Ford Escort Mexico Mk1

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian · March 8, 2015

Glad to say that I went to Trentham when the Group B's were around, was showing the lad videos yesterday of the crowds inches away from those monsters as they slid past round corners and landed after 30 ft jumps.

A massive accident was always on the cards really.

Degs62 · March 8, 2015

It's good to be an old fart and be able to say, 'I saw them doing that, and it was awesome', and have pictures to show it. Hoping you've all seen the Vatanen/Harriman 'Dear God' moment on the Manx International, well I was there, on that stage (further down it) and have a picture of the car with the flast front tyre. If you look really hard you can see me, but you have to know where to look

I saw the Group B monsters in Grizedale Forest on an very icy stage, it was so slippy we could hardly walk on it, but we went about 2 miles in, found a good section and climbed up onto the embankment. Was the best that you could go into the forests to actually watch an event and not be shepherded into compounds and stadia. We were all completely gob smacked at just how loud and fast those beasts were especially on sheet ice. The Metro 6R4's were immense!

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian · March 8, 2015

Degs62 said:
It's good to be an old fart and be able to say, 'I saw them doing that, and it was awesome', and have pictures to show it. Hoping you've all seen the Vatanen/Harriman 'Dear God' moment on the Manx International, well I was there, on that stage (further down it) and have a picture of the car with the flast front tyre. If you look really hard you can see me, but you have to know where to look

I saw the Group B monsters in Grizedale Forest on an very icy stage, it was so slippy we could hardly walk on it, but we went about 2 miles in, found a good section and climbed up onto the embankment. Was the best that you could go into the forests to actually watch an event and not be shepherded into compounds and stadia. We were all completely gob smacked at just how loud and fast those beasts were especially on sheet ice. The Metro 6R4's were immense!

Theres a company near me that makes 6R4's

Degs62 · March 8, 2015

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian said:
Theres a company near me that makes 6R4's

I've got a 220KW road car that would blow one into the weeds now. But it would be awesome to just have a garage big enough to collect the awesome rally cars and just take them out for the occasional blast

Dylan · March 9, 2015

If we are talking Group B, for looks, the RS200 is the champ, but nothing beats the S4 for bonkers performance (3 second 0-60 times.....in the dirt!!!!!

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian · March 9, 2015

Dylan said:
If we are talking Group B, for looks, the RS200 is the champ, but nothing beats the S4 for bonkers performance (3 second 0-60 times.....in the dirt!!!!!

I wasn't over attracted to it myself as when you get close up & start realising what they've used to make the thing, arl mk2 fiesta indicator stalks etc & other leftover bits for the door handles etc. I preferred the beefed up versions of 'actual' road cars as opposed to how they'd done it with that i.e. a minimum production run to get through the rules & regs.

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian · March 9, 2015

check out the prices of Lancia Delta Integrales btw.

That crazy Italian in Trentino has ruined theme parks forever for me after the daily lifts he used to give me back to the forest campsite........ like a stage through Kilder every day, 'kin slides and mach3 every time.

Toffeelover · March 9, 2015

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian said:
check out the prices of Lancia Delta Integrales btw.

That crazy Italian in Trentino has ruined theme parks forever for me after the daily lifts he used to give me back to the forest campsite........ like a stage through Kilder every day, 'kin slides and mach3 every time.

What cha moaning about? Still in one piece aren't yuh?

Toffeelover · March 9, 2015

Times moved on though and the group B was killed off.

Dylan · March 9, 2015

Toffeelover said:
Times moved on though and the group B was killed off.

Yep, after some spectator deaths (IIRC a RS200 ploughed through a crowd) and the the deaths of Toivonen and Cresto sealed the 'Killer B's' fate.

Groucho · March 9, 2015

Dylan said:
Yep, after some spectator deaths (IIRC a RS200 ploughed through a crowd) and the the deaths of Toivonen and Cresto sealed the 'Killer B's' fate.

