In 1975, the Escort went to Mk 2. Typically for such a transformation from Ford, everything you could see was different, and fully contemporary. And everything you couldn’t see was pretty much the same.
Mechanically, this was a rebodied Mk 1, in a sharp and very different style.
Aside from the style, little changed – the 1300E became the 1300 and 1600 Ghia variants, the range went from Popular (plastic seats and floor covering), Popular Plus, L, GL, Sport (stripes, rev counter, extra lamps) and Ghia – the closest we got to a very compact Brougham at the time.
The Ghia, seen above, had quite an interior, especially compared with an early Escort. Or a contemporary Marina.
Incidentally, if you ever need proof that Ford is run by accountants and not car buffs, remind people that the estate and van versions of the Mk 2 Escort were exactly the same as the Mk 1 from the A post backwards.
The RS1600 and RS1800 continued, linked directly to motorsport glamour. Golden goose and all that.
The RS2000 took a step upmarket with a unique and distinctive polyester front clip featuring a raked grille and twin square headlamps.
CAR thought this good enough to put in a comparison test with a BMW 320. And the rally success continued, unabated and arguably to even greater heights.
The Mk 2 was replaced by the Mk 3 in 1980, linked to the first North American Escort but with a contemporary European twist, featuring noticeably calmer styling and trim, and moving a little upmarket. A story for another day.
Within the limits of its configuration, there was arguably little to question about the Escort. It was always affordable, it was no Alfasud but nevertheless not bad to drive, economical, sharp looking (subjective I know, but especially true for the smarter versions of the Mk 2) and, crucially in its battle with BMC and BLMC, easy to obtain from a large dealer network and own and maintain just about anywhere. It brought the image and reputation of the rally success to anyone who wanted it, and a straightforward car to everyone else.
And for a lot of people, those were criteria that drove, and drive, car choices. Though perhaps not this chap.
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For such a basic car, I still wonder why Ford made them so difficult to work on. Master cylinder halfway down the engine bay, distributor buried under the intake, (on that wheezy dog Kent engine). The coil under the battery.
I used to hate working on them.
All credit to Ford, who put up a strong and coherent front at a time of serious competition from Japanese imports – if only the British motorcycle industry had been able to do the same.
Growing up, I never questioned the market steps clearly defined as Fiesta, Escort, Cortina, Granada. It’s only recently, with the benefit of articles such as this one, that I recognise how well Ford’s product and marketing teams identified these sectors and effectively catered to them. And hence forced UK competitors to match the same market steps.
Not always great cars of course – we had Fiestas, Escorts and Cortinas in our family, and while always competent, they were never brilliant. Very fond memories though.
Excellent article Roger, it feels like you’ve really done the early Escorts justice with this.
Ford were damn clever. It could be said that they sold only the sizzle, their steak being a bit past its prime, but one has to remember that FWD gearboxes and steering were more of a faff to use at this time in history. And things like rubber belts for OHC weren’t entirely proven. The Euro wonders were better machines, beyond question, but not as easy to operate, perhaps not quite as reliable, and certainly pricier when they broke. Perhaps the steak wasn’t quite so old after all.
Escorts are a lot of fun to drive – and I’ve never even got beyond a 1.6. They’re also cramped and very prone to leaping sideways. But most of all, they looked so damn good, especially as a Mk2, in and out. This or a miserablist interior 1100? Or an austere aesthete’s box of a 128? This! I still love the Mk2 today.
In typical style, and despite having great steering and good seats and dampers, they were nowhere near as reliable as the dynamically awful Corollas and such in Oz. Frizzy electrics, handles, overheating, all from the cheaped-out English ancillary stuff on those solid mechanicals. People didn’t put up with paying for what Ford hadn’t, and bought the baroque Japanese instead. For sure, the next little Ford after these left in ’81 was a Mazda (the Ford Laser).
