Old Escorts and rallying

kneemos

Why are there so many in Irish rallying?

afatbollix

Cause there class.

fancy pigeon

Stroked pintos at full chat are eargasmic :cool:

Titzon Toast

Light weight, rwd, well balanced.

Cheensbo

Cos after a while there's not much thread left on the tyres so the customer base tends to fall away, and when you're cash rich after years of it - rallying is an easy way to spend a lot of cash quickly.


Hold on, what kind of escorts?

Big C

This was my brothers street car 1974, I believe it's still being rallyed

https://www.flickr.com/photos/60198101@N00/2684453657/#DiscussPhoto

Alcoheda

Big C wrote: »

This was my brothers street car 1974, I believe it's still being rallyed

https://www.flickr.com/photos/60198101@N00/2684453657/#DiscussPhoto

Good God, that's a sexy car.

savagethegoat

afatbollix wrote: »

Cause there class.

can't argue with that

CianDon

Worth a read to understand the fascination with the Escort http://www.completecar.ie/features/post/6255/New-series-of-iconic-Irish-cars-starts-with-Escort-MkII

ianobrien

Reasons for initial popularity are

Well balanced RWD chassis
Huge amounts of steering lock (Vatanen said he wouldn't drive for Fiat after trying the 131, not enough steering lock)
Cheap to get power from and for engine rebuilds (compared to the Fiat Twin Cam, etc)
Suited Irish roads
Billy Coleman

Also, as the Escort was better suited to rough roads rather than the tarmac loving Fiat 131, M3, etc it worked better on Irish tarmac. Then, any new RWD car that came along, it was compared to the Escort for its ability to handle rough tarmac.

Another problem was that other cars of that era were chronically expensive to keep running for the clubman, (Manta 400s had weak back axles, Sunbeams had that Lotus engine, the HSR Chevette was expensive to keep running) and the Escorts were well known (and they used quite a few Ford parts bin, meaning some spares were cheap). Also, Escorts could be found everywhere so spare body panels were cheap.

The thing is, rally drivers always want to have the fastest car so the Escorts were constantly being tweaked. That means now remote dampers, Millington Diamond engine, sequential 'box, 15" wheels, modern sticky rubber, etc and can match the WRC stage times in tarmac. Also, no turbo engine ever sounds as good as an engine turning at 9k rpm breathing through DCOEs,

ofcork

There was even one in fast and furious 6 on TV last night.

Autosport

It's the one car my father regrets selling.

skywanderer

I wonder how do people get any enjoyment out of Rallying? here in Kerry we are plagued every May Bank Holiday by an invasion of scumbags for the Rally of the Lakes and there are very few genuine car people, who couldn't tell the difference between a Lotus Cortina and Ford Cortina for example.

ianobrien

skywanderer wrote: »

I wonder how do people get any enjoyment out of Rallying? here in Kerry we are plagued every May Bank Holiday by an invasion of scumbags for the Rally of the Lakes and there are very few genuine car people, who couldn't tell the difference between a Lotus Cortina and Ford Cortina for example.

As a rally and motorsport head (I've organised, marshalled, done results, etc) I have to say that your choice of words calling them scumbags is far too mild. They are a total plague for event organisers that should have their cars taken from them and crushed. If you actually study them, most don't go spectate. They just "cruise" to be seen, or else enhance the sales of cheap tyres.....

Oh when and if they do manage to surface in the afternoon and arrive at a junction to spectate (easily spotted with white runners, tracksuits, etc) it's funny watching them struggle picking their way through the boggy field. It's the "only" safe spectating point according to the marshals. The genuine fan is easy to spot, they'll be on time and wearing appropriate clothing (boot and rain gear usually).

Henry Ford III

fancy pigeon wrote:

Stroked pintos at full chat are eargasmic

A BDA sounds much better

selectamatic

A vauxhall c20xe is a arguably a better sounding engine as well, ruffles the purists feathers too.

ianobrien

selectamatic wrote: »

A vauxhall c20xe is a arguably a better sounding engine as well, ruffles the purists feathers too.

It's still a Cosworth engine though, that KBA.

h3000

skywanderer wrote: »

I wonder how do people get any enjoyment out of Rallying? here in Kerry we are plagued every May Bank Holiday by an invasion of scumbags for the Rally of the Lakes and there are very few genuine car people, who couldn't tell the difference between a Lotus Cortina and Ford Cortina for example.

ianobrien wrote: »

As a rally and motorsport head (I've organised, marshalled, done results, etc) I have to say that your choice of words calling them scumbags is far too mild. They are a total plague for event organisers that should have their cars taken from them and crushed. If you actually study them, most don't go spectate. They just "cruise" to be seen, or else enhance the sales of cheap tyres.....

Oh when and if they do manage to surface in the afternoon and arrive at a junction to spectate (easily spotted with white runners, tracksuits, etc) it's funny watching them struggle picking their way through the boggy field. It's the "only" safe spectating point according to the marshals. The genuine fan is easy to spot, they'll be on time and wearing appropriate clothing (boot and rain gear usually).

I don't even bother going to the Lakes, Galway or Donegal internationals anymore. I do go to the likes of the smaller national rallies Circuit of Munster, Clare Stages and even the Stonetrowers. Much more enjoyment and much more real fans and you can actually get to the stages.

borderlinemeath

I won't pretend to know much about the escorts, I do know that the top runners in class 14 spend an absolute fortune in running and maintaining their cars. My husband runs his car in class 14 against them and can beat the best of them on a good day, he won the national section of the lakes this year, and was leading the national in Galway but spun on an exceptionally wet stage. He's been ingrained in rallying since he was a kid, his dad rallied, and he has always rallied since he could afford to, but never escorts, he never got the attraction of them. His current car is a bMW 1M and everybody comments on how lovely it sounds, it's just not as tail happy as an escort but can match most of them on power.

Ciano35

borderlinemeath wrote: »

I won't pretend to know much about the escorts, I do know that the top runners in class 14 spend an absolute fortune in running and maintaining their cars. My husband runs his car in class 14 against them and can beat the best of them on a good day, he won the national section of the lakes this year, and was leading the national in Galway but spun on an exceptionally wet stage. He's been ingrained in rallying since he was a kid, his dad rallied, and he has always rallied since he could afford to, but never escorts, he never got the attraction of them. His current car is a bMW 1M and everybody comments on how lovely it sounds, it's just not as tail happy as an escort but can match most of them on power.

I was at many of the stages at the lakes, really loved his BMW.