One tends to think of the first Escort as the one that arrived in 1968, but it was also used between 1955 and 1961 on a reduced-content version of the Ford Squire, the estate car variant of the British Ford Anglia 100E.
CC Outtake: Ford Escort – The Very First To Wear The Name
– Posted on July 15, 2022
Neat old car. Tiny wheels/tires (although I’m sure normal for it’s time).
Squire is a really, really dated name for a car. And now “Escort” sounds a bit dubious too, even if the name did achieve great heights 20 years later.
“Escort” sounds a bit dubious too
And how! Could make for a fun crop of new nameplates, though. I can just picture it — Car magazine in 2025: the new Ford E-Scort goes head-to-head with the Suzuki Strumpet, the Hyundai Ho, the Fiat 500 PerTrick, the Renault Floozie and the Tesla Just4Fans.
Amusingly both Escort and Fiesta were the names of magazines in the UK….. the type you found on the top shelf of the newsagent, (they may well still be… Do those even exist now?) A fact not lost on many writers for car magazines in the 90s particularly those that dealt in modified cars
It seems to have a really high / tall roof, so this Escort seems kind of prophetic. In the Curbside Recycling feature from today on that ’65 Jaguar S-Type, there appeared to be a early-2000s Suzuki Aerio wagon with a similarly tall roof configuration.
This Escort appear to have a bit of a “sad” face. I’m like, please don’t cry.
we can write an entire illustrated CC about the sad-sack faced; and happiest faced cars.
Saddest:
As hot as the mid-50’s Olds Rocket engines were, the ’54 looks like it was pushed out of the doghouse on a rainy, November night
(’55’s were way snazzier)
‘Baby’ blue suits it then!
The tall roof comes from sharing the bodyshell with the van, though the Escort and Squire used split tailgates rather than the double doors on the van (unlike the BMC’s van and estate). The mesh grille replaced the original three slats front in 1958.
Caught it out on the road today. The side view shows the ample headroom.
Those look like tear stains under the headlights. “The Escort sat at the side of the road all alone, crying” is a sentence that suggests another scenario.
Ford Escort van: the ;_; of cars.
The 300E Thames commercial versions were more common here very few of the Squires and Escorts arrived but the Thames were assembled here, same feeble sidevalve four banger and huge gaps between the 3 gears they were fitted with, very slow cars on the highway, usefull powertrain upgrades could be fitted from later Fords and sort of accounts for the rarity today.
They were known as the Ford Prefect in Australia, in the four door sedan version.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Anglia (‘Escort’) wagon .
I do remember lots of Anglias all over New England back then .
My 1959 Hillman ‘Husky’ (station wagon) also had a high roof like this, we could cram it chock full of junk .
-Nate
Love these old Anglia’s/popular (ford UK sure did love to use the same name to describe various unrelated cars in the 50s and 60s)
Don’t think I’ve ever seen an estate in the metal, fair number of saloons though in their various specifications, and 300e vans, they were rather popular targets for customs back in the 80s and 90s and still are to an extent.
Another name tag that appeared on a car prior to the more well known late 60s version was the Capri, attached to the very pretty and rather rare, even when new, two door coupe version of the ford consul classic