'72 Escort "Superspeed 2000GT" Invoice + Papertrail

'72 Escort "Superspeed 2000GT" Invoice + Papertrail

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storminnorman

Original Poster:

2,357 posts

159 months

Sunday 3rd February 2013
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After seeing that Capri invoice the other day I thought this might interest some folks. This was one of my Grandfather's work cars - interesting because it seems to be fitted with a Cortina engine and supplied by tuner 'Superspeed' - all of which is new to me. Hopefully someone can fill in the gaps.

A quick search of the reg/C.N suggests it has long since perished. No photos of the car have been found... yet!




Apparently it was not unknown for my Grandfather to dismantle new company cars for fun. There are many similar letters regarding other cars that he'd found faults with.




Nonetheless, it seems engine faults did not prevent him from making good use of the car:


(it was 50 in a 30)

smile

4rephill

5,066 posts

185 months

Sunday 3rd February 2013
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The car lasted almost 8 years according to the DVLA:

The vehicle details for KGU 339K are:

Date of Liability 01 12 1979
Date of First Registration 13 01 1972
Year of Manufacture Not Available
Cylinder Capacity (cc) 2000cc
CO2 Emissions Not Available
Fuel Type PETROL
Export Marker N
Vehicle Status Unlicensed
Vehicle Colour BLUE
Vehicle Type Approval Not Available




timolloyd

229 posts

167 months

Sunday 3rd February 2013
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Brilliant bit of history. He sounds like a patient chap (apart from the speeding!)

V8 FOU

2,991 posts

154 months

Sunday 3rd February 2013
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Early Pinto engines weren't too clever. Getting parts, especially cams and followers was always difficult until mid - late 70's when pattern ones appeared. Then you needed the splined tool for head bolts and cam tensioner bolts - all very high tech in those days!
Lovely piece of history - keep searching for any more!

S0 What

3,358 posts

179 months

Monday 4th February 2013
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Great bit of history to a rare ole car smile
There were a few firms that beat ford to the RS2000 (oct73), superspeed, race proved and Basil Green, although all were more famous for thier V6 conversions.
It doesn't surprise me in the least to hear of oil delivery problems on the early pinto, it's exactly those early problems that earned them the tag of a cam eater (well that and the fact the early cams were soft and ford used a differant casting technice to cure it), it still haunted them well into the sierra production even though by then it was totaly untrue.
Any pics of the car ?

storminnorman

Original Poster:

2,357 posts

159 months

Monday 4th February 2013
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S0 What said:
Great bit of history to a rare ole car smile
There were a few firms that beat ford to the RS2000 (oct73), superspeed, race proved and Basil Green, although all were more famous for thier V6 conversions.
It doesn't surprise me in the least to hear of oil delivery problems on the early pinto, it's exactly those early problems that earned them the tag of a cam eater (well that and the fact the early cams were soft and ford used a differant casting technice to cure it), it still haunted them well into the sierra production even though by then it was totaly untrue.
Any pics of the car ?
No pics of the car - yet - still plenty of drawers and boxes to go through mind you! however there's enough ford-stamped bits of metal in the basement to recreate at least one escort hehe
I'm going to keep browsing through the papers because I'm pretty sure he moved to an rs2000 in 73 or 74. Basil Green rings a bell! thanks for the info.

iSore

4,011 posts

151 months

Tuesday 5th February 2013
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Aah, the wrongly fitted oil pump gasket......

20 odd years ago I rebuilt a 2 litre Pinto to go in our Mark 3 Transit van 1600. Gasflowed head, Piper 270 cam and a 32/36 Weber. Went very well indeed, but it always took 3 or 4 seconds for the oil light to go out. Suspecting a faulty pump, I whipped off the sump and pump and found my mistake.
The trick with these was to drill out the oil holes in the cam spray bar. The oil pump in the pinto was so powerful that it still gave factory oil pressure, and cam wear was eliminated.

With the 1600 diff, you could race reps in 1600 Cavaliers and hang onto them up to 90.

S0 What

3,358 posts

179 months

Tuesday 5th February 2013
quotequote all
iSore said:
Aah, the wrongly fitted oil pump gasket......

20 odd years ago I rebuilt a 2 litre Pinto to go in our Mark 3 Transit van 1600. Gasflowed head, Piper 270 cam and a 32/36 Weber. Went very well indeed, but it always took 3 or 4 seconds for the oil light to go out. Suspecting a faulty pump, I whipped off the sump and pump and found my mistake.
The trick with these was to drill out the oil holes in the cam spray bar. The oil pump in the pinto was so powerful that it still gave factory oil pressure, and cam wear was eliminated.

With the 1600 diff, you could race reps in 1600 Cavaliers and hang onto them up to 90.
Worthwhile mod back in the day, later (85 on, 205 block engines) had larger holes in the spray bar from the factory wink
The early cam wear problems where down to soft metal the cams were made of, they started to use chilled casting techniques to cure that particular problem but didn't figure out the oil bar mod for years whilst us plebs (or customers as ford called us) figured it all out by ourselves biggrin

BSA

98 posts

165 months

Tuesday 5th February 2013
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I knew Stan Young the Ford main Dealer very well in the mid 80's i dated his grand daughter for many years, Stan and his brother Reg
also had a branch in Shacklewell Lane Dalston and i think one other can't quite remember were it was now. Their son in Law Malcom was their head so sales during the early 70's

iSore

4,011 posts

151 months

Wednesday 6th February 2013
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4rephill said:
The car lasted almost 8 years according to the DVLA:

The vehicle details for KGU 339K are:

Date of Liability 01 12 1979
Date of First Registration 13 01 1972
Year of Manufacture Not Available
Cylinder Capacity (cc) 2000cc
CO2 Emissions Not Available
Fuel Type PETROL
Export Marker N
Vehicle Status Unlicensed
Vehicle Colour BLUE
Vehicle Type Approval Not Available
I can hear the V5 application forms winging their way to DVLA as we speak!

iSore

4,011 posts

151 months

Wednesday 6th February 2013
quotequote all
S0 What said:
Worthwhile mod back in the day, later (85 on, 205 block engines) had larger holes in the spray bar from the factory wink
The early cam wear problems where down to soft metal the cams were made of, they started to use chilled casting techniques to cure that particular problem but didn't figure out the oil bar mod for years whilst us plebs (or customers as ford called us) figured it all out by ourselves biggrin
Indeed. My old Man had a Capri 2000S back in the day ('77-80) and whilst it didn't need a cam, it did need a head gasket or two to try and cure that oil leak from the front on the head. The wonder of spline drive sockets and head bolts!

Shadow R1

3,818 posts

183 months

Thursday 7th February 2013
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Thats a superb bit of history. smile

storminnorman

Original Poster:

2,357 posts

159 months

Thursday 18th July 2013
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Small update, finally happened across a picture of the car! Seems he put the engine back together long enough for it to get up north (lakes or scotland?)

Dated 1972. The photo is actually a lot better but i put the flash on to bring out the details.

john2443

6,393 posts

218 months

Friday 19th July 2013
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Wonderful story!

It's always puzzled me why the upmarket Escort models had the crappy rectangular headlights though!

121peter

1 posts

4 months

Sunday 21st July
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YJI 1906 is the registration of another 2000gt that had come from the young brothers stable. Spent its life rallying around the hill sides of Ireland. At some point the cortina engine was removed and now has a yb cosworth in it .