In around 1975 I was approached by a young chap asking if I could help him build a racing lightweight Lotus T/C Ford Escort Mk 1. Having built Australia’s fastest MGB, I did have the experience, so I agreed.
In a few weeks we turned out a fairly tidy Mk 1. Bubble arches, wishbone lower front suspension, adjustable suspension, locked diff, alloy panels everywhere and a sturdy roll cage. To repay me, he offered to share the car with me for the season.
Mk 1 Escort racer 1975.
Track testing showed it was quick, and I was pleased to see I had not lost any of my speed either, being quicker than the young owner, so we alternated in the driving seat for the rest of the year.
You can predict the next step, without the help of a mor doo. Over the break I decided to build another Mk 1 Escort, a sister car, and we would run as a team. However, one of my sponsors was the Castrol oil company and they had another chap with a Mk 1 Escort as well, so they decided we should run as Team Castrol, using a similar livery to the Team Castrol in the UK. So now with three Escort Mk 1’s we really were firmly fixed in the Ford school!
However, I had more plans for the Mk 1 Escorts. This was to build space frame cars, with advanced suspensions, mid-engined and complete with wings. With this in mind I went to night school to learn how to do nickel-bronze welding.
I also had a friend with a Formula 2 car and I had a tape measure. After one week of measuring and drafting plans I had a space frame design with all the F2 suspension pick-up points in space and we began to build the ultimate Escort Mk 1.
It took six weeks and it certainly looked the part. A one-piece fiberglass lift-off front which included the bonnet, grille and guards. A space frame chassis, double wishbone front suspension and a five-link rear end. Mid-engined and a big wing across the rear. In fact we were the first winged, space frame sports sedan in Queensland. And it certainly worked, being something like five seconds a lap quicker than our previous Mk 1’s.
So we built yet another one and between us, set the Eastern Australian tracks alight, but we were being let down by the over-stressed Lotus Twin Cam engines. The answer was Mazda’s new rotary engines.
As our main sponsor was the largest Ford dealership in the southern hemisphere, we had to be a little coy about the manufacturer of the engines. But they were much superior to the Lotus – and more reliable and cheaper to run. I even made the pages of the authoritative publication “The Racing History of Ford in Australia.”
With that history, you can now see why seeing a Mk 1 Escort brought on nostalgia. With the help of long time sponsor Steve Graham (BBX/Acorn), we found the Mk 1 here in Pattaya and in 2011 I returned to the tracks. Was this nostalgia or just sloppy sentimentality?
The answer can be seen at the Bira circuit. You may have seen a Mk 1 Escort entered this year once more with a geriatric driver. Sloppy sentimentality over-ruled sanity (again).
