Consider a modern car perhaps?

I can see the locals running down from the hills, pitchforks in hand, flaming torches glowing bright..they’ve heard there’s a witch in the valley, spreading strange thoughts to their young and trying to change decades of their thinking…that witch thinks they should consider something other than a Mk2 Escort !! Shock Horror….

Now I’ll make something very clear , I do like Mk1/2 Ford Escorts ( I’ve owned 4) , however UK rallyings obsession with a model that last rolled off the production line over 34 years ago is bordering on unhealthy .

The Historic series are great , and only a fool would deny that a BDG on full tilt is music to the ears, but at what price ?

What if I was to say for the price of the aforementioned new build mk2 , you could have a 65 plate rear wheel drive , fully homologated R3 rally car (GT86) and go and do almost any event in the world ? Food for thought isn’t it….

But I forget , with a MK2 you can work on them at home can’t you? Well nearly all the top historic cars have a lifed engine , box, axle etc . I’ve done a bit with an R5 Fiesta recently and it’s no different , outside of lifing ,everything can be done from home , OK they’re not cheap to buy in any shape or form but what a car .

I’ve also rallied a lot recently in R2 Fiestas, what a great little car . For between 20-25k you get proper canister suspension, a great little sequential box, really nice shell/cage build and again that ability to enter any event internationally. In the case of the R2 Fiesta they’re also competitive in the open 1600 class, (one has won the B10 section of BTRDA this year).

Modern options are endless, just coming to the end of it’s homologation, the ST Fiesta is also a great little car, and could be picked up for around 10-12K. There are people spending double that on road rally cars, that’s absolute madness in my mind.

Totally understand true budget clubman rallying where you can be out on the stages for say 4k, no problems with that whatsoever, I also have an understanding that people want to emulate the cars they grew up with. So for many the MK2 Escort is the car of their youth, but what I don’t understand is the slavish worshipping at the Church of the Escort, so many people are buying BDG’s but really there’s only maybe 8 people in the uk who could win an Historic round in one. Think outside your comfort zone guys, you’ll be surprised you’re missing…

I like Historic cars don’t get me wrong, and over the years they’ve been very kind to me, but for the historic of the future to thrive we need to embrace the current crop of cars.