The Boreham Motorworks Ford Escort RS Alan Mann 68

What if I advised you this little pink and gold automobile was so good, it received each race it entered in 1968? And what if I advised you this automobile is brand-spanking new? Would you’re taking my phrase for it, or would you suppose I’ve been sniffing too many exhaust fumes? Nicely, I might need, however each statements are factually true. That is the wickedly cool Boreham Ford Escort RS Alan Mann 68 Version, which is an formally Ford licensed one-to-one recreation of the legendary race automobile developed by Alan Mann Racing again within the late Nineteen Sixties! And opposite to what you may suppose, that is not a restomod primarily based on (and sacrificing) a road-going Escort. That is, the truth is, constructed new, from the bottom up!

Though most keep in mind the Ford Escort for being the model’s small household hatchback, the primary use of the title dates again to an property automobile primarily based on the Ford Anglia from 1955. It was a extra fundamental counterpart to the Squire, and was a 2-door property with a cut up rear door. Though the Escort proved extra well-liked than the Squire, as a result of cheaper price, a comparatively low variety of 33,131 have been constructed over six years.

The subsequent time the title would seem on a automobile bearing the well-known Blue Oval badge can be in 1967, when Ford launched the MK1 Escort. It was the alternative for the profitable Anglia, and proved an nearly immediate hit. Out there in lots of configurations, it has been in manufacturing for over 30 years. After simply six years of manufacturing, 2 million have been already offered, and when manufacturing ceased, properly over 4 million have been placed on the highway! The Escort’s lifespan can principally be cut up into three chapters. The MK1, in manufacturing from 1967 to 1974 and the MK2, in manufacturing from 1974 to 1980, had rear-wheel drive and a ‘Coke bottle’ waistline. It additionally launched the signature ‘Canine Bone’ entrance grille. The MK3 and MK4 launched a a lot sharper and edgier design to compete with the Volkswagen Golf and Honda Civic. By 1990, it was time for one more drastic redesign, as Ford launched the softer MK5, adopted by the up to date MK6 in 1995. In 2002, the Escort’s run ended, because it was changed by the Ford Focus.

One of the stand-out fashions is, surely, the rally-bred Ford Escort RS Cosworth. It was constructed to homologate the Escort for the World Rally Championship below Group A rules. With simply over 7,000 of them leaving the manufacturing facility in below 4 years, it’s additionally one of many rarest. Because of this, they go for giant cash today! The RS Cosworth got here with a turbocharged 2.0-litre inline four-cylinder engine producing 227bhp, giving it a high pace of 240kph. From the skin, it was immediately recognisable because of its wider bodywork, air vents within the bonnet, and naturally, the ‘whale tail’ rear wing!

Alan Mann Racing & the escort

However it was removed from the one high-performance Escort, and never even near being the primary! That honour goes to the Ford Escort Twin Cam, launched shortly after the automobile went into manufacturing. It was purposefully designed to go rallying and racing, and complied with Group 2 rules. It had a 1.6-litre straight-4 engine with elements constructed by Lotus, producing 105 horsepower. Paired with a low weight of lower than 900 kilos, it was fairly quick for its time! Nonetheless, it wasn’t till Alan Mann was given the duty of modifying an Escort to tackle the British Saloon Automotive Championship that issues began to get actually fascinating, and actually critical!

Based by Alan Mann, the eponymous racing crew was in shut ties with Ford all through the Nineteen Sixties, up till all actions ceased in late 1969. Alan Mann prepped and raced all kinds of Ford vehicles, together with Zephyrs and Anglias, Cortina GTs and the enduring GT40, whereas enlisting the abilities of a few of the best drivers of the period: Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, and Frank Gardner. Many of the crew’s vehicles have been completed in pink and gold, making them immediately recognisable from afar. For the monumental push to win at Le Mans, Ford enlisted Alan Mann Racing to develop a particular GT40 MKI with a light-weight aluminium physique and Ford’s 289ci (4.7 litre) V8 engine. 5 have been ordered, however solely two have been constructed, which stay a few of the most prolific examples of the GT40 regardless of not successful Le Mans outright. That was achieved with the Massive Block 7-litre MKII’s, as you undoubtedly all know.

