1971 Ford Escort Mk1 Road/Rally

Based on a 1300E bodyshell, the Escort was a working rally car for a while before being taken off the circuit and treated to a bare-metal, ground-up restoration into a fast road/rally car.

We’ll talk about the Escort’s full specification later but the headlines are a 2.1-litre Pinto engine that pushes power via a Type 9 five-speed ‘Rocket’ gearbox with straight-cut Quaife gears and an English rear axle.

In the care of the vendor and its creator since 2009, it has only 500 miles under its belt since finishing the rebuild, so is nicely shaken down and ready for some retro-rally sideways action.

Only being sold to make room for the next project, this is your chance to own a competition-prepared MKI Escort – and with the market facing some uncertainties in the coming months, you might be able to do so more cheaply than at any time in the recent past…

The base bodyshell is a humble 1300E item. But, like an aging Hollywood star, the foundation is all but irrelevant as it has been comprehensively overhauled and improved with a series of well-considered body modifications.

So, while the front wings are from an Escort Mexico, both they and the rear wings have been bolstered by a full set of metal ‘forest’ arches that have been welded and smoothed in place. It’s a workmanlike job, and the resulting wheel-to-arch ratio is perfect, as is the stance. Few cars look as effortlessly muscular and purposeful as a well-fettled MKI Escort, this one is no exception as you can see from the photographs.

Finished in Ermine White, the combination of the colour of the paintwork and the chrome trim makes for an unusual, but unusually attractive, combination; as you’ll see from the mechanical specification, the owner has impeccable taste.

Panel alignment is good, and the paint finish is good-to-very-good. For a working competition machine, many of which are a bit rough around the edges, it is nicely finished.

A new stainless bumper set has been fitted front and rear using new brackets. The bonnet is restrained with a set of bonnet pins, while the boot lid is held down with a pair of competition spring fasteners.

Lighting comes courtesy of four 7” Cibie spot lamps fitted with matching Ford Rallye Sport covers, while the headlamps themselves have been upgraded to halogen bulbs. The front indicator bowls have been remanufactured and fitted underneath the original indicator lenses. New rear light lenses were sourced and fitted, and two Lucas reversing lights illuminate the rear of the Escort.

New window seals have been fitted throughout, as have new door and boot seals. The door locks have been rebuilt, and a new/old stock boot lock was tracked down and fitted.

The wheels – including the spare - are new 8x13-inch Superlite Minilite-style alloys shod with matching HYFLY HF201 206/60 x R13 tyres.

Problems are few. There is the odd stonechip and minor dink here and there, there are a few very small rust bubbles on the trailing edge of the passenger door, the sills, and the lower front valance and wings. (Trivial stuff, and after all this was not built to be a trailer queen) In addition, the front edge of the bonnet is rust-stained. The bodyshell itself has been welded in the past as new metal has been let in the replace the inevitable corrosion. It’s very strong, but there are a number of historic patches and repairs to it.

The alloy wheels also have the odd minor mark on them too, but none of this is crying out for attention and it could all be dealt with as and when time and funds allow.

The seats are heavily bolstered Sparco Sprints, and while they might not be the easiest things to get into, they grip like Katie Price on a footballer’s wallet. Still in as-new condition, the passenger’s seat is fixed in position as you would expect, while the driver’s seat is on runners; a permanent fixing kit will be supplied with the car should the new owner prefer to mount it that way.

Both driver and passenger are restrained by black, four-point TRS harnesses, and a six-point Safety Devices bolt-in roll-cage further protects the occupants in the event of an accident. An OMP deep-dish suede steering wheel gives the driver something to hang on to and a master kill switch has been fitted inside the cockpit within easy reach of both the driver and the passenger.

The dashboard is new, and the dials are from an RS2000 - and rather than just slot them straight in they were carefully refurbished first. The rocker switches are a combination of refurbished and new/old stock, and a new custom wiring harness has been built and fitted. The car comes with a schematic diagram to help its future owners troubleshoot.

A one-piece carpet set has been fitted, along with new kick panels. New RS2000 door cards with strap handles were sourced, along with new rear panel cards with the ashtray delete option. The original window winder handles have been reused, albeit with custom alloy knobs.

The attention to detail is truly staggering: the door lock pins have been custom-made, and while the centre console is the original item, it has been modestly customized and smoothed. The headlining is a new white Loadstar item and was fitted with an original fitting kit; truly, the closer you look, the better it gets.

A rear-mounted battery box sits in the boot, along with the 12-gallon baffled alloy fuel tank, fuel filler and the spare wheel.

Problems are few: there is a small crack on the upper edge of the driver’s door, and we can see that the new owner might want to replace the modern Sparco gearknob with something more period appropriate.

Then engine spec reads like an Escort enthusiast’s wish list. The block is a 2.1-litre Pinto 205. Carefully rebuilt, it features a Burton fast-road camshaft with 0.450” lift, a cast Burton camshaft cover, and red alloy pulleys on both the camshaft and intermediate shafts.

Fueling is taken care of with a pair of new Weber 45 DCOE carburettors, a 3.4” SOHC inlet manifold, a twin-throttle cable balance linkage, a Filter King 67mm glass bowl fuel filter and Silver Top Facet fuel pump, a 12-gallon baffled alloy fuel tank with a VDO sender and a clear level pipe on the side, and a boot-mounted alloy fuel filter splash bowl filler by A H Fabrication. The fuel pipe is oversized 10mm copper tubing run internally.

