Tag Archives: Escort

Bombproof Escort – Ford Escort 1850GT FEV 1H

Motorsport owe’s much of it’s history to the publishers of Newspapers keen create events which would resonate and engage their readers, indeed the very first recorded motorsport events emanated from the minds of the editors of ‘Le Vélocipède’, who in 1887 attracted a single car entry for a 1.2 mile race across Paris and ‘Le Petit Journal’, who in 1897 69 entries for a 79 mile ‘race’ from Paris to Rouen. By 1908 individual events took on global challenges such as the 12,000 mile 169 day New York west to Paris race which was co sponsored by The New York Times and Le Martin.

Possibly inspired by another 10,000 mile ten day event the London to Sydney Rally of 1968, Australian advertising sage Wylton Dickson came up with the idea of organizing a 1970 World Cup Rally to link London which had played host to the 1966 World (Soccer) Cup to Mexico which was to play host to the 1970 World (Soccer) Cup at a party in London over a glass of wine while chatting to Irish Rally Champion Paddy Hopkirk.

Wylton, who had never so much as seen a rally before approached Stuart Turner Ford competitions manager who gave him the thumbs up and the Daily Mirror who provided the sponsorship for the event. British Rally Champion John Sprinzel was allowed to set up an HQ at the Royal Automobile Clubs Belgrave offices from which to run the whole 16,000 mile event which crossed 26 countries on three continents in 25 days.

Good to his word when the 1970 World Cup Rally was announced Stuart Turner entered 6 Ford Escorts into the event for Poles Sobieslaw Zasada / Marek Wachowsk, Finns Hannu Mikkola / Gunnar Palm, England soccer star Jimmy Greaves with pro co driver Tony Fall, Monte Carlo Rally winners Raunno Aaltonen / Henry Liddon, British rally stars Roger Clark / Alec Poole and Finish rally legend Timo Makinen co driven by Frenchman Gilbert Staepelaere. Other entries in the 96 car field included a VW Beach Buggy a five car factory Moskivitch team from the USSR and two privately entered Rolls Royce’s a Silver Cloud and a Silver Shadow !

Ford’s official reason for fitting these bars in front of the windscreen was that they were to protect the drivers from Condors in the Andes mountains of South America, but it has been noted that these bars connect the top of the front suspension towers to the top of the A pillars which coincidentally helps transfer suspension shock to the roof diverting them away from some of the weaker welds in the bodywork.

It is thought enough parts were produced for just 8 of the 1970 World Cup spec 1850 GT Escorts, which after the disappointment of easily leading the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon only for the Lotus Twin Cam engine in Roger Clark’s Cortina Lotus to fail, meaning these cars were built to be bomb proof against all foreseeable eventualities. Instead of using Lotus Twin Cam motors Ford Kent 1600cc / 97 cui pushrod motors were bored out to 1850cc / 112 cui fitted with a single Weber carburetor and dry sump lubrication which aids ground clearance. These motors were simple, durable and above all easily repairable, they were tuned to run on the low octane fuel that was to be found in the high altitude andean mountains on the South American legs of the route where stages of 500 plus miles were not uncommon and average speeds in excess of 90 mph were expected in order not to attract penalty points.

Hannu Mikkola had a relatively trouble free run dropping just 9 hours in penalty points over the course of the 25 day marathon, 4 of the other Escorts in the top 6 of the 23 finishers. During the course of the event FEV 1H became one of the most famous of Rally Vehicles of all time and is still among the most loved. As a result of the 1970 World Cup Rally win Ford launched a new sporty version of the Escort called the Ford Mexico with the 1600 / 97 cui Kent pushrod motor fitted to an Advanced Vehicle Operations strengthened “Type 49” body shell.

In 1995 there was a 25th Anniversary re run of the 1970 World Cup Rally, miraculously Ford ‘found’ a new unused Escort shell and built a new car to the same specifications as FEV 1H. Hannu Mikkola came out of retirement with Gunnar Palm to win the rerun as well, the new cars registration is H1 FEV.

Thanks for joining me on this Bombproof Escort edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Beginners Luck – Cross Trophy Car Trial

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Yesterday marked my return to competitive driving, after a 21 year gap, as a rookie in the discipline of Production Car Trials, a low cost discipline that was just as unlikely as my first attempt at competition in a series for Citroen 2 CV’s and in a vehicle with an equally unlikely competition history.

The Cross Trophy Car Trial was held in a field belonging to fellow competitor Duncan seen here at the wheel of his magnificent 1921 GN with his daughter just visible in the passenger seat.

A car trial is an event in which competitors are required to drive up a variety of ‘off road courses’ of varying difficulty, none of which on this event was more than a hundred yards long several of which were considerably shorter. The courses were marked out by Clerk of the Course Mal.

The aim of the competition is to see who can get the furthest up each hill with points being awarded on the number of markers cleared by the front wheels. Here the Westfield Ford of Malcom & Ann from Kidderminster can be seen scoring a perfect zero having cleared the last marker of a hill. The competitor with the lowest number of points wins his or her class.

I was running in the production front wheel drive class for vehicles which included this Citroen AX.

The 3 other classes included Front engine open sports cars, like this Scimitar SS1 1600 crewed by Dave and Chris from Yeovil who were running this car in for the much longer Lands End Trial next week,

front engine rear wheel drive saloon cars like this Ford Escort RS 1600 being driven by Nigel and his daughter Alice seen at the wheel here celebrating her 16th birthday,

and finally rear engine rear wheel drive cars like this Joyner being driven by fellow rookies to the discipline Ian & Tanya.

I had been unable to find a passenger for this event but fortunately 12 year old Laura seen here stepped in on the day and bravely sat alongside me in the 20 year old VW Passat as I struggled to find traction with clearly the largest car in the competition.

During scruitineering the battery and ballast security was checked, Malcom & Ann were carrying 280 lbs / 127 kgs of steel over the rear wheels of their Westfield, I had no ballast in the Passat. Tyre pressures for which a minimum permissible 14 psi was highly recommended were also checked during scruitineering.

Laura found my Passat considerably more comfortable than her Dad Andy’s Marlin in which she was also a passenger and by the end of the day Andy, Laura and I had all swapped passenger roles, going up a slope in a light rear wheel drive vehicle seemed considerably easier than a heavy front wheel drive car like the Passat.

After a total of four attempts on each of the five hills the Bristol Pegasus MC’s secretary Tim Murray, seen in the background here, added up the scores of all competitors and unbelievably yours truly was announced as winner of the front engine front wheel drive class, call it beginners luck or the versatility of the large and in charge Passat, I was thrilled to bits.

My thanks to Duncan, Laura, Andy, Mal, Tim, to my fellow competitors and everyone from the Bristol Pegasus MC who made this a memorable day out.

I hope you have enjoyed today’s, Car Trial edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now!

RIP Eddie Stobart – Ford Escort RS 1800 Replica

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