I think there's a company that produce RS200 replicas, and are day to day friendly as they're (running gear at least) Sierra based.

Unfortunatley the non-Sierra parts, and more importantly the chassis (for the wheelbase match) are from the Austin Maestro.

The Sierra was obviously decent, RWD, and still reasonably available, but the Maestro was crap, FWD, and is now hard to get hold of for parts in comparison.

Dylan · March 9, 2015

Back in my Navy days, I was on a Subaru board. I met up with an Australian programmer, who was a lead programmer at Microsoft. He had an Impreza 22B and a real (not replica) RS200. On one of my trips back to the UK, I got a ride to the Nurburgring in the 22B and got to sit shotgun for a lap in the RS200. Bonkers speed, and I was quite afraid.

Groucho · March 9, 2015

Dylan said:
Back in my Navy days, I was on a Subaru board. I met up with an Australian programmer, who was a lead programmer at Microsoft. He had an Impreza 22B and a real (not replica) RS200. On one of my trips back to the UK, I got a ride to the Nurburgring in the 22B and got to sit shotgun for a lap in the RS200. Bonkers speed, and I was quite afraid.

I'd love a go in a RS200. I love the fast Ford's in general, all started with the Sierra Cosworth for me. People rave over the Escort Cosworth but for me the Sapphite 4x4 version is the peak. It's also essentially the same as the Escort version but with the body being different.

Seeing as you like Subaru's, are you aware that the now defunct Saab company went into partnership with Subaru and produced an Impreza based Saab 9-2x (non-UK)? I love odd ones like this.

d34noj · March 9, 2015

Groucho said:
I'd love a go in a RS200. I love the fast Ford's in general, all started with the Sierra Cosworth for me. People rave over the Escort Cosworth but for me the Sapphite 4x4 version is the peak. It's also essentially the same as the Escort version but with the body being different.

Seeing as you like Subaru's, are you aware that the now defunct Saab company went into partnership with Subaru and produced an Impreza based Saab 9-2x (non-UK)? I love odd ones like this.

Escorts Cosworth and Sierra Sapphire Cosworth share the same floorpan, and the Metro 6R4 is essentially a Maestro - albeit very heavily modified

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian · March 9, 2015

Groucho said:
I think there's a company that produce RS200 replicas, and are day to day friendly as they're (running gear at least) Sierra based.

Unfortunatley the non-Sierra parts, and more importantly the chassis (for the wheelbase match) are from the Austin Maestro.

The Sierra was obviously decent, RWD, and still reasonably available, but the Maestro was crap, FWD, and is now hard to get hold of for parts in comparison.

yeah a kit car company(Banham Conversions) bought the body shape, the original fibreglass bodies were built by..... RELIANT !!

Groucho said:
I'd love a go in a RS200. I love the fast Ford's in general, all started with the Sierra Cosworth for me. People rave over the Escort Cosworth but for me the Sapphite 4x4 version is the peak. It's also essentially the same as the Escort version but with the body being different.

Seeing as you like Subaru's, are you aware that the now defunct Saab company went into partnership with Subaru and produced an Impreza based Saab 9-2x (non-UK)? I love odd ones like this.

Pffft, with the Cosworths, the Skyline in the drive (R32 GTST 2.0 Single Turbo) was the skyline 1st entered in the Aussie Touring Cars although not under the name Skyline & Ford held the Cosworth back from it to avoid losing basically, then the GTR was thrown in just in case, it was unbeaten until the Aussies changed the specs which is something they did once before to stop the PDL Mustang from winning every year, PDL is who I worked for in NZ & basically they didnt want the kiwis winning every year at Bathurst, they took it over to do some laps before a race almost 30 years later & it had the 4th fastest lap time. It was in garage at work & when it was started up the only thing I can describe the noise as is the noise of a Harrier Jump Jet doing vertical take off. When it was started up it was ridiculous the amount of people that would arrive to gawp through the railings.