My Gartrac Escort G6
Discussion
Bazny said:
Yep it sure is, ive only just noticed this post as i dont always get on here, ive owned it for a few years now and it is just the way it was originally built,the only change ive made is to fit brooklands 15 inch wheels with goodyear tyres, still has the v6 and 4 speed box fitted and red pipe seats. to be honest its a real time warp car.Its just being repainted as we speak and ive just fitted a new genuine ford hood.
fancy selling it back to me?Edited by Bazny on Tuesday 26th April 17:51
Edited by Bazny on Tuesday 26th April 18:00
Edited by Bazny on Wednesday 27th April 08:28
icutemaster said:
I had the cab for about 15 years ... wish I'd kept it now 
Dont worry its in good hands,let me have your email address and ill send you some pictures. ive changed mine so cannot get back to your previous emails from a couple of yrs ago.Weve been using it all this summer and attended quite a few classic car shows.Edited by Bazny on Wednesday 14th September 21:06
Edited by Bazny on Wednesday 14th September 21:08
Shelbysteve said:
What a lovely surprize seeing a G6! Its possible i drove that car in 1986 at the age of 17! I worked for John Welch which had the Xtrac rallycross escort. there was problems with the alloy arches the paint bubbled up because of the alloy and steel was to close together. I had the great job of going over to gartrac's workshop and picking them up to drive them back and forth to Fleet and then stipping the paint removing the wings and then adding some sealant between the 2 metals then proparing for a repaint.
There was one G6 that had the carbon fibre moulds that were made for Johns rallycross. God knows if thats around still, I know one of the partner of Gartrac kept one.
God i used to love side drifting them car out of roundabouts.
Now i can remember 5 road car's a white one which has been mentioned here, a red one possible this car! a Blue one in that light blue metallic colour! what was that colour called, was it moonstone or something and then there was one that was silver and blue. and that yellow one you guys are talking about was built by a guy called Ian Holiday who was the main painter at John welchs! at the time. He took a very long time building it from a shell. i used to help him in our spare time building it and as it was his, he really built it to very good standard. i purchase his spare XR3 interior to puit in my mk3 Escort that i purchased off john which his wife used to use. Ian would save up money for months to have a new RS1600i interior to put into it.
There was ever 2 Rallycross Gartrac zakspeed Xtrac 4x4's Martins was built fast and then Johns Both zapspeed 2.1 turbo pushing 550 hp to 650 near 690hp at the end of there term. John then got us to unbolt the running gear and throw into the Dakar Astra Beast.
Look after it! its bloody rare.
I wanted one back then! at £10,000 it was to much for a kid.
I purchased a RS1600i in 1988 because of those escorts and i still have it! I did think about sending it off to gartrac to make it a G6 RSi but it was to rare to chop a hole in the floor to make a tunnel for the gearbox and propshaft.
Here is Martin. His car was restored 2 years ago by owner Mike endean and helped by John Welch at his paintshop in fleet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3YKzKtam-0&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aANxJUStEXs
Heres Martin showing he's still got the speed in him http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhX9tIJE5rw&fea...
Another one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h4cRM7tneM&fea...
hi steve, newbie here. i was told about this site by a mate. i currently own the first mk4 escort built by Dave and co. one of only 3 made. There was one G6 that had the carbon fibre moulds that were made for Johns rallycross. God knows if thats around still, I know one of the partner of Gartrac kept one.
God i used to love side drifting them car out of roundabouts.
Now i can remember 5 road car's a white one which has been mentioned here, a red one possible this car! a Blue one in that light blue metallic colour! what was that colour called, was it moonstone or something and then there was one that was silver and blue. and that yellow one you guys are talking about was built by a guy called Ian Holiday who was the main painter at John welchs! at the time. He took a very long time building it from a shell. i used to help him in our spare time building it and as it was his, he really built it to very good standard. i purchase his spare XR3 interior to puit in my mk3 Escort that i purchased off john which his wife used to use. Ian would save up money for months to have a new RS1600i interior to put into it.
There was ever 2 Rallycross Gartrac zakspeed Xtrac 4x4's Martins was built fast and then Johns Both zapspeed 2.1 turbo pushing 550 hp to 650 near 690hp at the end of there term. John then got us to unbolt the running gear and throw into the Dakar Astra Beast.
Look after it! its bloody rare.
I wanted one back then! at £10,000 it was to much for a kid.
I purchased a RS1600i in 1988 because of those escorts and i still have it! I did think about sending it off to gartrac to make it a G6 RSi but it was to rare to chop a hole in the floor to make a tunnel for the gearbox and propshaft.
Here is Martin. His car was restored 2 years ago by owner Mike endean and helped by John Welch at his paintshop in fleet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3YKzKtam-0&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aANxJUStEXs
Heres Martin showing he's still got the speed in him http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhX9tIJE5rw&fea...
Another one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h4cRM7tneM&fea...
Edited by Shelbysteve on Monday 28th January 18:51
Edited by Shelbysteve on Thursday 7th February 12:03
Im looking to build up more history on our car,which is the cabriolet mentioned earlier, im interested to hear from anyone who might have pictures of it at a show or magazine articles, someones been in touch and reckons its been a mag feature but i cant find any evidence, so basically im looking for info so i can to build up its early history.Or if any of the previous owners still has anything/info relating to the car.
