﹒Restored to road rally-spec

﹒Competed successfully since 2013

﹒Philspeed Crossflow engine with twin-choke carb

﹒Half cage, skid plates, gussets and strut brace for competition use 

There aren’t many cars that can claim the rally pedigree of the Mk 1 Ford Escort. This is, after all, the car that gave rise to the iconic Escort Mexico, RS 2000 and BDA-engined RS1600 models, so it’s no surprise that the Escort remains one of the most popular competition cars in historic events to this day. 

And while this car might not be a Mexico, it’s a properly fettled and sorted road rally car, built to a very exacting specification in order to compete in sub-1,400cc endurance rallies that don’t allow too much divergence from factory spec.

If you fancy yourself as a budding Hannu Mikkola or Roger Clark, then here’s an accessible way of living that dream in a car that wears the same distinctive ‘Coke Bottle’ two-door body shell of those iconic rally Escorts, but in a more affordable and tamer package. 

Furthermore, it’s all good to go. This isn’t a rally car project, so much as a rally car ‘off-the-peg’ with all of the equipment you need to take part in proper club road rally events. It was built as an endurance rally car, but with the demise of many these events and their rough nature meant it has been used for less extreme road and targa rallying instead plus the odd sprint and hillclimb.

The owner is an enthusiast who loves competition cars, with the Escort sharing garage space with a Lotus Elise S1 and a Caterham. He’s selling it to dedicate more time towards track-based competition.

While there isn’t a huge amount known about the car’s early years, it appears to have started life as an Escort 1300E, hence the rectangular headlamps, brown velour rear seat and wooden door cappings. 

That’s largely irrelevant, though, as it was essentially built in the late 2000s as a competition car from the ground-up, to compete in endurance rallying, and was acquired by its current owner in 2013 to use for road rallies. The specification is incredible, with all the paperwork and requirements met to pass scrutineering. 

Supplied with the car are a number of spare parts including a second gearbox (in need of refurbishment), replacement standard height front struts and hubs plus front cage bars should the new owner want to use the Escort to compete in more extreme events with the addition of horizontal bars to make a full cage.

The Escort comes with a full UK V5 and new MoT (despite being MoT exempt), along with a huge file of bills relating to its build, including one for a recent gearbox replacement and a genuine Mk1 Escort fuel tank.

Here’s where the serious business takes place, so it’s no surprise to find there’s not a huge amount of standard 1300E Escort left inside the cabin – the brown velour rear seat and door caps being the only original parts. 

The cabin is dominated by a Safety Devices half roll cage and twin OMP sports rally seats with FIA-approved, but out of date, four-point harnesses, while there are twin Brantz International tripmeters with remote display for the driver and dual clocks. There’s also map light for the co-driver and a digital sensor-driven speedo for the driver.

There’s also a fire extinguisher with quick release clips and a passenger’s footrest to keep the co-driver firmly in place, plus an alloy door pocket for rally paperwork (mounted without damage to the door card), and a Sabelt steering wheel spaced closer to the driver. 

In addition, it’s all extremely well-finished and screwed together, showing it off as a properly executed build. 

One of the things we love most about this car is that it retains its original ‘Sahara Beige’ paint scheme and pin stripes – you can just imagine it starting life in suburbia, getting lovingly waxed every weekend alongside a neatly manicured lawn by a man in a matching beige cardigan.

Little did that first owner know that – almost five decades later – not only would his beloved Escort 1300E still be alive, but would also be wearing RS four-spokes (The seller is not 100% sure these are genuine) and Cibie spot lamps, ready to drift its way through the tarmac back roads of Essex and Hertfordshire, as it has done for the past seven years. 

The car sits lower than it did when new, too, thanks to shorter suspension struts and lowering blocks at the rear, while other rally friendly mods include a strut brace, skid plates underneath and a tough alloy sump guard, gusseted chassis rails, mud flaps, suitable tyres (including two spares) and GAZ adjustable rear shocks. 

It appears to be extremely solid and structurally spot-on, with no evidence of corrosion on top or underneath.

Oh, and did we happen to mention the fact that it looks really, really cool? 

The 1,300cc Crossflow engine is hardly a firebreather and the Escort won’t get away from the lights any quicker than a modern diesel repmobile, but that’s hardly the point here.

It has been built with very specific competition requirements in mind, using popular period modifications to exploit what was one of Ford’s famously most tuneable engines. 

Aside from the strut brace, the first thing you notice under the bonnet is the performance filter, beneath which sits a twin choke downdraft Weber carburettor. The car also has a Lumenition electronic ignition and a new distributor, as well as Tony Law exhaust manifold – a big name in competition exhausts. 

The engine itself is a Philspeed unit built for competition and it requires a lead substitute to avoid damage to the valve seats so you need to add lead substitute to the petrol, a bottle of which comes with the car and will last a fair few tanks full of fuel. 

Engine aside, there’s a four-speed period gearbox, adjustable rear shocks, a part stainless steel exhaust system, a quick steering rack and a limited slip differential along with performance upgraded discs and drums.

Again, the quality of the build and detail is exceptional. 

There’s a huge amount to love about this car. It looks perfect – just the right amount of tweaks and mods to keep it within ‘standard’ rallying classes, and not so far removed from a road car to look too extreme (the standard width arches and small wheels, for example, retain the delicacy of the car’s original styling). 

Yet look deeper and the build here is stunning, both in detail and in execution. It has been created to meet endurance rally specification and not a detail has been missed. There is thousands of pounds worth of rally kit here alone, along with an exceptional Mk 1 Escort shell. 

As a competition car to use right now, it’s perfect, not least because it’s also quite a charming classic in its own right. But it’s also the perfect basis if you wanted to take it further. 

It’s both charming and interesting, while at the same time offering a whole different level of fun to a park-up and polish classic.