Great analysis as per usual, Sir Rog. Also news to me that the vans were just re-nosed Mk1s. (I can add that you could get the vans with the Pinto 2 litre here, in fact, as an option in all models, and maybe that’s news elsewhere!) Most enjoyable.
Not to mention the Australia-only four door RS 2000s. Because we’re Australia, and like our four doors.
That’s right, which proved incorrect the sentence “a 2000 engine in a four door body – never a factory combination.” It was down under in the land of Oz with the Escort MkII.
Have to say that an air-conditioned 2-litre automatic Escort Ghia that my mate had solved most of the overheating, lack of luxo and maintenance issues complained about here (the battery was in the boot), except the rubber timing belt, lol.
By means of comparison, a 1975 4-speed Corolla with good-treaded tyres that I hired in the early ’80s got ‘bogged’ in a slightly-sloping Blue Mountains’ dry and dusty dirt car park with 4 men of varying sizes on board. I couldn’t reverse out uphill away from the fence until I came up with the idea that the tallest and most solid of us hopped in the boot (after emptying it, of course) to give the much-needed traction. That never happened in the Escort.
The Mk1 Escort did break new ground in a couple of areas. I think it was the first Ford with rack & pinion steering, and as launched it lacked true McPherson strut suspension since it lacked the front anti-roll bar. I think it was only a year or so before the leading compression rods were replaced by the trailing ends of an anti-roll bar.
I wasn’t overly impressed by the styling initially, but when the race and rally Twin Cams arrived, with their extended arches, the shape became iconic. Since I live in ‘Rally Special-Stage’ country I still see them on the roads half a century later.
I’ve read elsewhere that Ford considered the Escort MkI for the US market before deciding to . Given the Aussie experience justy baum describes, we may have dodged a bullet. Not likely that Lucas electrics would’ve been on the menu though – some sources say the plans were for it to be fully naturalized as an American Ford which would’ve meant in-house components shared with the bigger ones, and even as a captive import left-hand-drive would make German assembly with parts from German suppliers more likely.
On a related note it’s interesting the mirror-image market positions Ford and GM’s European subsidiaries held for decades and never was that more the case than in the late ’60s though mid ’70s with Opel taking the top spot in Germany around the same time Ford took #1 sales in Britain. They didn’t hold onto it as long because of VW’s successful pivot to the new FWD orthodoxy while BL dithered, and then Vauxhall had a very successful ’80s by becoming Opel in everything but name. But that, again is another story.
Ford UK had dispensed with Lucas electrics before the Escort came along – and we viewed it as a negative and purely money-saving move. We compared an early Anglia with a 1966 one and were surprised to find the new car featured Autolite cut-price copies of the Lucas items in the older car.
There’s been endless hand-wringing questioning why GM didn’t use at least Opel,engines, if not more Opel-ness, in the Vega. At least the Pinto was more similar to the Escort, with typically American less efficient space utilization. But at least in my case, if Ford had brought the British Escort into the US, I’m quite sure I’d have on on my automotive resume instead of my 1976 Vega. You see, in early 1968 my aunt got me a 3 year subscription to the British weekly, Autocar. For three years, I was inundated by articles and pictures of Escorts from mundane 1100’s to modified Twin Cams and RS’s. I knew more about Roger Clark or Bo Waldegaard than about any baseball or American football players. An Escort with curvaceous flares draped over wide tires was my dream car. Thanks Roger, for letting my mind drift back to that era this morning!
When I was a kid in 1974-75, a 72 Escort replaced a 68 Beetle. The Beetle was on it’s third interior (apparently re-upholstering VWs was common and/or inexpensive in 1970s Greece), too small for us. I remember my father got $800 for the Beetle from another GI on base, and he paid $1200 for the Escort.
Big improvement!
It felt BIG! We could put larger items in the trunk. No more need for a roof rack. My brother and I had more room (then hip room was key, for our “zones”) in the back seat.
We had HEAT!
And my dad’s Escort was a GT! With a tach! With the “big” 1300 cc engine (if I recall, owners manual had 3 engines, a 9xx CC, and 1100, and 1300).
