this. Bear in mind I'm overseas so I can get a bit carried away at times, with best laid plans and all that.

Well I bought another escort before this one which was a bit more road orientated. And before I could get home to see it, this engine popped up for sale.

As anyone would know, when it comes to escorts, millingtons are the ones to have. So I bought this with the intention of fitting it to my car at the time.



Fortunately this one uses 99ron so will be perfect on the road and is a bit more old school with the big carbs. It's also direct from millingtons with a fresh rebuild, zero hours and pushing out upto 300-310hp/ 232-242 ft lbs depending on rolling road.

£16000.

I actually got the engine in late October:



The reason I bought the group 4 spec car was I realised how much work would be required to the shell. The cosworth had everything done. And it was also a genuine RS.

If I had known I was going to buy an escort with a 485hp cosworth, I wouldn't have bothered. But I already did. So now the question was which to keep.

Working away and having not seen the car yet, this was an answer I was searching for and spent much time pondering.

[MTW]

This has all the makings of a classic thread, kudos. Can’t beat a millington engine either! Looking forward to seeing more

[Niponeoff]

So car bought early December and I can get home for Xmas this year, but unfortunately the storage place is closed until the 3rd Jan. So I wangled a few extra days off due to having important business to attend to!

This also enabled me to reorganize the garage which meant I could remove it from storage. Unfortunately they wanted a month's notice which cost another £100. Seeing as they are local and convenient and Imight require their services in the future, I coughed up.

Now I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, I mean I've seen loads of escorts, but i was still surprised how small it is. Not only that the previous owner must have been small because I could barely get in.

Anyway, I managed to get it home (less than a mile) and got to have a good look at it.











Initial impressions:

No compromises. This is total hardcore, all out bare bones rally car. The bumpers are fibreglass, even the brackets are alloy, the boot and bonnet carbon. Everything is stripped out. It's noisy, bumpy and I'm not going to say uncomfortable, but its no Mercedes!

Everything seems to work, but it's not exactly user friendly.

The engine ran but I kept stalling it, very snatchy clutch as you might expect.

Visibility was poor, the wrap around seats will have to go and the mirrors are tiny, but they at least worked. The rear view mirror was in but not adjustable enough to make good use of.

But, I liked it. It's exactly what I wanted and I was very pleased.

Some decent parts too, fully floating 6 link atlas, custom cages, AP brakes all round, hydro handbrake, new looms, decent wheels, camber plates, proper tension struts and everything adjustable, proper fuel system with fittings. Its a well setup car.

[Caddyshack]

The millington needs throttle bodies imo, the carbs will always be full of flat spots and running rich.

[SlimJim16v]

Very nice. While lots of power is great, there's bound to be some turbo lag, so probably the Millington.

I'm sure I remember Cars & Cars Conversions doing an article on a gp4 Escort as a road car.

[Niponeoff]

Caddyshack said:

The millington needs throttle bodies imo, the carbs will always be full of flat spots and running rich.

That is something I intend to leave open for the future. I'll build it with the provision of converting if I want to, so I'll keep the injection tank etc. If some decent bodies pop up for sale I might be inclined to buy them. I'll look into retaining the current fuel system and use a return if I can reliably lower the feed pressure. I believe it can be done.

[normalbloke]

Whilst I love a YB (had a YB powered Caterham) it will never sound like a Millington!

Edited by normalbloke on Wednesday 29th March 23:46

[Niponeoff]

So, first job. I need to adjust that seat.

Unfortunately the fixed rails compromised the available adjustment and the seat is just too large and cumbersome. What I did notice was some cracked paint so I had a poke about... And here's the BUT!



No rust mate...! Well, I'm no expert but that looks pretty rusty! I sent him the pics and he still denied it, saying that the car was dipped and it's just bleeding out. Yep, it bled out alright, unfortunately wasn't e dipped so it's in the seams.

Looks like the acid was in the cage and it's rotted out the 4 corner boxes. Everything else looks worse than it is, but due to the rust in the seams I don't see any other alternative than to redip with better drainage thought and edip.



Disappointed, but undeterred. At least I'll get to paint it a better blue.

[fttm]

Nice car especially with the Millington installed . Using as a road car meh , you’ll soon get bored of the harsh ride , deafening noise and speeding tickets . Had a few rally cars including Gp4 BDG Escort which were all fun when used as intended, routine use they’d become a chore . Enjoy