Escort Mk1
Every so often a car comes along that resets the standards for its market segment. Some examples are the Morris Minor (1948), Citroen DS (1956), BMC ADO16 (Austin America, 1962), Fiat 128 (1971), VW Golf (1974), Honda Accord (1976), Peugeot 205 (1983), Ford Focus (1998), perhaps the 2003 Toyota Prius or the 2019 VW ID.3. Some of these cars took existing technology and formats and just did it better to the extent that they raised the standard – the Minor, Golf, Accord and Focus come to mind; some took a clean(-er) sheet of paper approach and showed us that the future may be a better place – the DS, ADO16, Prius and ID.3.
The Ford Escort (Mk1 & Mk2) set new standards too—primarily in the UK—more in the realms of pragmatism and profitability than technical superiority or advanced technology. That turned out to be a winning formula.
Escort Mk2
1968 was a good year for such events, as we got two cars that did the former – the Jaguar XJ6 and the Peugeot 504. And one that unashamedly did not but was perhaps commercially more significant than anything else launched that year. The 1968 Ford (of Europe) Escort was not technically or conceptually advanced or complex in any way, but its impact on the European and British marketplace was prompt, deep and long lasting.
CC looked recently at the history of first two generations of the Ford Cortina – how a straightforward, uncomplicated but attractively styled, spacious and competitively priced car was able to take on and ultimately succeed commercially over the might of Britain’s dominant BMC. Supported by the glamour of the derivative Capri, Ford ultimately took leadership in the UK not just in the mid market but across the market as a whole from BMC, which slowly collapsed, first into Leyland, then into government ownership and eventually, for volume market cars, into irrelevance. But the Cortina was not acting alone. Without the Escort, and the later, larger Granada, the leadership would have been much less dominant.
The Cortina was conservatively engineered car – OHV engines, four speed gearboxes, rear drive, live rear axle with leaf springs, conventional saloon format. This was in striking contrast to the emerging BMC technical leap forward, with front wheel drive, transverse engines, innovative suspensions, the odd amalgam of Alec Issigonis’s and Pininfarina’s styling ideas and, on the Austin Maxi at least, a hatchback. But within this format, there were limitations and handicaps.
The British car buyers did not always like the complication, real or perceived, of the front wheel drive, or the (sometimes only assumed) additional maintenance costs and reputation for reliability issues. The uncompromising ergonomics of an Issigonis interior and the small boots with awkward access of the saloons didn’t help either. Ford played the opposite hand extremely well with the Cortina, as well as marketing it with a wide range of engines, body styles, trim levels and options. Ultimately, the Cortina Mk 1 and 2 and derivatives outsold the BMC ADO16 (Austin America, above as a Morris 1100), and did so very profitably.
But there was unfinished business, and not just in the UK.
Ford, ahead of General Motors and Chrysler, was consolidating its European operations into one business, and from the 1965 Transit van onwards all European Fords were multi-national products. In the UK, the Escort took over the mantle of, if not entry level, of the compact family car, from the Anglia 105E, best remembered now for the distinctive styling with the Thunderbird like front and the reverse rake rear window.
Beneath the fashion conscious style was a perfectly capable, if also perfectly ordinary, small car, though not really a generation ahead of the Morris Minor, Austin A35 or A40, or Standard 10 it was originally competing with, visually more polarising than the 1963 Vauxhall Viva HA but a generation (or more) behind the Austin-Morris 1100 (ADO16). Whilst the specification of an OHV engine, four speed gearbox and live rear axle would endure for some years yet, European rivals were showing Ford that just being more fashionable than old BMC products was not enough. By 1967, the Anglia was looking old – it was a generation behind BMC and lagging Vauxhall, whilst down market from the Triumph Herald.
But Ford was, in the UK, now on a roll, with the Cortina (MK 2 above) about to become Britain’s best seller, and unlike BMC, do so profitably. The route for the Escort now seems obvious – repeat the Cortina’s formula in a smaller package. And you could trust Ford to have carefully thought it through. Despute the Ford of Europe story, the car was conceptually what Ford of Britain would have done, used British engines and was predominantly built in Halewood in Liverpool,
The original Cortina Mk1 and 2 were built on a wheelbase of 98 inches. The Escort came in at 94.5 inches, closer than you might have expected, but around 10 inches longer than the Austin A40 and Morris Minor, just shorter than a Vauxhall Viva HB and an inch longer than the ADO16. But Ford were planning for the next Cortina, the 1970 Mk 3, to go to a 101 inch wheelbase, re-establishing a clear hierarchy, and in the process setting the key size milestones for the market. Within four years, the key points in the market were reset to Ford’s template, and crucially, BMC/BLMC and Vauxhall were out of step.