My father would indulge me and let me change gears from passenger seat once in a while… “ok, change now”.
He also indulged me on our last family trip in the car and “opened it up” to 140 kph, on the only 4-lane (divided in spots, usually just a double yellow line though) highway I had ever been on at that time.
Pretty heady stuff for an 11-year old.
Thanks for good write up and trip down memory lane.
Wooohoo! 87 mph!
The Escort was the UK’s version of the second-gen Ford Falcon. Like the Falcon in the U.S., the Escort was the right size for the roads there, attractive enough in a conventional way, and used all the tried-and-true, reliable and sturdy parts and assemblies. Nothing special, but nothing to hate either.
The Falcon’s thunder got stolen by the Mustang here in the U.S., but the Escort was the platform used for so much of British motorsports of the day. Imagine no Mustang here in the U.S., and that the Falcons were modded by Carroll Shelby, used in Trans-Am, run in SCCA racing, and raced in all the places and ways that the Mustang was done. Imagine high-output 289 and 302 Falcons, flared fenders, competition packages, and special factory racing homologation editions with twin cam V-8s or turbocharged engines. The Falcon would likely be the legend here that the Escort was and is over there, and would probably be remembered as fondly, and restored and driven on weekends and to car shows as widely, as the Escort is in the UK.
It’s not, thanks most likely to the Mustang, but that’s what the early Escort is all about in Britain. The car is nothing special, as it sits, but it is tidy and attractive, and it is the perfect platform to make out of it what you want, and to do with it what you want.
Interesting article which pinpoints Ford’s success in this era: making money.
Poor old BMC never seemed to cost its cars properly.
However there is one error. ADO16 wiped the floor in sales in the UK every year between 1964 to 71, except 67. The author has also forgotten that when you went to buy your Morris 1100, there were MG, Wolseley, Riley and Vanden Plas versions to upgrade too. If only they had made money.
There wasn’t an engine upgrade though, and wasn’t there at least some division between different brands and dealerships?
Also, if you wanted a significant trim upgrade, you had to get a slightly differently styled car. I’d imagine some people found the MGs and Wolseleys faintly ridiculous. The Escort was available rallyized or Broughamized but with the same face and with multiple power options.
My point about sales volumes is that if you look at the Cortina and include its offspring, the Corsair (a LWB Cortina sharing an awful lot under the skin) and the Capri, it far exceeds the ADO16. Yes, the ADO16 was Britain’s best seller in the 1960s but the Cortina was not far behind, was consistently gaining and from 1962 to 1970 moved measurably upmarket. BMC took 6 years to offer the ADO16 with a 1300 engine. Yes, you could a buy an MG or Riley, but it was still an 1100
By the 1970s, the Cortina was the undisputed sales king and the Escort, which took the Cortina concept and business model to the next class down was close behind.
Ford’s market leader in the 70s was a more upmarket and expensive car than BMC’s in 60s, and BMC completely missed that opportunity.
Thanks Roger, for another great article. You summarized the Mk1/2 perfectly.
Also, thanks for using my photo, which of course depicts not a genuine RS1600 or Mexico. But as you put it: “Many things are possible with an Escort”, and it doesn’t really matter anyway…
Rumour has it there are now more Mexicos now than there ever before….
This reminds me of a similar joke running within the Americlassics commune in Israel, about the C3 Corvette (many of which imported in recent years):
Of the four cars sold in Israel in the 1970s, over 100 survived…
One of the fastest cars I had was the 2 litre OHC engine in a yellow 4 door mk2. Hills ceased to exist. Had a progressive Weber, easy to use floor mounted 4 speed. Sold for more than I bought it for. It was built to a price with very thin panels, no quarter lights and simple suspension.
Is the reference to the lotus engine being “opposed” mean crossflow?
Simply splendid article Mr Carr, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My first car, back in 1991 when I turned 18, was a 1971 Escort 1300XL 2-door. Originally gold, it had been repainted beige. Brown vinyl seats, fake wood trim on the doors and dash.
