mk1 escort
September 2019 35Chris Jenks wanted his four-door Escort GT to be
the best of the best. And with a decade of military
discipline drilled into him, there was no way he’d
settle for anything less.
wanted to give this car the restoration it
deserved, to become one of the cleanest
four-doors on the classic scene.” A clear
statement of intent from Chris Jenks, and the
Phoenix Orange GT we have before the lens
today suggests that this mission has been
accomplished with militaristic effi ciency. With
Chris having spent 10 years in the Forces, we
shouldn’t really expect anything less.
This sunlit and jaffa-hued perfection
represents the culmination of a lifelong
fascination with any- and everything with
wheels and an engine.
“It all started at the age of fi ve, when my
Dad bought me an Italjet 49cc bike,” he
recalls. “I knew from that day that I was a
petrolhead.” Fast-forward to the age of 17 and
Chris was contemplating his fi rst car; at the
heart of Max Power culture, it seemed
inevitable that he’d fi nd himself in a pink Nova
or a widebody Renault 5, but his Dad provided
a reality check (insurance costs, essentially) and
Chris instead acquired an N-reg Polo. This was
the car upon which he honed his fl edgling
skills; as he’d just started an apprenticeship in
the motor trade, the Polo wasn’t going to stay
standard for long and it received the classic
fl ushed tailgate, deep-dish rims, huge audio
install and all the key teen touchpoints. A few
other cars then followed, before a career
change saw Chris joining the British Army at
22 as an engineer. “I was away a lot, but I was
home at weekends, and began to run Jenko’s
Automotive in my spare time,” he explains.I
Words Daniel Bevis Photos Chris Frosin