Classic Ford – August 2019

40 August 2019

OMEBUILT HERO

You never forget your fi rst Ford, but it took a midlife crisis for Darren

Hawksley to remember his — and rebuild this early 2.0S as a tribute.

hen it comes to classic Ford ownership, there are two

common themes that tend to prevail with feature car owners

— a Ford from the classic era was usually their fi rst car, and a

Dad or other close relative was a big infl uence on that buying decision.

You won’t be surprised to hear then, that Darren Hawksley is no

exception to this.

“I’ve been working on vehicles all my life, and you can blame my

Dad for that,” grins Darren. “He loved his Fords, too, and when I

turned 16 he bought me a Mk2 Capri 1.6 GL to do up ready for

when I passed my driving test. I loved that car, and drove it around

for quite a while before buying a shopper-spec Mk2 Escort, and then

a Mk2 RS2000 in Diamond White.”

Then when he was 19, Darren decided to leave the old Fords —

and the UK — behind to go a live and work in Australia for 15 years.

“That was quite an experience,“ he remembers, “and of course, the

cars are very different over there, too. I’ve been back in the UK for

14 years now, and about fi ve years ago had a midlife crisis and bought

a Porsche Boxster! I loved it, but the problem was all my mates were

Words Simon Woolley Photos Adrian Brannan

FIRST

AND

LAST

AND

ALWAYS

W