Yesterday

PH Annual Service | MST Evo-X Carbon Fibre

Last year Bicester was the location for MST's wildest creation yet; now the Mk2 Evo-X is back in black... 

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You’ll remember the MST Evo-X. All of the Escort-shaped creations coming out of North Wales recently are fantastic, but the X really raised the bar; paying homage to the X-Pack Mk2s of the '70s and shown to the world at Annual Service last year, it represented the ultimate MST: more than 360hp from a Millington Diamond, AP Racing brakes, independent rear suspension and more. 

Well, we thought it was the ultimate. Turns out MST had something a little extra up its sleeve, and that’s the Mk2 Evo-X Carbon. Which in the fullness of time will be very much as it sounds: where there were steel panels before, there is now, as you can see, glorious composite, which is said to be 75 per cent lighter. And the Evo-X was hardly going to be a heavy car to begin with. MST says it’s taken more than a year of design and engineering to get an Mk2 to this point, creating the moulds and getting the panels to fit. It believes that the resulting Evo-X ‘can be tailored to suit any enthusiast - whether for the road, the race track, or hill climbing.’

To that end, the same level of configurability will be offered to Carbon Fibre customers as with any other MST commission. So a manual or a sequential can be paired to that 2.8-litre, four-cylinder screamer, and suspension can come from Bilstein, Tractive or Reiger (talk about a holy trinity of providers); an Evo-X could be built entirely with road use in mind, or buyers could go full retro racer if desired. And presumably with the carbon very heavily PPF’d whatever you choose to do. 

Though just a shell for now, the rest of the Carbon Fibre package will follow the template laid out by the ‘standard’ Evo-X, including the droop snoot front (complete in you know what), 17-inch wheels ‘for a perfect balance of style and performance’, plus an interior decked out in carbon with Recaro seats. Not that anyone will care about the interior, when the outside looks like this. Be sure to check it out if you’re at Bicester on Saturday!

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• New MST Evo-X unveiled at PH Annual Service
  
• You had me at AVO: MST shows new Mk1 Sports

[Familymad]

Ohhhh yum

I hope MST are not expanding and complicating their core business model too much and too quickly. They are onto something good, but need to keep the core builds coming through and the money rolling in. This can’t have been a cheap project…

[nismo48]

I do love a nicely modded Escort

[GTRene]

damn... its says you want this too, and I do

although they also have to make a good chassis with individual suspension without the leave springs.

[Bencolem]

It would constantly trigger me that the weave centre line is off centre on the front lower valance…

[fttm]

Love a good Escort but this does nothing for me , the 17" rims will look dire imho .If it is as claimed 75% lighter there's no way in hell that you'll get the power down . A well used GP4 plus the spare 100k in my pocket would be much more appealing .

[BunkMoreland]

fttm said:

Love a good Escort but this does nothing for me , the 17" rims will look dire imho .If it is as claimed 75% lighter there's no way in hell that you'll get the power down . A well used GP4 plus the spare 100k in my pocket would be much more appealing .

Similar. I get the work that's gone into it.

BUT

a) Escorts have always been about relatively cheap fun for dicking about in. Not uber serious, hundreds of grand!
b) MST already make a range of steel bodied cars that, frankly, aren't flying off the shelves anyway. So diversification into the "silly money" realm probably isn't going to attract loads of new money

[Astacus]

Here’s a question: how are these registered for the road? Do you need to provide a donor?

[Benzinaio]

Looks to me like Garry went to Halfords for some vinyl.
Absolutely awful.

[Angelo1985]

I can’t think of a worse way of spending your money.

[singlecoil]

Astacus said:

Here’s a question: how are these registered for the road? Do you need to provide a donor?

They'll need to pass IVA tests then can be registered as new cars. The tricky bit is passing the test.

[Andy665]

Had a long chat with their Supply Change Manager today at the Annual Service - if that level of passion, enthusiasm and general all round "good bloke" is typical of MST then they have gone even higher in my estimations, they deserve the plaudits they are getting

[Mr Fix It]

This must be the only restomod type car which actually does need bigger wheels!

[MrHooky]

Bencolem said:

It would constantly trigger me that the weave centre line is off centre on the front lower valance…

The fit of the headlight surround in the first pic is woeful too.

I get this appeals to some. But carbon fibre looks best placed on exotic machinery. I'm just not sure a rebodied Escort is exotic. Simply appealing to those with rose tinted spec and the means to afford one now - which to be fair is still a solid business case.

I can appreciate it and glad it exists. But would never be on my euro millions list...

[NorfolkGTI]

Imagine if the somewhat underwhelming 8v Pinto based RS2000 actually resembled this back in the day and rather than the Pinto they had used a further evolution of the 16v BDA engine.

[DaveyBoyWonder]

Clicked into the article think it was an actual Evo X (of the Mitsubishi type) with carbon body. Disappointed to find something that looks like an old Ford bodyshell.

[Peterpetrole]

fttm said:

Love a good Escort but this does nothing for me , the 17" rims will look dire imho .If it is as claimed 75% lighter there's no way in hell that you'll get the power down . A well used GP4 plus the spare 100k in my pocket would be much more appealing .

lol physics

[GTRene]

MrHooky said:

Bencolem said:

It would constantly trigger me that the weave centre line is off centre on the front lower valance…

The fit of the headlight surround in the first pic is woeful too.

I get this appeals to some. But carbon fibre looks best placed on exotic machinery. I'm just not sure a rebodied Escort is exotic. Simply appealing to those with rose tinted spec and the means to afford one now - which to be fair is still a solid business case.

I can appreciate it and glad it exists. But would never be on my euro millions list...

spotted that as well, then I remembered those were originally rubber things and they all do that sir, something like that? at least my 4 ex Escort's RS2000 mk2 came with those rubber things.