Seems like everyone’s having a crack at ‘reimagined’ Fords at the moment. MST has been bringing early Escorts into the 21st century for a few years now, recently unveiling its bonkers RS2000-based Evo-X at our Annual Service back in August. That same month, newcomer Vision 148 took the wraps off its Carbon Piranha, an almost cyberpunk take on the Sierra RS Cosworth, and as of last week, Boreham Motorworks has joined the party (or should that be fiesta?) with a 10,000rpm Escort Mk1 RS.
What’s particularly interesting about the Boreham car (aside from the way it looks, screaming four-pot and 800kg kerbweight) is that it’s been given the seal of approval from Ford itself. Not only does this mean its cars can wear the Blue Oval and get their own Ford chassis numbers, it also opens up a treasure trove of potential restomods. Boreham’s already working on a reimagined version of the RS200 Group B car, but what comes after that is anyone’s guess. If it keeps the rally theme going, then perhaps it’ll be a reworking of the Escort RS Cosworth - a bit like the car you see here.
Okay, so the Mk5 Escort isn’t nearly as pretty as the original, nor does it have the single-mindedness of the RS200, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t ripe for a Boreham-style revamping. While not an especially successful rally car in period, taking just a handful of WRC wins, its mere presence in one of rallying’s golden eras has cemented it as one of the great homologation heroes. Of course, it helped that you could go to your local Ford dealer and pick up an RS Cosworth that looked almost identical to the one being driven by Carlos Sainz and Juha Kankkunen, from the flared wheel arches to the ginormous boot spoiler.
However, the car we have here is neither a road-going RS Cosworth nor one of the original WRC machines. Instead, it's a Group N car, meaning it’s mechanically similar to the road-going RS Cosworth, albeit with a stripped-out interior, chunky rally tyres, a roll cage and strengthened suspension mounts. This example, however, has been upgraded to ‘Group N+’ spec, as it benefits from uprated engine components, including racier camshafts, and is now delivering north of 300hp - putting it on par with full-blown WRC machines of the era.
Normally, you’d think an old Group N car would make a fine basis for a restomod build, but you might want to think twice about mucking about with this one. See, once it’d been received by its original owner, a Jakarta-based rally enthusiast, in the early '90s, this Escort competed in just a few stages before being parked up in the back of sizeable collection and remained there untouched for many years. It was then shipped off to Australia, where it again sat dormant, before returning to the UK last year, as you may have seen on an episode of The Late Brake Show.
Since then, it's been given a thorough (and pricey) restoration to get it back into working order, and arguably looks better now than it would have done back in period. Staggeringly, it’s covered just 703 miles, and is somewhat of a legend in rally circles as no one knew of the mythical delivery-mile Escort’s whereabouts until recently. As such, it packs a punchy price tag at £150,000, which is admittedly a good deal cheaper than a full-blown WRC car but still a significant leap over an RS Cosworth, though this 408-mile example comes mighty close. Then there’s the conundrum of what you do with it: keep it as the fabled box-fresh Escort, or set it free in a historic rally series of your choosing? We’ll let you decide on that one.
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