Neat control buttons located in custom switch panel.August 2019 33upgrade as well as repair, and the whole shell was
stitch-welded, with corner brackets in the
engine bay, radiator support panel braces,
harness eye plates, strut brace brackets, roll cage
mounts, sump guard brackets and all the right
prep. It was then sandblasted, fitted with
Tarmac arches, and fastidiously prepped for its
fresh Radiant Red.
“The car was approximately 85 per cent
complete when I decided to fit the rear spoiler
and found a small imperfection on the
underside,” says Jeremy. “As I was bolting it
down, it dug in and lifted a tiny bit of paint on
the bootlid! I wasn’t happy to say the least but
took it on the chin, assuming it would be a
quick sand and repaint... however it swiftly
went south in a big way as all the paint started
peeling off.” A huge setback for sure, as it
turned out the paint itself was dodgy and the
whole lot just unstuck itself! But with steely
determination (and a few more ST170s broken
to fund it), the Escort was stripped back,
re-primed and repainted, this time with
fabulous results.
Totally wired
“Last on the list for us was the ECU,” he
continues. “With the car running a DTA S40, it
went back to Historic Motorsport who
upgraded the loom to get everything working,
and as soon as they finished I got it booked in
for an MoT. Although it was running and
driving it wasn’t totally happy, so the next stop
was with Steve at Tipton Garage for a rolling-
road setup — he managed to get just shy of
180 bhp out of it, still running the VVT.”
Unfortunately, on the subsequent road test
the oil pressure rapidly dropped, and when
Jeremy drained the oil it was very glittery, which
is seldom good news. Fortunately, he was pretty
comfortable with dismantling ST170s by this
point and, given that he was due to take the car
to the Duchy Classic Ford Show the following
week, he grabbed another low-mileage ST170
engine from a mate, Lee, who’d been saving the
engine for one of his own projects.
On the Thursday they stripped out the old
engine, swapped the new one in on the Friday,
got it all running by Saturday, and it was onJeremy’s proof that there are still bargain Mk2 Escorts out
there, if you keep your eyes and ears open — and get lucky...No frills: caged interior offers little creature comforts,
but Jeremy’s happy to get in it and driver all over the UK.