jimmyesh

Good luck hope it goes well

My sentiments exactly, crazy, silly money BUT lots of us do need them and I'd rather pay that amount for some nice new ones than a week's wages for some skanky, rusty 35yr old ones on "Greed-Bay" Top work getting them made that man!

Mini I'm afraid mate! Good luck anyway

Yaaaaaawn!

Old skool all the way!! Get rid of the ecu and put your new motor on twin 48's!!

Too right fella! - better in your pocket than theirs! I'm going for fibreglass mex wings for my MK1

R.I.P Colin and the other poor souls that perished My heart goes out to the poor families left to mourn the loss of not only a father & husband but of the little kids too

I'm sure 95-ron unleaded is a lower octane rating than the original 4-star stuff, hence you're correct in saying that the ignition settings on an old-skool engine will be too advanced for crappy supermarket unleaded therefore detonation can occur and hole a piston etc The valve-seat thing is caused by the unleaded factor rather than the octane, as you said the lead acted as a lubricant for the valves - without it, you get valve seat recession Wish I could time-warp back to the 70's!

am above average lol Good for you Tim! I would be above average too if it weren't for my 2 kids and mortgage/ life in general soaking up any would-be Escort funds I love seeing the original AVO cars at shows in their original form and it's good that people are looking after them for future generations to see (assuming they don't have to be destroyed for not being "green" enough by some leftie-liberal tosspot! The things I've got planned for my own MK1 (zetec turbo etc) would be just criminal to do to a genuine AVO mk1 but I do agree with Gaz in one respect that it's only a few plates of metal that separate a "normal" 2-door shell from an AVO one - oh and a few quid too!

220BHP seems a fair output for the mods - good luck!

Welcome back & congrats!

This thread's gone a bit mental hasn't it!? I bought my MK1 1100L (has 2.0 pinto on 40's under the bonnet though) as it is now with the white RS2000 stripes on the car, to be honest I wouldn't have fitted them myself as the car hasn't even got "AVO" front wings on it yet! My future plans are to go with Mexico stripes as I prefer them. I think there's NOTHING wrong with putting the stripes on a non-RS model myself as even base-model 2-door cars are so old, rare and valuable now -not to mention the fact that most on the road have vastly superior running gear in them to what they would have had in the 70's - they've more than earned the rights to wear the stripes! The only people who get hacked off about it are old fuddy-duddies who have genuine AVO cars that get trailered to a few shows in the summer then kept under a dust sheet the rest of the year. - They don't like other people with "lesser", cheaper escorts having cars that look as good as theirs and actually get used on the road and track! - They probably see the odd mk1 escy on the motorway while they're driving their people carrier with the family in and say "yeah but that one's not genuine like mine"! TBH, most AVO Escorts in half decent condition are way out of the average bloke's reach nowadays so the kind of people that will pay upwards of £10k for an escort mk1 isn't your average young working-class fella... Or perhaps he is but has been on the phone to one of those irritating loan companies you see on the telly and got it on the never-never!

I was driving through Sittingbourne high-street in my MK1 Escort last week on the way to see my son when some fat, disgusting "Vicky-Pollard"-type bird said "uurgh look at that horrible old car!!" She is obviously from the dregs of society and I'd hazard a guess that she has her existence paid for by our taxes while she watches Jeremy Kyle every day! So I don't really value her opinion! On the flip side, I was driving it back to Berkshire on the M25 and surprise, surprise some mong had crashed so we all sat in traffic for hours A lorry driver wound down his window and was praising the car up, we had a good long chat. Also I'm always getting the thumbs-up from other road users young and old so they're not all bad!

I was having my 2.1 n/a Zetec built by Connaught Competition Engines about 3 years ago when I saw a 2.4 "Warrior" 16v Pinto being run on their engine dyno - It was destined for a MK1 Escy from Northern Ireland. That particular engine was 311bhp on the power run that I watched and it revved to nearly 9k rpm so the big-capacity pintos do rev when built properly

Reminds me of when I bought my MK1 from ebay - Went and collected it, handed over £4k then drove home Missus never spoke to me for a week, we barnied for another week, now everthing's fine! Saying that, MY car was in Wisbech, Cambrideshire NOT Italy! Good luck mate!

Strewth!! Amazing power from a crazy Pinto!!

100 posts - yippee!! (sorry! )

They're a bunch of idiots who obviously know nothing about our scene so therefore shouldn't comment!. Whenever I'm out in My mk1 I get thumbs-up all the time from pedestrians and passing motorists, I even had a lorry driver on the M25 (in traffic! ) roll down his window and start asking me all about the car, praising it and saying how great it was to see them still on the road - I don't think I'd get the same respect on the roads in some plastic Jap Rice-Rocket or a chav Hot Hatch!

Nutter!!! Fair play to you fella!

Quality pics!

Rich Sav: Your car is SOOO clean!! I'm not jealous.... MUCH!!

That lad is the little runt who played Jack Sugden's boy in Emmerdale!- Crikey I watch too much telly! Nice Capper!

Confirmed: The ST170 lump has uprated rods and forged pistons etc over the normal " Black-top" Can I have an outsider's chance on the bottom end please??

Lol i understand hurting/maiming/killing theives - THATS my aim too! BUT a MK3 CHAVALIER!!!!???? I thought you'd have to pay someone to take it away!