Technically, the Escort kept to a tried and tested formula. Monocoque steel bodyshell, longitudinally mounted engine, rear wheel drive, four speed gearbox, rack and pinion steering, MacPherson front struts and a leaf sprung live rear axle. Take the Cortina formula, cut the wheelbase, length and width by proportionate amounts and use 1100 and 1300 engines rather than 1300 and 1600 engines. It wouldn’t win awards for innovation but it didn’t frighten the horses either.
Ford was effectively playing the same tune as the Vauxhall Viva and Opel Kadett (although these cars had more advanced rear suspensions), rather than emulating a Fiat 128 or BMC ADO16. It was a specification that was already working well for GM in Germany and Ford as well in the UK. Front wheel drive was doing well for BMC in volume terms but was perceived as more costly to maintain by fleet buyers, and likely to have been more costly to develop given Ford’s available hardware. A conventional format was therefore almost inevitable – even now Ford feels like a business that likes to see which way the technological winds are blowing before committing – and who would do it better, based on the Cortina experience?
Again, like the Cortina, Corsair and later the Capri, Ford offered the full range. Back in 1962, when the Cortina had been launched, BMC and Rootes both offered ranges of badge engineered saloons, raising up the scale of luxury, may be a bit of sportiness, and the intention of an impression of exclusivity. Variety was, however, almost exclusively limited to trim – the engine in a Morris Oxford, Wolseley 16/60 or Riley 4/72 was effectively the same ageing B series lump.
A second carburettor was the most you could expect. The same thing happened in the newer more modern ADO16 – just an 1100 engine until 1968 irrespective of the brand.
Ford, and to a certain extent Vauxhall, shattered this, first with the Cortina – 1200, 1500, then 1300 and 1600, two doors, four doors and estates, three trim levels, plus a sporting GT and the specialist Cortina Lotus, and then again with the Escort and Capri. How many went to the dealer planning to buy a Cortina 1200 and came away with a 1500 Super? That didn’t happen at BMC.
From a start in early 1968 with two doors and 1100 or 1300 engines, as well as some versions with 940cc for a limited number of tax sensitive markets, mainly Italy. By 1969 you could have a four door Escort, a three door estate or a panel van.
The van became a default choice for its sector. dominating from off against dated competition.
You may be sensing that this was not the most exciting compact saloon produced in Europe in the 1960s, and you’d be right. The Escort was not a like for like competitor for an Alfasud or Citroen GS, but far more of a European take on the Toyota Corolla. But there was one thing that moved the Escort from ordinary to special in the eyes of many enthusiasts. Ford took it rallying, with great effort, professionalism, and success, and, with lower public profile, circuit racing.
The car was winning races in 1968, and indeed won the 1968 British Saloon Car Championship using an engine developed from the Cortina Lotus. Known as the Escort Twin Cam, the 1558cc twin cam four gave something 105bhp in road trim and up to 200bhp when tuned for racing.
The big rally wins started as early as 1970, with the one off London-Mexico World Cup Rally, timed and planned to link to the football World Cup. The route went from London to Mexico, through west and southern central Europe, turned back west and across Iberia to Lisbon in Portugal, a boat to Rio de Janeiro and then up Latin America through Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru, crossing into Mexico from Costa Rica. Determined by penalties incurred on special stages, the Escorts took 3 of the top 6 places, with Hannu Mikkola and Gunnar Palm coming out as overall winners.
The subsequent Escort Mexico, with a more regular version of familiar Ford Kent 1598 cc engine, albeit still with 85bhp and good bragging rights, came out in late 1970. The image growth for Ford from rallying had started.
1970 also saw the arrival of perhaps the definitive fast Escort. The Lotus based engine was phased out of the rally and race versions for a Coswirth designed BDA series 16v twin overhead cam engines, built around a Ford cylinder block. BDA refers to belt drive type A, with the camshafts driven by a toothed rubber belt, then still an emerging technology. The first market application was the Escort RS1600 (RS for Rally Sport and still Ford’s designation of choice today for the highest performance options) – 1600cc, 115bhp in road tune and the start of many amateur rally drivers careers.
