If you're in the market for buying a 'sporting' Mk1 Escort you will need to know the difference between a normal two door mk1, and a Type 49 shell. This quick guide was put together with help from Scott (Vista).

The Type 49 shell was used in three Mk1 Escorts. The RS1600 (1970-74), the Mexico (1970-74) and the RS2000 (1973-74). It was developed by Fords Advanced Vehicle Operations (AVO) that were responsible for producing the rally cars that were dominated rallying over the next decade.

It is important if you're buying a Mexico that it has a genuine type 49 shell, as the car's value will plummet without it. Some will argue that the differences are unimportant, with the exception of the anti tramp bars and one or two bits of stiffening, they're probably right. However, the values that AVO escorts are commanding over and above "standard" ones make it important to know that you're buying the genuine article if you are paying the premium that is so frequently asked for them.

There are a number of pointers to look for.

The first places to look are the body and chassis plate, the chassis plate will be left of centre on the slam panel and should start with the letters BFAT, the body plate will be right of centre on the slam panel and will have the letters AVO and the colour on it about 3 lines down.

Next look in the boot or under the boot floor, you're looking for at minimum a row of bolts coming through the centre of the boot floor, if it's an early car there may be a stone deflector mounted on these bolts, but don't worry if it's not there as they weren't fitted later on and are hard to get hold of so if it's rotted away it may not have been replaced.



Then look at the axle, you should have anti tramp bars mounted to brackets on the top of it. These run forward and attach to mounting points at the end of the chassis rails. You can just see the start of them in this shot of mine



And here they are running forward to the chassis rail (top of the picture)



And here's a shot of the anti tramp bar mounting bracket that should be on the chassis rail (nearest the camera)



Inside the car look for evidence that it had a 6 clock dash from new, if the dash mounting panel has been cut to change from a 2 clock dash to a 6 clock one this is sure evidence of a reshell / replica.

At the front end the strut tops should have double plates on them and additional stiffening on the inner wings under the arches.