idriveaclassic's video: IDRIVEACLASSIC reviews: 60s MK1 Ford Escort Estate A rare Ford

We are looking at a MK1 Ford Escort today straight from the swinging 60s...and best of all, it's an ex police estate car! Check out Adrian Flux on the link below: Text to follow along with if you're watching from abroad: I’ve been hoping to get my hands on Aggie, this modified MK1 Escort for as long as I’ve known Simon. Usually we don’t do masses of modified stuff on IDRIVEACLASSIC, but what makes this car better than any other MK1 Escort I’ve been offered is not only is it an ex police estate car, it’s also been modified at home - so every modification you see on this car is something Simon did himself at home in his workshop. Which for me, is what makes this such a brilliant car. In fact, there are so many modifications on this car, I had to get Simon to list them. An ex rally car crossflow fitted with scatter cam, lightened flywheel, AP racing clutch, modified carb, heavy duty 4 speed box, Capri front struts with uprated springs and brakes, Mexico rear axle, anti tramp bars, lotus steel wheels, Mustang front seats, Mexico dashboard, Skoda 120 centre console, MK2 Escort Ghia glovebox, lotus cortina steering wheel, Vauxhall Carlton load bed cover, twin 12 inch subs and a JBL amplifier. Simon did admit there is probably more but having owned the car 20 years it’s hard to keep a track of everything! Many of you watching will know the history of the Escort and in fact, it’s one of Ford’s most coveted classics. It was made from 1968 until 2000. There was a brief revival of the name in 2014 for the Chinese market second generation Ford Focus - but it wasn’t an Escort as we’d know it. Now it’s hardly surprising that the Escort is one of the most loved classics because back in the day it was a big seller and sold over 4 million units in it’s lifespan across all the generations and was frequently a best seller during the 80s and 90s - a massive turnaround from the snobbish comments of the early days where Fords were dubbed ‘Dagenham Dustbins’ by naysayers. The popularity of the Escort of course isn’t limited to ‘my dad had one of those’ it’s also the sex appeal on these. The MK1 was one of the most successful rally cars of all time with notable wins including the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally. So whilst you couldn’t maybe do the race yourself, you could definitely afford a bit of the magic on your own driveway. Now it all began for the Escort in 1967 in the UK and Ireland when the cars began to be sold before being debuted at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1968. Ford had really made good impact on market share with the slightly smaller Ford Anglia and the Anglia was phased out to be replaced with the new MK1 Escort. Previously Fords had sold under Ford of England or Ireland or Germany as separate divisions, which meant despite all being owned by Ford of America, each countries output for Ford was working in silo and limited sales across different countries. The new merger into Ford of Europe gave Ford much greater power to sell, market and sway influence. The Escort was the first new model to be built and sold under this merger and it was the perfect storm: it was an attractive, well built passenger car which offered affordable motoring and was available en masse. In fact, the new rear wheel addition to the Ford line up was such a big hit, it immediately started to take market share from the home grown car companies like BMCBL, Vauxhall and Rootes Group and started to outsell the competitors within the first couple of years of production. The car sold so well in fact, that by 1974, Ford had sold two million Escorts - which made it the most popular Ford outside the US. In Europe where homegrown brand loyalty is stronger, Ford still made a big dent on market share and mainly took sales from Opel and Volkswagen in Germany. The Escort gave the buyer choice, with a 2 or 4 door saloon, the 3 door estate as we’re testing and a 2 door van. Nowadays you’d never see an estate car sold with 2 passenger doors - but in the 70s this wasn’t unusual and in fact, the ADO16, Allegro and Range Rover were all available as three door models. In fact, Ford didn’t change this until the MK3, which was then offered as an estate with both 3 and 5 door options before settling on the 5 door model as standard from the Mark 4 onwards. As mentioned it was a rear wheel drive car and depending on the model you went for, you could get everything from the 1 litre crossflow up to the 2 litre pinto. Gearbox was either 4 speed Manual or 3 speed auto and the suspension on this car originally would’ve been the MacPherson strut front end suspension and live axle mounted on leaf spring combo. FILMING LOCATION WILL NOT BE DISCLOSED.