Anything you know really, how much was the conversion , what inspired you to build a cabriolet, any old pictures in its early life would be good to add to the history ive already put together,ive been asked to do a magazine feature so any info will help to get a good accurate write up and it would be great to learn more about the car. Please message me with any info chaps .Thanks
Edited by Bazny on Tuesday 20th March 20:33
Wow, this thread bought back some special memories! I'm the 'Richard Ellis' referred to on the back of the original sales brochure. I designed and wrote the copy when The XR Centre of Byfleet, Surrey was a client of mine.
They basically lent me the car shown in the images and just let me get on with putting together the brochure. I put some miles on that thing I can tell you. At the time it was a fabulous drive and great fun!
The photos were shot on some wasteland in Tunbridge Wells now occupied by shops (opposite where John Lewis is now). We had to get up early to shoot the photos because I was driving the thing on private land, sliding it about and kicking up dust everywhere. The photographer was Colin Whitlock and he was perched up on a bank where the ground had not been cleared.
I think I still have a few copies of the original brochure in my loft and possibly the original trannies too. Happy days!
They basically lent me the car shown in the images and just let me get on with putting together the brochure. I put some miles on that thing I can tell you. At the time it was a fabulous drive and great fun!
The photos were shot on some wasteland in Tunbridge Wells now occupied by shops (opposite where John Lewis is now). We had to get up early to shoot the photos because I was driving the thing on private land, sliding it about and kicking up dust everywhere. The photographer was Colin Whitlock and he was perched up on a bank where the ground had not been cleared.
I think I still have a few copies of the original brochure in my loft and possibly the original trannies too. Happy days!
hi there. good to join the site, saw this post on google whilst looking up gartracs. I have the original mk4 escort gartrac, owned by david, can't remember his surname but he was one of the guys that created the company. the car was stolen 3 times off his drive and he refused to have it back. i found it in westbourne motors in haywards heath. it had a 2.8 litre v6 in it and was quite lively. i have owned the car now for 12 years and have finally put a tuned cossie engine in. still rebuilding it after a garage break in where everything was stolen. will post pics when i get them organised.
retro lad said:
i bought a blue g6 escort in eastbourne about four years ago. the reg being Q828 CPE.
then brought it back to ireland where it has been since. when i bought the car it was
in ok condition and had a yb cosworth in it. it was an absolute joy to drive and had
a huge grin factor about it! it was featured in a couple of magazines over the years,
performance ford in 1988 i think and max power in 1994 when it had a 3.3 litre v6 with
a t4 turbo on it. martin yorkshire was the owner of it then. anyway when i bought the
car it was obvious that the engine bay was starting to look a bit rough around the
edges and would need attention someday. that day has arrived and it is now being
stripped down so it can be restored to it's former glory. when this is done the yb
will go back in but i'd rather go without the turbo this time, my aim is 250-270 bhp,
not cheap but definitely my preferred option. so if anyone has any information about
the car and it's past history i'd like to hear more about it.
The guy who originally owend your g6 was a guy called Rick Lemon....facebook him sure he be happy to chat with you...eastbourne areathen brought it back to ireland where it has been since. when i bought the car it was
in ok condition and had a yb cosworth in it. it was an absolute joy to drive and had
a huge grin factor about it! it was featured in a couple of magazines over the years,
performance ford in 1988 i think and max power in 1994 when it had a 3.3 litre v6 with
a t4 turbo on it. martin yorkshire was the owner of it then. anyway when i bought the
car it was obvious that the engine bay was starting to look a bit rough around the
edges and would need attention someday. that day has arrived and it is now being
stripped down so it can be restored to it's former glory. when this is done the yb
will go back in but i'd rather go without the turbo this time, my aim is 250-270 bhp,
not cheap but definitely my preferred option. so if anyone has any information about
the car and it's past history i'd like to hear more about it.
PATTERNPART said:
Excellent. I had one of these until about two years ago. It was Gartrac's prototype G6 which started life as white, RWD and Cologne V6 and by the time I got hold of it it had been back to Gartrac in a big way and was Cosworth 24v V6 and 4WD and Auto! And BT yellow with wheels from a works Ford rally car driven by Phil Price. Allegedly. The engineering was stunning. Especially all the new metalwork from the dash forwards. Seam welded, gussetted and several inches longer that it was meant to be. Brand new chassis rails and suspension turrets etc. The rear was leaf springs and Atlas from an old Group 4 Escort probably. I bought it from a nice guy in Leatherhead, surrey for about £4,500. Eventually the gearbox and brakes gave trouble and I gave it away to some Irishmen. It eventually turned up in Yorkshire on Ebay with lots of fresh work done! The brains behind most of the work was the Leatherhead chap. Matthew something. One of his arms was next to useless since a motorcycle accident hence the Auto. He used the car all over this place including Spa where it held its own against VERY expensive sports cars. One good thing about unique cars is that you tend to notice them when they reappear. They don't seem to die. Just get modified!
If I had the money I would commission Gartrac to RWD the last of the Escort shells as Cosworth V6 and RWD only and try to keep it light.
Dragging up an old page....I was offered this car in 1998 and I was put off by the auto box, the bloke who was trying to get me to buy it was keen to convert it to manual but for some reason I didn’t go ahead....what a silly boy.If I had the money I would commission Gartrac to RWD the last of the Escort shells as Cosworth V6 and RWD only and try to keep it light.
This thread has reminded me of some photos I took in the 1980's of a rear wheel drive Mk3 Escorts.
img035 by XRMOTORSPORT, on Flickr
img035 by XRMOTORSPORT, on FlickrEdited by eglf on Monday 15th October 20:19
Edited by eglf on Tuesday 16th October 10:04
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