Even supposing the GT40 may be the ‘larger’ title in Alan Mann Racing’s legacy, one of many crew’s most profitable vehicles was the Ford Escort RS. Whereas it appeared like a fairly near inventory Escort from the skin, beneath it was a genuinely high-level engineered race automobile that may blow the doorways of the competitors when it entered the 1968 and 1969 British Saloon Automotive Championship (the predecessor to the BTCC). Frank Gardner was the lead driver for the 1968 season, by which he began with a Ford Cortina GT, earlier than switching to the newly developed Escort RS for the fourth race of the season. The outcome? It received each single remaining race of the season and clinched the title within the Class C competitors. It can be seen within the clip above of the 1968 European Touring Automotive Race on the Nürburgring.

Following the 1969 season, Alan Mann Racing ended its Ford Works competitors efforts and stopped racing altogether. The title was revived in 2004 and has since been lively in historic racing, race automobile preparation, restoration and prototype developments for different groups and producers. It’s additionally an everyday attendee of occasions such because the Goodwood Pageant of Pace.

The Boreham Escort RS

So what about that slightly quick MK1 Escort? Nicely, the one you see right here is that very automobile, simply constructed model new. Endorsed by Ford themselves, which is a giant deal on this entire story, the Boreham Motorworks Ford Escort RS Alan Mann 68 Version just isn’t a restored classic automobile, neither is it a restomod primarily based on a rusted-out donor automobile. It’s an precise recreation of the 968 championship-winning Escort RS! Each little element, all the way down to the final nut and bolt, has been painstakingly recreated utilizing 3D laser scans from the unique automobile (chassis quantity XOO 349F), guaranteeing it’s as shut because it probably could be. General, it’s a shocking tribute to one of many best racing vehicles ever constructed, and the satan with this one may be very a lot within the element!

Not solely does it look the half because of its iconic broad wheel arches, red-and-gold color scheme and racing roundels, beneath all of it sits a finely tuned chassis and engine pairing eerily just like the one Frank Gardner raced to glory all these years in the past. The wheelbase is a tad longer than the manufacturing automobile for higher dealing with, though it’s nearly not possible to identify. It has a chassis that includes suspension parts derived from the GT40, and is ready as much as slide round and really feel alive as a substitute of being a surgically exact instrument. The burden distribution is an ideal 50:50, and the entire automobile places lower than 800 kilos on the size!

Mix that with a razor-sharp throttle response from a period-correct 1.8-litre Ford four-cylinder Twin Cam engine with double Weber 45DCOE carburettors and an output of 205 horsepower, and issues begin to click on. The straight-cut 4-speed Ford ‘Bullet’ gearbox permits you to push the automobile to its very edge whereas nonetheless sustaining management. Stopping energy comes from disc brakes throughout, which have been additionally put in on the 1968 unique, however right here they’ve been up to date a contact to make issues safer as soon as once more.

Even on the within, all the things is the place it must be. Switches, lights, gauges and so forth are all machined to be interval right. Motorsport-grade cooling and fueling methods maintain issues working safely. Even with out getting behind the motive force’s wheel your self, you may inform that is an absolute riot of a automobile on the monitor, and one which ensures a pure, analogue driving expertise throughout. It truly is a step again in time with none of the drawbacks. It’s Twenty first-century  precision engineering geared toward bringing out much more of one thing that was as soon as designed to be the easiest.

Shoppers who’re inquisitive about getting one of many 24 obtainable Boreham Ford Escort RS Alan Mann 68 Editions (priced at round GBP 300,000) have the choice to go down a period-correct path or take it racing in historic sequence regulated by the FIA. In case you go for the latter, adjustments are wanted to adjust to security requirements, equivalent to a roll cage, a fire-suppression system, a racing harness, a kill swap and so forth. Part of Boreham Motorworks’ top-tier DRVN Extremely Collection program, it additionally comes with invites to particular occasions, license trainings and help from the Alan Mann Racing crew.

For extra info, please go to BorehamMotorworks.com.

Editorial Notice: The knowledge used and pictures portrayed are sourced from and used with permission of Boreham Motorworks, until said in any other case.