It’s a nice coincidence that Roger Carr’s excellent history on the first two generations of Ford Escort went up recently, as I happen to have owned one of them.
This car came into my life completely by accident. I was driving the Beetle quite happily at the time (mid 2007 ) and wasn’t exactly flush with cash, so another project car was the last thing I needed or wanted. Nevertheless, this tired looking old Ford turned up at a garage right next door to my office one day and of course I had to take a look. Turned out that it was actually for sale, which immediately set the wheels turning in my head (because I’m dumb like that, probably).
Before we go into the story proper, a brief detour into history is in order. This Escort was of course a product of Ford Europe and was a pretty big hit for them from the moment it was introduced in 1967. It is best remembered for the rally bred Mexico, RS1600 and RS2000 versions, but the majority of production were the much more pedestrian 1100 or 1300 models in various trim levels. The sportiest model that was initially available was the 1300 GT, which was fitted with a Weber carb, higher compression and somewhere between 65 and 70 ground pounding horsepower (compared to 53 on the standard 1300). This model was set apart by having a six dial dash and other trim differences. Based on the model year and the options the car had, I have always assumed that my car was a 1300 GT, but it was missing the Weber and had a standard Ford carb when it got to me, so I can’t be 100% sure. Perhaps the collective CC brains trust can help pin it down?
The engine bay. That’s definitely not a Weber in there.
Anyway, after having a poke around I convinced myself that this car NEEDED to be mine and I would be the one to bring it back to its former glory. Although Mark 1, 2 door Escorts had not yet gone through the huge spike in interest they saw in the 2010s, thanks to a steady diet of Classic Cars and Classic and Sports Car magazines from the UK, I knew the car had potential and could be something special. The dream was to turn it into a snarling rally replica, with a 1.6 Kent or 2.0 Pinto Motor, Webers, wide arches, fast road spec suspension, the works.
This was the dream. This car is one of two original Mexicos in SL and it has a fascinating history. Will try to write about it sometime
The asking price was actually quite cheap: only 50,000Rs (about 500$), but I didn’t really have that much cash on me, so what could be done? After giving it some thought, I ended up going hat in hand to my grandmother and negotiated a loan on very favorable terms, and the car was mine! It ran and drove well enough, so I parked it in a shed at the back of my office and took stock of what I had bought. The body was grey but it didn’t seem to be covered in paint, more like some sort of primer that had the thickness and consistency of concrete. The underside was encouragingly rust free, but I worried whether the layered on primer concealed severe body rust. Since the Escort was a unibody and was not exactly put together with top level precision in 60s England, this was not an idle concern. Of course to find out for sure, I’d have to strip down the substance that was on the body panels, then deal with whatever would be found, and finally paint it properly. All of this would cost money and I didn’t have much; remember I was 19, wasn’t making very much (something like 25,000 Rs a month at that point) and had a reasonably active social life. So I figured the best course of action would be to fix anything that seemed really broken and just drive the thing.
Taken on the day I got it. As you can see, it needed work.
After an inspection by my mechanic the car was given a mostly clean bill of health. The only work needed was a tuneup, some repairs to the steering rack and new balljoints, so those were done and the car was on the road. It drove very differently from my Beetle of course; quicker steering, a lively rear end, and an appetite for slides on any loose surface. As for speed, well it didn’t have much, felt about the same as the Beetle, give or take. Because the interior was devoid of carpets or even rubber mats it was a very stark place to be, and predictably my girlfriend refused to be seen anywhere near it, so I didn’t end up using the car very much at all.
If we’re being charitable, the interior could be called “well worn”
The only times it would get driven was on weekends when me and a couple of friends would haul it out and go to a nearby field to do donuts and generally engage in 4 wheeled buffoonery. Those times were loads of fun, but I was always worried about breaking something expensive, so I didn’t enjoy them as much as my friends did. For reasons I no longer remember, we christened the car “Mrs Robinson”, after Anne Bancroft’s character from The Graduate.
Messing about in a muddy field — where the Escort was happiest.
