1979 Ford ESCORT MKII RS2000 CUSTOM

Owner John is an old friend of The Market. He runs a wedding hire business in Thrapston near Kettering, but it’s no ordinary wedding hire firm. Tucked next to the usual range of classic Rollers and Daimlers in Bridal Carriages of Northamptonshire’s stable you’ll find a 1937 hot rod powered by a supercharged 5.7 V8 and offering ‘optional exhaust flames’. John, who confesses to having been a ‘car fiddler’ since the age of 16, also owns a Hillman Husky van from the 1950s – with a Cosworth turbo engine. That’s the sort of guy he is. He loves restomods almost as much as he enjoys messing with your mind.

This Ford is a perfect example of John’s take on life. He rescued this RS2000 –which is the Custom model, distinguished by its Recaro seats with ‘fishnet’ headrests – after it had been standing immobile in a garage for 14 years. You can see the general ‘before’ condition of the car in one of our Gallery pics. ‘It wasn’t rotten, it just needed bits doing here and there’, says John.

Over the last two years the Ford has been not so much restored by John as totally reimagined by him. He has transformed this 1970s performance car into something that retains all of its 1970s character but with the fantastic bonus of serious 2019 performance. 

Key to the conversion has been the replacement of the wheezy old Pinto engine with a modern 2.0 Zetec DOHC unit which John believes is currently putting out something in the order of 160bhp. The original RS2000 had a four-speed gearbox. John’s car has a Type 9 5-speeder and a lower final drive ratio of 3.78 (from the original 3.54).  

As you might expect, the result is a car that steps up the road very smartly. The only additional work John would do if he was keeping the RS would be to fit a limited slip diff and change the cams to get the power up nearer to 200bhp. Because of the final drive change, the speedo is no longer accurate. John says that there is a piece of kit that you can attach to the transmission to rectify this. Alternatively, any cheap satnav will give you the right speed. It’s not something John has ever felt the need for.

The car is absolutely up and ready to go as it stands, and according to John is ‘a real driver’s car’. He took it to the Ford Show at Santa Pod earlier this year where it picked up the Judge’s Choice award.

John has kept the original Pinto engine and will be including it in the sale. He confirms that the Zetec needed no new holes in the bulkhead for brake hoses and the like, so returning it to standard spec would be a straightforward process. In all honesty this is something you’d only be likely to do for originality purposes as the Zetec conversion has really ‘made’ this car in terms of driving pleasure. 

We’re extremely fortunate here in that John has not only photo-documented the entire rebuild process, he’s also added explanatory captions to many of the pics which you can now view in our Gallery.

You’ll quickly see the scale of the restoration, all of it carried out with varying degrees of ingenuity at John’s premises. All traces of rust have been cut out and fresh metal welded in, with new panels fabricated wherever necessary, including a new inner front wing strengthener and a new passenger floor section. Some especially clever and time-consuming work has been put in on the front wings to maintain the correct join lines. The original sills were all in good shape.

The RS2000 came in thirteen colours: including the Midnight Blue you see here. For easy confirmation, John has left the original Sikkens paint code badge in the boot. John’s son is a professional valeter so the Escort has benefitted from a full two-stage machine polish.

The headlights are the original Cibiés. Meaty 7x13 John Brown alloy wheels wear 185/60 Nexen tyres. 

Believe it or not, that chocolate brown upholstery is absolutely correct for this car. Funny some of the things that manufacturers got up to in those days. Mind you, some of us wore two-tone loon pants in those days too, so it’s hardly fair to have a pop at Ford. The upholstery colour properly reflects the age. Everything in the cabin was removed and cleaned before refitting. The boot houses the relocated battery and a custom-made tool roll.

The pedal box is new but again, as with the engine, the original pieces will be included with the car to minimise the costs of any retrospective return to originality. The heater box was rebuilt. 

The engine bay is a thing of beauty and a big advance on the factory original in both neatness and presentation. The Zetec engine has been upgraded with the best components. As noted earlier, this engine will be very open to further tuning. It runs a fully remappable Omex engine management system, a stainless steel RetroFord manifold, a Sytec fuel pump and filter and a RetroFord water manifold, which provides bulkhead clearance when using a Zetec in this kind of rear-wheel drive application. RetroFord also supplied a new starter and alternator and new engine mounts.

Brake lines are braided copper Goodridge items and the fuel lines are aluminium. All the wiring is protected by heat wrap. The strut tops are original with their stamped-in numbers still intact. There are Bilstein shock absorbers all round with Wilwood disc brakes up front and all new 9-inch rear drums and shoes at the back, again correct for the RS. The front cross member has been reinforced. Old underseal has been removed, with two coats of primer applied and protected with body-colour Upol Raptor polyurethane coating. 

John is fastidious in his work and that goes for record keeping too, so all the bills relating to this build have been carefully packaged up for the next owner. You’ll see that nearly £11,000 has been spent with two respected suppliers, Rally Design and RetroFord.

This July it went for its first MOT in 16 years. Needless to say it passed with no advisories. 

Next year will be the 50th anniversary of Ford’s RS brand in the UK. You can bet there’ll be plenty of events to celebrate that milestone. How cool would it be to turn up to one in this superb and highly driveable RS restomod – a car that is arguably what the RS2000 would have been from day one, if only they’d had the Zetec engine back then.

If you nab this one and someone at one of those RS events asks what you paid for it, watch their face turn Kermit green when you give them a number within our estimated range of £24k-£28k. Inferior examples of the RS2000 with the weedy 110bhp Pinto engine are already fetching well above that amount. Add on the RS brand birthday and the fact that this is a fully rebuilt car that you’ll be able to enjoy every day and that will do full justice to the RS heritage and you can start to see the value.

We always encourage viewings. This Ford is located at John’s place in Thrapston. Just click the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing to arrange an appointment. Ahead of that, or at any time during the process, you’re more than welcome to ask any questions or jot down observations in the comments section below. You won’t be shocked to hear that our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section will answer general questions that are frequently asked about how The Market works.

Also please note that we have a network of trusted suppliers with whom we work regularly and successfully: Classic & Sportscar Finance for purchase-financing, Thames Valley Car Storage for storing your car, AnyVan for transporting it, and Footman James for classic car insurance.

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.