Daily Archives: February 8, 2012

Brenda’s Makeover, Ford Escort Mk II Estate 1300 Base

The original Ford Escort was designed by Ford of Britain, it’s Mk II replacement, based on the original platform power trains and running gear, was designed in a collaboration between Ford of Britain and Ford of Germany under the code name Brenda.

Ford Escort 1300L, Castle Combe

The straight edged slab sided Mk II was launched in January 1975 in two and four door plus estate forms which came with equipment and trim level variations known as Base, Popular, L, GL, Ghia, Sport, RS Mexico and RS 2000. with 4 cylinder engines from 1 litre / 61 cui (Italian Tax Exempt Model only) to 2 litre / 122 cui which was used in the RS 2000 models fitted with the overhead cam Pinto motor. There was also a very successful competition version the 2 door RS 1800 which was fitted with the twin cam Cosworth BDA motor. 400 RS 1800 should have been built to meet the competition regulations that applied at the time but it is thought only around 50 RS1800’s were built for road use.

Ford Escort 1300L, Castle Combe

The Estate version of the Mk II Escort had the new square front grafted onto the original coke bottle styled Estate rear end from the A pillar back one cannot tell the Mk I and Mk II apart. This particular car is a Base model, probably the only variation still supplied with the large round head lights apart from the commercial van, all the other had then ‘modern’ square head lights. This particular car has non standard 1/4 front bumpers, vinyl roof and Minilite wheels along with a 2 litre / 122 cui motor.

Ford Escort 1300L, Castle Combe

My parents bought a brand new Diamond White Mk II Escort Estate 1.3 GL in 1977 and though I did not get to drive it much I had a number of adventures in it, with the fold down rear seat a mattress and sleeping bag it made a comfortable alternative to sleeping in a tent, even though it was a complete non starter when it came to a traffic light showdown.

The Mk II Escort along with the contemporary Ford Cortina and Fiesta models locked out the top three in the UK sales charts during most of it’s production run up until 1980.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Brenda’s Makeover’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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