After about a year or so I started thinking it was time to move the Escort on. It wasn’t really costing me much to keep, but I felt it needed to be properly restored and it was quite clear I didn’t have the capacity to do it at the time. So a friend of a friend who was looking for an Escort to restore came along one day, took a good look at it and offered to take it off my hands for the total amount I had in it (60,000 Rs). Naturally, I said yes immediately and he hauled the car off to his workshop and immediately started stripping it down, expecting to find a lot of rust and other horrors. To his (and my) amazement, it turned out the car was rust free and arrow straight too! I was pretty excited to see how it would eventually turn out but a few weeks after picking it up the buyer found another Escort that seemed to be in much better shape, so he used that as the basis for his build and put this one up for sale. It was picked up by a guy from out of town who ended up giving it a full rally replica makeover, but kept the standard 1300 engine for some unfathomable reason. It looked good, but the looks wrote cheques the mechanicals couldn’t cash.
I believe the expression “All hat, no cattle” applies here.
I kept track of the car via Facebook for a few years, but then it changed hands and I haven’t heard of it in a long while. Since hindsight is always 20/20, I wish now that I had stashed it in a corner and slowly saved up the funds to build it the way I wanted it to be. This ends up being a recurring theme for some of my COALs, as you’ll see in time.
Another shot of that Mexico. A guy can dream right?
A friend of mine built a 1300cc rally Escort turreted rear suspension LSD sport struts up front close ratio box engine put out around 140 hp 1500 Cortina GT head with the larger valves that engine had all flowed and skimmed for higher compression red line was 9k it went and handled really well but he should have seam welded the body the extra torque began pulling it apart thats what they dont tell you about the differences between your showroom version and the race/rally models just how much extra strengthening goes into the hot ones,
I drove a few MK1 Escorts when they were near new cars not bad little cars but nowhere near as good as their current rep suggests but cool to see them still running.
Your friend’s car must have been a beast!
The hype seems to have overtaken the actual abilities of the model nowadays honestly. For the money that you’d spend on a good one, I feel that there are far better choices.
For a short time about 25 years ago I had a 1985 Escort I paid $700 for that was quite rough around the edges in every way . The U.S. Escorts (1980-2003) were a totally different and more or less forgettable econobox and a brand entry point for U.S. Ford customers. The Euro Escorts are very interesting with sporting capabilities and obviously have collector desirability and we’re holistically far better conceived vehicles. GM back in this era was peddling Opels in North America as a hedge to German and Japanese small car imports that we’re starting to make an impact , with limited success. Ford tried this with with a few models most notably with the Capri. Makes one wonder how this car would’ve done in that era over here. Very much enjoying your series about motoring in India!
This Escort had started development as a new ‘Anglia’ and carried a lot of the engineering, including the engines and suspension, over with it. Very conventional front engine RWD, leaf springs at the back and as such was a quite different beast to the 1980 on Front Wheel Drive models. Most two door cars end up being ‘restored’ to rally versions these days, but when they were on sale basic ‘Deluxe’ models would have been much more common.
Yes and just like the lightweight Anglebox all the Cortina go faster bits bolt on I remember some very rapid Escorts back in the day and the horrific crashes that went with them, Duncans one I mention above was ok and he could drive which helped lots.
An 85 Euro Escort wouldn’t have been much different to yours. In its Mk3 generation by then it was a completely different animal to the Mk1 and Mk2. FWD, CVH engine, hatchback (plus estate, van and Orion-badged saloon).
Similar in looks to the US Escort but better proportions in my eyes.
It soon became a hot hatch legend though with the XR3, XR3i, RS1600i and RS Turbo.
Thanks Carlsberg66, I’ve often wondered why Ford didn’t attempt to bring the Escort to the US as its compact offering. Perhaps the slow sales of the Cortina, along with “Not invented here” syndrome worked against it.
Do I see a Triumph Stag next to that red Escort Mexico?
Someone shared an astute observation on this site, a week or so ago. Apropos the Vega, they stated that GM’s US compacts suffered from the designers’ desire to keep the proportions the same as those of their full-sized cars, which made for an extremely low seating position and compromised space utilization.
I wonder if GM’s influence could partly explain why Ford chose to go the same route with the Pinto, rather than launching the Escort in the US? Perhaps that, and the build costs on the Escort were probably higher, since it wasn’t an “economy car” in its native land. And finally, there’s the “Not Invented Here Syndrome” that infected Detroit at the time.