The rally history of the Escort, Mk1 and Mk 2, is worthy of a series of posts all alone. From a British perspective, rallying in which the winner is the driver and co-driver/navigator achieving the shortest aggregate time on a number of closed road or off-road forest track sections (usually known as special stages) over a period of 3-4 days has been a popular spectator and participation sport for perhaps a century. Events range from one day amateur events to the full World Rally Championship events, with events such as the Monte Carlo Rally, the 1000 Lakes in Finland, the East African Safari Rally and the British RAC Rally (now known as Wales Rally GB) forming the World Rally Championship.
British participation has always been strong, along with British based teams from non-resident manufacturers, such as Subaru and Mitsubishi, and popular support strong. It was estimated in the early 1990s that 2 million spectators watched parts of the RAC Rally, stranding alongside forest tracks and in country house grounds in November, risking being sprayed grit, mud and icy water, sometimes in the dark and always in the cold.
Ford did more than tap into this; the Escort Mk1 built on existing support and took it to another level. The cars themselves were developed either by Ford’s specialist operations team or by separate motorsport businesses, and were usually based on the Escort RS1800 with the Cosworth BDA engine and its derivatives. Different classes called for different entries, and Ford themselves usually competed at the top in European, and later World, and national championships, but the factory cars filtered their way down to the amateurs soon enough.
The famous and popular wins came soon enough. After the London-Mexico Rally win, in 1972 local hero Roger Clark won the RAC Rally in a decisive display of sideways driving. The Escort carried on to win every year to 1979, with Clark winning again in 1976. The Escort won the British Rally championship every year from 1974 to 1978, and again in 1980, and the Scottish Championship 12 times in 14 years, from 1968. The car won 20 World Rally Championship rallies as well, took Bjorn Waldegaard to the World Drivers’ Championship in 1979, and Ford to the manufacturers’ title, and Ari Vatanen as champion in 1981.
“Wouldn’t you like to take off in a Harrier?” Not a bad line to close your TV ad.
All in, the Escort was inarguably one of the most successful top flight rally cars of its generation and, perhaps uniquely amongst its peers, was able to build a strong grassroots competitor-user community as well. For all the greatness and successes of the Lancia Stratos, it was unable to do that. Alongside the company’s (and Cosworth’s) support and participation in Formula 1, Ford’s place in the motor sports fans’ esteem was set for a generation or more, and to many people in Britain the image of a rally car is Clark’s Escort going sideways in the rain and mud.
No wonder even now people stop for Mk 1 Ford Escorts in their hotter forms.
This example posted on the CC Cohort by Nathan Williams has a 2000 engine in a four door body – never a factory combination but many things are possible with an Escort.
Yohai Rodin spotted this pair – an RS1600 and a Mexico.
Incidentally, Ford’s US rivals were left trailing by this success. GM’s UK Vauxhall dealers ran a self-funded team, which appeared on the same events but with a limited number of entries with the Vauxhall Chevette; Chrysler UK, in Ford’s terms, dabbled with the Hillman Avenger and only saw success after the Peugeot takeover with Talbot Sunbeam Lotus. BL’s efforts were little better, with a lot of effort expended for little success with the Triumph TR8.
Ford made the most of this success. Not only was there a consistent, albeit limited, market for the specialist RS1800, the Escort GT continued to do good business, and the accessories available from Ford and Motorcraft was extensive, to put it mildly.
But the peak of this for the regular first generation cars was the 1973-5 Escort 1300E. This took the mechanical specification of the 1300GT and Sport, and added all the luxuries Ford could offer – cut pile carpet, wood effect dash, heated rear window, vinyl roof, driving lamps and alloy wheels.
Glamour, prestige, and value for money – Ford could do all three in one car. All yours for around £1,200 or £15,000 now, or less than an entry level Fiesta.
In six years, Ford built 2 million Escorts, around 60% of them in the UK.
The Vauxhall Viva was relegated to also ran status, the Austin Allegro never got the traction it possibly deserved, the Morris Marina looked odd sized and dated technically and the Hillman Avenger played a pleasant, if slightly larger, second fiddle.
Continued on Page two for the Escort Mk 2
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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.