Escort endeavours

[Warren t claim]

I've had more Escorts than I care to remember.

My first ever company car was an XR3i E985AVX. In red with no options boxes ticked, it even had the white wheel trims.

[NergleFuttocks]

B348CEG - my first car. 1.3 base in Ceramic Blue. Loved that thing.

[Warren t claim]

I suppose this thread could be split into RWD and FWD sections.

[paulplom]

I bought an S reg mk6 off a builder mate for £800. It was only five or six years old at the time. Total misery spec with the ancient 1.3 crossflow/endura. Bland as fuck but was reliable enough while I had it. It was an unusual colour being a flat purple. Can't remember what happened to it.

[cuntbuster]

Following in from the mini and cortina threads. Most of us must have had at least one escort built 1968 to 2000. I did for a time but nothing much to report. Apart from probably replacement parts the cheapest of anything I have ever owned.

I was going to call this thread Escort Encounters.

I am sure there is enough material for a thread on, Paid Company.

[59Impala]

Almost forgot that I owned an R-reg Mk2 2-door back in about 1983. It was a swap for my 1963 Ford F100 which had a 350 Chevy motor for go power, owned it for three weeks and a friend wanted it so offered me the Escort. It was partially prepared to be a rally car, I think the shell started life as an 1100 Popular but it now had a 1600 crossflow with a Weber, sporty exhaust etc. Bilstein shocks, uprated struts and wide steels too. It also had a pair of comfy chairs, might have been Recaros but they didn't tip so not great access to the rear seat. It was white but a bit tatty and had already had new inner and outer sills. It went quite well and was fun in damp conditions as RWD Escorts are, it is obligatory to get the rear end out (not mine) on roundabouts in a hooligan kind of way. Being a driving god I didn't put mine on its roof (see Hooli for details) and it was good fun. After a while another friend asked if I wanted to swap it for his Volvo 1800E so I did. Oh the swaps started with a 1963 Galaxie saloon bought for 200 quid from yet another friend, then the F100, Escort then the Volvo. Made a good profit on the 1800E too and it's still on the road.

Final note, I can remember helping another friend fill a rust hole in the top of the front wing of a G-reg Mk1, this was in the summer of 1972 so that car was only about 3-4 years old.

[xtriple]

Well well. Here we go as I made a healthy living selling MK3/4 XR3i and RS Fords back in the frozen 80s. But, to the beginning, we shall go instead of listing countless XR3Is...

My first experience of the Escort was a mate's utterly fucked MK1 with lowered rear and standard height front (the fast way... apparently?) and an engine and box from a Pinto Cortina (2.0 litre) which was excellent fun.

In a fit of apathy, I bought my then-girlfriend a Skoda 110 and proudly presented it to her for her birthday. needless to say, she hated it and never drove it! So I flogged it (and made a tidy profit!) and bought her a MK1 Escort 1100, in metallic grey with rubber mats inside and the floor-mounted button for the washers. It was a decent enough car to be honest and while it was woefully underpowered, it was decent to drive.

It stayed around for years and years and stayed standard with a rapidly expanding amount of Isopon in the front wings until her Uncle died and left her his really nice, very low mileage metallic green 1300 XL (he was a farmer and used his tractor for most journeys) and so the poor old 1100 was retired back to me.

One sad day, I used it to commute to Grimsby where I was working at the time, there was an accident ahead and I and the car behind me, stopped and waited... watching in total horror as a cop car came tearing up behind and ploughed into the car behind, which hit me and pushed me into the car in front! All of us innocent parties were royally fucked by Humberside Police and never got a fucking penny out of it.

In these more wasteful times, the Escort would have been a Write-off, but instead, it sat for a while (while insurance companies decided who wasn't paying who) and then, in disgust, I put a jack and lumps of wood into the boot and pushed the back end back to shape, got a pink (yes really, household emulsion pink!) bootlid from the scrapyard for £3 complete with a spoiler and fitted two new front wings. No bumpers front or rear as they were both a tiny bit bent...

It then acquired a fetching spray job in grey primer...

From that point, it got faster and faster, first with a 1600 engine and then a 2.0, bigger wheels and tyres and flared arches (of course!) and lost more and more of its interior. Fuck, I loved that car!

Then one day, in another one of my periodic fits of enthusiasm, I had it sprayed. White, shiny and it looked great. I hated it and sold it shortly after.

I really do not learn...

I had a MK2 RS2000 which was a 'Y' reg that had come over from Ireland (and been registered on the latest plate as was the way back then) it had, sadly, been a fucking rally car over there and the bodyshell had cracks in it everywhere, A and B posts were cracked, under the floor the frame rails were cracked, the spring hangers, everything. Needless to say, I crashed it!

Well, I say 'crashed it' what I mean is; knocked down a tree and parked the car on the trunk! It was fucked but it did get rebuilt, re-sprayed and re-sold.

There have been many, many others.

I well remember the days when you could barely give a 1300 with rent and rates away, £150 for a tidy car was not unusual. They were worthless scrapyard fodder, now... Fuck me!

[xtriple]

I forgot, when the first was still an 1100, I used to rev it until the valves bounced (seriously, a cloud of smoke out the back and no more forward motion) before changing gear! I thrashed the nellies off it everywhere and every time. It was great fun and the more ratty it looked, the more I loved it!

It had Corbeau rally seats in the front, no seats in the back, Webber carb (on the 1100!) that got re-jetted and re-choked for each subsequent larger engine. Used to send the spec of the engine off to some company and the relevant chokes and jets would arrive a few days later in the post. Always worked first time out of the box, what the fuck happened now you can't even get standard gear to work from a factor!

[Hooli]

I recalled the story of the funniest time I was stopped by plod earlier so here it is for your enjoyment*

Recall I had a red 4 door Mk2? Well so did someone else I knew too. This came in helpful after being stopped for driving around town in the approved fashion for RWD Escorts, with more than a dab of oppo.
I'm busy telling the officer it wasn't me as I'd only just got to town when he asked "how many red Mk2 Escorts were driving sideways around town tonight?" Imagine my joy as the other one came tearing around the corner in the approved fashion and slid past us, giving me the perfect reply "well there's one"...
Cue a five minute bollocking and being told to fuck off and behave:lol:

[Warren t claim]

I'm sure that you all know about the time myself and a friend totally trashed and set fire to an RS1800?