And there’s more: a high-power starter motor; a Power grip alternator belt kit; a billet alloy vented oil filler cap and thermostat housing; a Burton Power HT lead set; a FoMoCo distributor with points; a Ford alloy rally sump; new engine mounts; and, a 45A chromed alternator for a dash of flash.

The Escort is kept cool with a new waterpump, a Power Grip waterpump belt kit, a new alloy radiator, Samco black silicone coolant hoses, two 8” Kenlowe electric fans, and a Stant 28-32lb radiator cap.

The exhaust comprises a heat-wrapped four-branch exhaust manifold mated to a 2” Ashley single-box exhaust system.

The gearbox is a Ford type 9 five-speed ‘rocket’ box that has been fitted with Quaife straight-cut rally gears with a long first gear (it’ll do 50mph in first…), a short-shift kit, and the original gaiter. The 215mm clutch is new.

The rear English axle has been fitted with a Trans-X multiplate limited-slip differential, and the two are connected via a Ford magnesium alloy bell housing and a one-piece driveshaft.

The chassis has been extensively strengthened. This includes gussets on the front chassis legs where Bilstein dampers have been fitted to powdercoated RS2000 front springs. The rear suspension is Bilstein again, this time with an adjustable height Panhard rod set. The suspension has been polybushed throughout, and a 20mm front anti-roll bar from an Escort Twin-Cam sits at the front. A quick steering rack with a 2.9 ratio is fitted.

The braking system is a mixture of standard, albeit rebuilt, drums at the rear and Wilwood 265mm x 10mm discs and fast road brake pads at the front. The fixed brake pipes are Automec copper lines in a single circuit, with the copper lines run internally to the rear of the vehicle and Goodridge braided hoses at each corner. A new Girling master cylinder and reservoir connect to a Jaguar X-Type brake servo vacuum pump and a Lockheed-type remote brake servo. A new handbrake assembly has been fitted.

We would hate to estimate the cost of this little lot but it’s sure to be considerably in excess of what we expect the final hammer price to be. Suffice it to say the engine bay is sheer retro-rally porn, and the car starts promptly, ticks over well, revs like a demon, and makes all the right noises. It also goes very, very well indeed…

The Escort doesn’t have a current MOT certificate, and while it is exempt by virtue of its age, we would strongly encourage the new owner to have the car re-MOT’d at the earliest. The cost of an MOT is a small investment when offset against the purchase and upkeep of any classic car, and it gives an independent, third-party assessment of the car’s condition, which not only provides reassurance to the owner (and any subsequent purchasers) but might also be invaluable in the event of a bump when negotiating with the police and any interested insurance companies…

That said, the online MOT history shows nothing of concern whatsoever and confirms the car’s mileage.

The car also comes with a sheaf of invoices and bills to confirm the work that has been done to it over the years.

Please visit the documents section of the gallery of this listing where you will find photos of this and other paperwork to support our claim that this car has been restored to a very good standard.

NB. We know that you will be limiting your social exposure over the coming days and weeks, so please give us a call and we can shoot a personal video of the car honing in on any areas you’d like us to concentrate on. Or, even better, contact us with your mobile number and we can set up a WhatsApp video call, where you can direct us in real-time.

Everyone loves a Ford Escort, and few are more appealing than a competition-prepared MKI, especially one that is capable of doing double-duty as a road and/or rally or track car.

It’s got all the Good Stuff on it, too. Designed to be used rather than displayed, its guide price represents only a fraction of the cost of building one yourself, this is your chance to get behind the wheel of a motorsport icon for not a lot of money.

How little? Well, like so many of us, the owner takes his pleasure mainly from building his cars up and so wants to free up some capital to enable him to move onto his next project – and there’s no denying that the market is taking a bit of a of battering at the moment as we’re all locked down; with this in mind, you might be able to snap this one up for as little £16,000 to £25,000, which is astonishing value.

This particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’. Alternatively, give us a ring and we can set up a video call and walk you through the car, highlighting any areas you’d like to inspect more closely.

If needed, please remember we have a network of trusted suppliers we work with regularly and can recommend: Classic & Sportscar Finance for purchase-financing, Footman James for classic car insurance Thames Valley Car Storage for storing your car and AnyVan for transporting it.

BORING, but IMPORTANT: Please note that whilst we at The Market always aim to offer the most descriptive and transparent auction listings available, we cannot claim they are perfect analyses of any of the vehicles for sale. We offer far greater opportunity for bidders to view, or arrange inspections for each vehicle thoroughly prior to bidding than traditional auctions, and we never stop encouraging bidders to take advantage of this. We do take a good look at the vehicles delivered to our premises for sale, but this only results in our unbiased personal observations, not those of a qualified inspector or other professional, or the result of a long test drive.

Additionally, please note that most of the videos on our site have been recorded using simple cameras which often result in 'average' sound quality; in particular, engines and exhausts notes can sound a little different to how they are in reality.

Please note that this is sold as seen and that, as is normal for used goods bought at auction, the Sale of Goods Act 1979 does not apply. See our FAQs for more info, and feel free to inspect any vehicle as much as you wish.