Ford did try the Cortina on US customers with limited success so didnt bother going yet smaller and just used the same mechanicals in their own body design.
I seems a bit laughable to add the GT appellation to such a humble car, and with just 1300 ccs of displacement.
“All hat, no cattle.”
“The looks wrote cheques the mechanicals couldn’t cash.”
Sajiv, may I ask how you got so conversant with American slang?
I’ve heard the first expression as “big hat, no cattle,” but same idea.
Haha I’m not actually sure how that came about, I read a lot of American content and watch a lot of US TV shows, so that may have something to do with it.
A genuine Escort Mexico is worth gold here and there are very few about Ive seen one in recent years sighting confirmed by the driver online I caught up with it on the lake Taupo Turangi road and just followed him to Taupo at the posted speed limit which isnt that easy to do in some sections especially in an old Ford but the Mexico impressed me and I thought it might be the real thing not a stripe kit clone, it was a fun trip, even our twisty gravel back roads have a 100kmh speed limit, you can have a lot of fun just trying to do the legal speed and huge hp and weight wont help much Escorts and their ilk were very popular because they are tossable and controllable on loose gravel.
Even in that state, it was a genuinely fun car!
I can’t tell from the photos, but the genuine GTs had slightly different front guards, although the difference is so slight you can hardly tell. My MkI had one of each guard (don’t ask…) The flare around the opening was marginally bigger on the GT and went further around the wheel opening to accommodate the bigger wheels (13″) and wider tyres (175 from memory). The standard 1300 came with 12″ wheels and 155 tyres; the arches were flared a little at the top but not far down the sides. To fit 13″ wheels and 185 tyres under the standard arches, as I did to my Mk I Esky, required minor additional flaring to stop the rubbing.
I see your Escort had opening front quarterlights, if they were factory-fitted they were a very, very rare option. Your headlights and front indicators aren’t factory though, although someone went to a bit of effort to integrate the smaller headlights, and then presumably realised they didn’t have a parklight bulb in them like the factory ones, hence then fitting the park/indicator combo. The rally makeover has the factory lights back.
Love the “4 wheeled buffoonery” comment, as an 18-year-old when I had mine, they were certainly good for that! Mine was all mouth and no trouseres, so I fitted a twin-barrel Weber carb and exhaust extractors which ruined the fuel economy but improved its speed from glacial to merely slow; it was lively in the handling department when provoked!
Thank you Scott for the detailed info. This was something that always bugged me. The quarterlights were factory fit as far as I know. The headlamps were likely the result of a cash strapped previous owner not bothering to find the correct units. That happens a lot over here.
Judging by the interior photos, I can just imagine that conversation taking place!
Being from the US, I’m familiar with the rally versions of this car, but the other 98% of Escort production remains somewhat mysterious to me, so I enjoyed this look at yours. The picture of how it ended up is rather amusing, though it’s better than what happened to your Beetle.
All in all, sounds like a good old-car ownership experience — you didn’t lose any money, or suffer any big repair bills, and got to actually enjoy your car relatively worry-free.
The conversation was definitely a tough one!
Overall it was a reasonable experience, had some fun and didn’t lose much so I call that a win. If only all old car experiences end that way!
That Escort would be right at home in Boston…after all, it’s a (reading off of the rear aspect) FOD.
60,000 rupees, Sir? I have wistful news (that no doubt you know of).
A 2-door Mk1 Escort, in RHD, no less, that is in need of rebuilding but rust-free, would be at least 4,500,000 rupees today in UK or Australia (that’s 16K GBP in Sri Lankan R).
Oh well. You wouldn’t take that one to the mud for donuts, and what price fun? (4,440,000 rupees apparently, but ssh!)
Yes, been following the rising prices with awe and just a touch of wistfulness.
As you say, probably wouldn’t be having as much fun with one now. I’ll be satisfied with the memories.
People are wanting moonbeams for rough rusty Escorts here now especially MK1s survivors are rare and usually beaten to death before being parked dead
The third character in the license plate piqued by curiosity. Is this in Sri Lanka?
It is indeed.
Nice car .
-Nate
Thanks Nate, it was pretty cool.