Works Rally Escorts

[AceRockatansky]

Seen this pop up on race cars direct.

https://racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Details/142431/f...

Definitely a works plate and did end up in that livery.

[aeropilot]

AceRockatansky said:

Seen this pop up on race cars direct.

https://racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Details/142431/f...

Definitely a works plate and did end up in that livery.

Interesting VIN number, in that Boreham allocated it an Aveley VIN number.....probably from a batch of the early Aveley assembled RS1800 road car allocated VIN's.

Although it was sold to Sutton's, and painted in Rothmans's livery, it was never entered in any event by Sutton's, so only ever competed as a Boreham car, never a Sutton Motorsport car.

Its not FIA compliant with those hideous wheels though

[fttm canada]

Appears to be another MTW200P in Motorcraft livery , who would have thought

[aeropilot]

fttm canada said:

Appears to be another MTW200P in Motorcraft livery , who would have thought

And that one was restored by David Sutton's Historic Motorsport after it came back from Portugal, and is claimed to be the original car by Sutton.

But there's pretty much no such thing as an original ex-works Escort....even Ford swapped the identities around in period

The Motorcraft liveried one though is UK DVLA registered with that number plate, so that one in Germany couldn't be imported into UK and retain that number plate.

[Mark A S]

The most original Ex Works/Sutton Escort, apart from a little paint touch up on the front of the rear arches and some underseal applied underneath is VLE in Beauleigh, owned I believe by DR from Prodrive. DR also owns DKP which I also did from 83 to 86. There is Nothing original about that car, not even the log book, BUT it’s a beautiful re-creation and IMO belonging to the right person, well, apart from me!

Aero will correct me but I also believe there is a Mk 1 safari winning car that is also mostly original.

I recall there was a big ta do about LAR 801P Timo’s 1975 RAC winning car that was sold off the New Zealand by Ford. It miraculously re-appeared in the UK a few years ago all freshly restored. Not long after the owners of the original car in NZ heard about it and naturally disputed its heritage, however when it went to NZ it had a local plate applied, hence the LAR number was sitting dormant in the UK until someone bought it.
Same thing happened with DKP as that became a race car not licensed for around 10 years or so.

Personally, I would Never want to buy anything with a claimed “Ex Works” plate on, sadly to much chance its not what it seems.

[Ranger 6]

I'm no expert, but it just looks wrong.

The livery is a very poor copy, the 'wrong' wheels, not even a front number plate - a stick on one etc, etc.

[aeropilot]

Mark A S said:

The most original Ex Works/Sutton Escort, apart from a little paint touch up on the front of the rear arches and some underseal applied underneath is VLE in Beauleigh, owned I believe by DR from Prodrive.

Didn't know VLE was owned by DR.
I thought it had been donated to the NMM by Rothmans immediately after the 81 RAC, its one and only event.

[GTRene]

wow, 275 NA hp from a 1800 wonder how long such engine hold between rebuilds?

[Mark A S]

GTRene said:

wow, 275 NA hp from a 1800 wonder how long such engine hold between rebuilds?

No chance, awful lot of BS spoken about BD power figures, 275 maybe if a 2.2 on injection revving to 11

[aeropilot]

GTRene said:

wow, 275 NA hp from a 1800 wonder how long such engine hold between rebuilds?

Its a 2.0 litre BDG, not a 1800, and as Mark says, it'll be more like 240-250hp on a good day.

Nowt like the sound of a BD singing in a forest at 9k+.

[fttm canada]

Had two BDGs , from different builders , first was 240bhp second was 270bhp . Both more than adequate

[gt40steve]

Yes a proper BDG is those sorts of figures.

I read an article by Graham Warner of 'The Chequered Flag' sponsored Lancia Stratos's. The Stratos has a mythical status but Graham stated that a BDG Escort would pull away from his cars on a straight.

[aeropilot]

gt40steve said:

Yes a proper BDG is those sorts of figures.

I read an article by Graham Warner of 'The Chequered Flag' sponsored Lancia Stratos's. The Stratos has a mythical status but Graham stated that a BDG Escort would pull away from his cars on a straight.

The Chequered Flag rally Stratos was actually put on a dyno in 1982 during a test by Autocar, and it made 255hp at 7800rpm.