The vendor said it needed a little work, which proved to be an understatement… Thankfully my father was a mechanic and reconditioned the engine for me.
It ran beautifully with lovely steering and a fantastic gearbox but lacked grunt, so as only teenage males can do, I set about creating a silk purse from my sow’s ear. The Fast Ford magazines had shown me there had been GT and E MK I Escorts available, which were rare and non-existent, respectively, in NZ. So I decided to create my very own Escort 1300XLEGT. To make it go (or at least sound) faster I installed a re-jetted double-barrel Capri carb, chrome and mesh air-cleaner, exhaust extractors and a bigger exhaust pipe, and topped it all off with a single sports muffler and a tachometer. It still lacked grunt and used rather more fuel but sounded nice. Quicker than my cousin’s Mk II 1600 auto too.
Continuing my sow’s-ear-to-silk-purse mission, I utilised the plug-and-play nature of Mk I and II Escorts to great effect, inserting the velour seats, remote-control rearview mirror, centre console and glovebox out of a wrecked Mk II Ghia, followed by a set of Cortina Rostyles (which I discovered are a different offset to the Escort version and rubbed the inner arches). Oh, and a Philips radio-cassette player with graphic equaliser and digital tuner, naturally.
The engine and interior were now beautifully silk-pursed, so I had the minimal rust removed and the whole car repainted in Ford gold, which really offset all the chrome trim I added to it. Once painted and looking magnificent, I promptly crashed it, as 18-year-olds tend to do. Thankfully damage was minor and a bit of work later it was back on the road again.
Ultimately I spent about NZ$5,000 on the Esky, and thoroughly enjoyed it, but even my best efforts couldn’t disguise how much car engineering and design had moved on since 1971. So 2 years later I sold it for $1,500 and bought my first Sierra. 29 years on, there’s still a Sierra gently decaying outside – but each time I drive it, little hints of Escort DNA shine through. The Mk I and II Eskys may have been simple and profitable, but they were good looking, fun and memorable; the right product at the right time.
PS, the white Mk I sedan you’ve pictured above with roof racks and New Zealand plates was an 1100, originally blue, and sold NZ-new on 13 Feb 1975. Rego was cancelled in April 2016 when it had done about 165,000 miles (or km depending on when Ford NZ switched to metric speedos)
1976 Ford made metric Escorts in OZ only not the whole car I needed both type of spanners on my MK2 1600 it had an appetite for clutch cables and the correct one was unobtanium but one for a MK3 Cortina nearly fitted right, yes it had a twin choke weber on the inlet manifold and tuned extractors on the exhaust and not a lot of exhaust system but fast NO, Big hotwire mags all round and oversize tyres so it resembled a shabby rollerskate with $6 worth of chicken feed grey primer on it and black guide coat hid the rough multi coloured body work, I replaced it with a 82 Mazda 323 panelvan bought for a slab of Boags draught and that was a better car in every department.
Meanwhile the Opel Kadett B is so Germany, the Escorts Mk I and II are very English, it seems Ford developed them specially for the UK market.
My first car – a yellow Mk 1 1100 with black stripes and wide wheels. I hated it – had to keep the revs up to stop it from stalling at idle so everyone thought I wanted to race them at the traffic lights. Never managed to solve that issue. Painfully hot black vinyl seats with no support – despite seat belts had to hold on for dear life to the steering wheel going round corners to avoid sliding across the car. It lasted a summer before I sold it to a neighbour’s boyfriend who ragged it into the ground. Looking back I was probably just a little spoiled by having a Volvo 760 estate with free fuel available for most journeys. Thinking about it the Volvo shared the slidy unsupportive seat issue with the Escort.
I read yesterday that the new Maverick’s recurring dog bone design motif was inspired by the Escort’s grille.
