Quote:
Originally Posted by andy97
The appeal of Escorts in rallying now is that there is still a very good support and spares network, inc kits for upgrades, and crucially, they are very light.
The rules in rallying encourage it. Why would anyone rally a 250 bhp 1100 kg car when theycan rally a 250 bhp 850 kg one.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zefarelly
I've never quite got the whole escort thing, they're not escorts most of them. Much like putting a duratec in a mk1 Cortina . . Leave the poor car alone and buy a focus st!
If Ford had a brain, they'd re release a modern rwd car. There would be a queue round the block!
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The reason we went Escort is that my driver had one as his first car. Years later he bought another as a 'nostalgic toy' - eventually it morphed into a rally car. That got stolen and we replaced it with another Escort - we still had spares and the alternatives weren't as 'fun'. RWD, lots of parts / knowledge available - it's 'easy' to build an Escort - you're not trying to develop the tech yourself.
The 'K37' changes to the MSA regs also made things worse - they made it a lot harder to build heavily modified cars. Previously you could have taken a Fiesta 7 shell and converted to RWD (gives you the fun factor in a modern shell - Escort running gear can be used so parts availability is good). Innovation used to be possible - I remember competing against a 205 with a spaceframed rear end and motorbike engine in the back, Andy Burtons 306 anyone? Much harder to do that now so Escort it is.
There are some more modern cars that I've been impressed with - oddly both Citroens - C2's always look like quite good fun if they've got a snorty motor and there's a very tidy DS3 1.6T that's been out and about and that shifts along nicely (ends up in the same class as the Millington Escorts usually).
Quote:
Originally Posted by andy97
but you try suggesting that on the “British Rally Forum”!
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You can't really post anything on there if you're not part of the clique, everything just gets derailed by the usual suspects spouting their usual rubbish whether it's relevant or not. I largely gave up with that some time ago.