My Gartrac Escort G6

Author
Discussion

FWDRacer

3,564 posts

223 months

Wednesday 19th December 2007
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I have fond memories of being hurled around in an Sunburst red XR3 by my Dad as a lad, hence a real affinity for Red Mk3 Escorts.

That Sir, is the nuts.

Marki

15,763 posts

269 months

Wednesday 19th December 2007
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escort g6 said:
hi bought it 2 years ago as a running wreck.
Then you deserve a clap She looks great smile

Shelbysteve

118 posts

233 months

Monday 28th January 2008
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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...





Edited by Shelbysteve on Monday 28th January 18:51


Edited by Shelbysteve on Thursday 7th February 12:03

dxb335d

2,905 posts

194 months

Tuesday 29th January 2008
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Awesome car mate. love em...
Im after some info on gartrac escorts.

How many MK3 and MK4's were made? do you know? Were they bought new from ford and coverted?

Shropshiremike

23,164 posts

202 months

Thursday 7th February 2008
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PATTERNPART said:
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.
Ford themselves built something similar based on an Escort Cosworth look-a-like. Article about it in Car mag sometime in the early 90s

Shelbysteve

118 posts

233 months

Thursday 7th February 2008
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dxb335d said:
Awesome car mate. love em...
Im after some info on gartrac escorts.

How many MK3 and MK4's were made? do you know? Were they bought new from ford and coverted?
I knew of 5 roadcars! I never knew of a Mk4 roadcar made but we face lifted John welch's racecar to a MK4. I made the spoiler on the roof at my fathers engineering company just to make more room for sealink ferries sponsorship. Its not a gartrac addition just a gimic.

call them, they will tell you. 01428 682263 or 01428 682264 or email them at: info@gartrac.com

[URL=http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=7632297][/URL]
[URL=http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=7632296][/URL]

Edited by Shelbysteve on Thursday 7th February 11:59

Shelbysteve

118 posts

233 months

Thursday 7th February 2008
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escort g6 said:
Hi. Just joined forum here are some pics of my G6







Ive now got a feeling that Ian Holiday's gartrac could be this car! there was a yellow one but now i have flashbacks it being red. is his name on the log book!

For some reason I now recall he he wanted it red. He lived in Fleet hampshire and now in Alton.

Edited by Shelbysteve on Thursday 7th February 16:18

bez 101

25 posts

193 months

Thursday 7th February 2008
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absolutely beautiful!!

escort g6

Original Poster:

12 posts

197 months

Monday 11th February 2008
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Hi folks in reply to recent posts this was bought from a guy in Luton called Nick. Before that it was owned by an italian guy from London who had owned it from being modified by Gartrac. The car was black when i bought it and has always been black. I decided to paint it red as i think they always looked best in red. I also know of another blue version on a Y plate that had the round type arches. i dont know if it is still alive that was about 12 year ago. I am having a feature soon in Performance Ford, when business commitments let me go and play! then i think i wil be putting it up for sale as much as i like the car i have a new project in the pipeline. I am taking it to Harvey Gibbs for a mapping session and to get some proper figures next week all being well.
Thanks for continued good comments nice to see people still like these old jems.

y2blade

56,029 posts

214 months

Wednesday 13th February 2008
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what a weapon smokin

Transmitter Man

4,253 posts

223 months

Wednesday 13th February 2008
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Seriously nice car Paulbow

Care to give us a hint at the new project?

Steve,

Nice vids.

I remember Schanke and others in those hey days of British rallycross.

One winters day in the BP suite at Brands it was so foggy yopu could hardly see the startline.

I seem to remember Nordstrom in a black 4WD beetle running 700bhp Porche power. Also, not slow.

That Xtrac accelerated like a catapult off the line.

Phil
79 De Tomaso Longchamp GTS

coupeboy

522 posts

205 months

Wednesday 13th February 2008
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amazing car....

icutemaster

4 posts

195 months

Saturday 23rd February 2008
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icutemaster

4 posts

195 months

Saturday 23rd February 2008
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Shelbysteve

118 posts

233 months

Thursday 5th March 2009
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I have found the race with the 2 gartrac Xtracs at the 1985 rallycross final. Keep your eye on John Welch, a race ill never forget. A great moment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCrmE4dYZY4

Maty

1,232 posts

212 months

Thursday 5th March 2009
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Now thats just car porn! I've got a very big soft spot for MK3 escorts, I learnt to drive in a race prepared XR3, passed my ARDS test in it and did my first race in the XR Challenge when I was 16. It lasted a season but would never have been a front runner so we swapped it for a MK4 XR3i, which still had the MK3 dash in for some reason but I didnt mind as the MK3 dash was much nicer!

I bet yours is awesome to drive, have you got any videos of it in action??

andyc.

1,216 posts

192 months

Friday 27th March 2009
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You know I used to work for John Welch at that time .Is Ian the guythat was doing an x pack mk2 escort at the time,blue I think.
I worked for John when he had the Mk 2 EscortSpent a bit of time repairing it after each round and did a bit of prep work when his gartrac mk3 turned up,along with Martins car and some guy with a Rover V8 in it from memory.

Jessop

435 posts

193 months

Friday 27th March 2009
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Looks fantastic

Allyc85

7,225 posts

185 months

Saturday 28th March 2009
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Awesome car! DO you takr it to any of the car shows i.e. Ford Fair and Fiesta in the Park?

interloper

2,747 posts

254 months

Saturday 28th March 2009
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Now that is an interesting bit of kit, would love to see more photos of it, especially the interior and from underneath (yeah I'm clearly a car perv!).