My uncle’s last car, bought in the late ’70s, was a Mk.1 Escort, a 4-door 1300E in Modena Green. Suprisingly mundane after the cars he’d had before but that was because he no longer had to launch gliders. It was also in very nice condition.
The other I remember was a friend’s Mk.2 estate, must have had it around the late ’80s. That was a bit of a dog though and never felt that stable.
In the case of the van, Ford saved a few quid by reusing the doors off the back of the 1961 Anglia van. These then carried on until 1981 when the new FWD Mk.3 Escort van came out. The press tools must have been well amortised!
Its Kerbside , not curbside
Ford would have saved a bunch of development money simply building Escorts instead of Pintos. Same drivetrain, just more practical for small urban families and a direct counter to the Corolla. Escorts were built in a dozen countries from Germany to Israel and Taiwan . It also would have made Ford a contender in the Trans Am under 2.5 and IMSA RS series.
Based on the lawsuits and the bad publicity with the fires, I agree with you! However, there are several reasons why Ford US felt they had to develop it in-house:
Firstly, rival manufacturers had just released US-developed cars in the Pinto size-class before its introduction. Ford already had the compact car Falcon/Maverick rear end with a drop-in fuel tank to reduce weight on a new car.
Secondly, the projected width and length of a Pinto would mean that a two-door Mark III Taunus/Cortina (a fine package admittedly, with a two-door sedan and coupe) would be the one to look at rather than the ageing smaller Escort. Ford US had already been importing Cortinas to sell since the 1960s anyway.
Thirdly, Lee Iacocca (from a sales background) wanted to sell the Pinto using a $2000/2000 lb slogan (by taking out the back chassis legs which increased the risk of doors jamming in a fiery rear-ender, having an easily pulled-out connecting fuel pipe, and by not changing nasty bolts sticking out of the diff to puncture the very close tank) – and stuff the safety. Having to import / buy the dies to market the basic 2200 lb better-designed Cortina meant his slogan was out the window. Anyway, Americans didn’t like foreign-designed cars in their ranges, especially German ones!
(As an aside, in 1981 Ford Australia was forced to request that early to mid-70s 2-litre Escorts, Capris and Cortinas be brought by owners to be checked after reuse of single-use fuel clips and dodgy fuel hoses meant these could flop off and cause underbonnet fires, lol. Imagine if they’d had high-pressure electric fuel injection pumps that continued to feed the flames!)
Finally, the Pinto, being ‘small’, was considered a ‘personal car’, so the range was developed around having two doors. There was no provision for a 2-door Taunus wagon/van or hatchback, so these would have had to have been designed anyway.
Ironically, the Vauxhall Viva formed the basis for General Motors (Holden) in Australia to be a Cortina beater. In 1969 GMH took the Viva, lengthened the nose and fitted six-cylinder engines, mainly from then-current full-sized Holdens. These Torana Sixes ultimately replaced the larger Holden cars in Australian motorsport (until the Commodore) and, like the larger-bodied Torana models that followed (including V8s), were extremely competitive. Thus a sales loser in one market became a killer in another, despite having no small/medium estate/wagons (or vans) there.
Ford Oz, caught on the hop by this, and after Holden increasing six-cylinder engine sizes during that time, took three years to respond using 3.3-litre and 4.1-litre Falcon OHV sixes (to improve local content), without lengthening the body. This tended to make these nose-heavy, requiring ongoing suspension modifications until the last model, although the 4.1 would see off most V8s from the lights. Later, Chrysler Oz did the same with virtually identical-capacity engines and the Centura (French 180).
As everyone knows, GM and Ford both had highly capable small cars in production on the continent, and instead they produced the Pinto and the Vega. One wonders if any executive ever drove the Pinto and the Escort side-by-side, or the Vega and it’s Open/Vauxhaull equivalent(s). Most importantly, did Iacocca? One wonders whether Iacocca and whomever was running GM at the time EVER drove the Pinto and/or the Vega.
Interestingly enough, Ford produced the “Pinto” (Lima) engine, the U.S. version, all the way up to 2001.