I don't believe Lancia ever got the 24v version of the V6 homologated for the Stratos before they killed it of in favour of the Fiat 131, as I believe, the 24v versions were comfortably in the 290-300hp power range, which would have not only made the swb Stratos even more twitchy to drive, but would have it a super quick Grp.4 tarmac car in its day.

[fttm canada]

gt40steve said:

Yes a proper BDG is those sorts of figures.

I read an article by Graham Warner of 'The Chequered Flag' sponsored Lancia Stratos's. The Stratos has a mythical status but Graham stated that a BDG Escort would pull away from his cars on a straight.

The knack with a BD is not to hang onto the gears under acceleration but to be changing up at max 5500/6000 rpm, makes a huge difference .

[generationx]

Any “Ex-Works” Escort which comes up for sale makes me nervous. Graham Robson, my late father and prolific author, was extremely cynical about any car the minute it left Boreham permanently as posters such as Mark and Aero will no doubt agree.

If I was in the market for a car like this I would need much more information, plus the hands-on advice of someone like Dave Watkins to look deeply in to it. At this age, except for very few notable (and previously mentioned) examples, there is absolutely no such thing as an original car.

[Mark A S]

fttm canada said:

The knack with a BD is not to hang onto the gears under acceleration but to be changing up at max 5500/6000 rpm, makes a huge difference .

Really, the 2lt injected BDG i had in DKP 40 odd years ago didn't start to work until 6000 rpm, if i changed up then it would be no faster than a 1300 sport

I have sat behind a few BD's all of them, without exception including a injected 2.2 [ which was easily the punchiest N/A one ] needed to be revved hard to go. Maybe your referring to standard road car versions ?

[Dapster]

Ranger 6 said:

...not even a front number plate - a stick on one etc, etc.

It had a real number plate when Ari Vatenen won the '79 Welsh in Eaton Yale livery



Then it was stuck on the bonnet when Patrick Snijers took it to the Ypres '79



Stuck on number plate on this example which Historic Motorsports recommissioned - they claim "ex works"



https://www.historicmotorsport.net/projects/

All these have "F-O-R-D" on the grill, rather than the blue oval which the Rothmans car has!

[fttm canada]

Mark A S said:

fttm canada said:

The knack with a BD is not to hang onto the gears under acceleration but to be changing up at max 5500/6000 rpm, makes a huge difference .

Really, the 2lt injected BDG i had in DKP 40 odd years ago didn't start to work until 6000 rpm, if i changed up then it would be no faster than a 1300 sport

I have sat behind a few BD's all of them, without exception including a injected 2.2 [ which was easily the punchiest N/A one ] needed to be revved hard to go. Maybe your referring to standard road car versions ?

No full Grp4 , with the exception of Peter Lloyd who'd always rev the tits off his cars lol , it's the way to do it . Holding a gear to 8500+ you won't be making as much speed as being at 6 in a higher gear . A few mates were dubious too until they tried it and saw the evidence via times and also videos of before and after . This is running 5.1 btw

[aeropilot]

Dapster said:

All these have "F-O-R-D" on the grill, rather than the blue oval which the Rothmans car has!

Never noticed the Ford oval grille on the advert.

I don't recall ever seeing a Mk.2 with a front grille like that....?
I thought the only grille's for flat front Mk.2's were the ones with the F-O-R-D script.

[520TORQUES]

fttm canada said:

Mark A S said:

fttm canada said:

The knack with a BD is not to hang onto the gears under acceleration but to be changing up at max 5500/6000 rpm, makes a huge difference .

Really, the 2lt injected BDG i had in DKP 40 odd years ago didn't start to work until 6000 rpm, if i changed up then it would be no faster than a 1300 sport

I have sat behind a few BD's all of them, without exception including a injected 2.2 [ which was easily the punchiest N/A one ] needed to be revved hard to go. Maybe your referring to standard road car versions ?

No full Grp4 , with the exception of Peter Lloyd who'd always rev the tits off his cars lol , it's the way to do it . Holding a gear to 8500+ you won't be making as much speed as being at 6 in a higher gear . A few mates were dubious too until they tried it and saw the evidence via times and also videos of before and after . This is running 5.1 btw

The only time that would make any sense is if you were traction limited, where you were trying to give the tyre less work to do. Where you had grip you would lose a lot of performance not using the higher power output at the top end.