Escort Twincam

[Mick The Cabbie]

This belongs to a mate of mine. He bought it in 1987. It was advertised in Midland auto mart(now Auto trader) AND the Nottingham evening post classifieds! He recons he paid approx £1600 for it although I thought it was nearer £1100..

 

Built July 1969 & registered a couple of months later, it was one of the first round headlight cars.

It was a very solid original car. Fairly standard, and fitted with a Webasto sunroof, Nissan bucket seats(!) and a small 3spoke steering wheel.

A new roofskin was fitted to get rid of the sunroof. Some original front seats were sourced(I refused him the ones out of my one owner 28,000 miles GT ) and a RS type steering wheel was fitted. It rolled on either the original Lotus steels or 6" RS alloys.

 

Then another engine went in. Still 1558cc but lightened & balanced, flowed head, L1 race inlet & L2 rally exhaust cam, Janspeed exhaust and running on a pair of 45's. It was dyno'd at either 135 or 145BHP, can't remember which..

It ran low 15's at the Pod, not sure what spec that was though.

One day it was driven flat out all the the way back from the Pod in an attempt to blow it up! Although the engine didn't let go, the exhaust manifold was glowing cherry red This caused an electrical fault when the heat from it melted a small part of the loom!

 

It was run regularly for a couple of years. Interestingly, on the odd occasion it would even be left outside overnight with the windows down and the keys in. How times change!!

 

One unfortunate day whilst fettleing with the engine, a fuel line to one of the carbs sprang a leak Loads of 4 star proceded to out all over the dizzy which started an engine bay fire! The loom started to melt causing all the electrics to do their own thing (wipers going, lights doing strange things etc AND the starter kept cranking the engine which caused more fuel to keep pumping into the fire ) Luckily whilst the fire brigade were being called, he managed to get into the boot and disconect the battery. A few minutes later, the fire was put out. Thankfully, the damage was mainly isolated to the o/s front of the car.

The damaged area was lathered in oil to help prevent the elements getting to it during the following winter period. A few months later, the car was stripped and sent off to have the engine bay blasted. This resulted in the destruction of the n/s inner wing top, not from rot but because of incompetent use of shot blast machinery..

Then due to a business venture and general other distractions, the car has remained untouched for the last 18 years. It's been dry stored and still remains in superb overall condition. During the next couple of years, it's gonna get pulled down from its current resting place. It'll get a new full length n/s strut top, new genuine Ford wings & front panel, a full inside outside repaint. All suspension etc fully powder coated with new nut & bolts etc.

 

This was taken soon after purchase in 1987

 

This was taken in 1989/90 when it was laid up

 

I took these last week. It's been there for 18 years.

[Vista]

Will we be seeing progress on here and has he already got the new wings?

[Mick The Cabbie]

He's got a shed load of genuine Ford panels & bits n bobs which he bought years ago when they weren't worth much!

When the rebuild commences, I'll get pics taken and put em on ere

[mossy]

such a crime! get it built!

[lotusless]

good story + pics m8

why was he trying to blow the engine up on the motorway

[escortmad79]

[bigglesmk2]

Im sure i've seen that b4,has it been on Ebay but never sold

[Mick The Cabbie]

good story + pics m8

why was he trying to blow the engine up on the motorway

 

I guess just because he could.. Back in the late 80's, although it was still a rare & very special car, the engines were still plentyful-ish & cheap-ish to rebuild.

 

If ya never blown it up, ya ain't trying hard enough!!

[Mick The Cabbie]

Im sure i've seen that b4,has it been on Ebay but never sold

 

Nope, not this one.

Never been on the bay & never been for sale.

[bigglesmk2]

I've deffo seen a pic of that car b4,it's gonna do my head in now

[bortaf]

Sweet

you don't dee many twincams, well not many RS's but these seem rarer

Love it

[Mick The Cabbie]

Sweet

you don't dee many twincams, well not many RS's but these seem rarer

Love it

 

Cheers

Yeah, Twincams are the rarest of the factory produced mk1's