Mike Monk checks in at a (Ford) Escort Agency; circa 1975, with Brenda, an old friend.
SOME CARS NEVER fail to put a smile on your face. Perhaps not quite so often these days as manufacturers seek to give every model in their line-ups a corporate face and shape them aerodynamically in pursuit of environmentally conscious fuel efficiency. Thirty-odd years ago such considerations were less pressing and cars – even family runabouts – had character, however simple, and were for the most part instantly recognisable. Some were metamorphosed into competition machines just to demonstrate that even basic transport can have a sporting soul. None more so than the early Ford Escorts.
The Mk 1 version replaced the Anglia as Ford UK’s entry level saloon and was an instant sales success amongst the masses before going on to become a motorsport legend, particularly in rallying. A Mk 1 won the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally in the hands of Hannu Mikkola, which led to a Mexico production model that joined the base Sport and racier RS versions in the line-up.
In 1975 the Mk 2 appeared, this time a joint venture between Ford Britain and Ford Germany, which was codenamed (a common trait of the time) Brenda, a boxier design than its predecessor but with carryover mechanicals. It was a sound move because the Mk 1, which apparently received a mild platform tweak towards the end of its life, had more than proven itself to be dynamically sound given its basic MacPherson strut front/leaf spring rear suspension set-up.
The Escort’s European sales success was mirrored in South Africa but towards the end of Mk 2’s relatively – and surprisingly – short model life (just five years), Ford SA had a problem on its hands. The entry level two-door version – only offered here with a 1.3-litre Kent motor – simply was not selling. With the introduction of the front-wheel drive Mk 3 only a year or so away, the question was what to do with the two-door shells. What followed was a marketing master stroke...
In world motorsport the Mk 2 was dominant – it continued its predecessor’s unbeaten run on Britain’s RAC Rally by winning every year from 1975-79, and in 1979 Björn Waldegård took the WRC driver’s title, Hannu Mikkola was runner-up and Ari Vatanen finished fifth. The distinctive Castrol-liveried Zakspeed Escorts were a force to be reckoned with on the race circuits, too. Locally, in his first season with Ford, national hero Sarel van der Merwe won the National Rally Championship in 1978, and to this day he describes the Bernie Marriner-built Mk 2 BDA – more powerful even than the Boreham-built ‘works’ cars – as his favourite competition car. And who can forget the battles – and an infamous accident at Kyalami – with Ian Scheckter in his Cosworth-powered touring car? So, given all this competition success and with the introduction of the limited-run ‘droop snoot’ RS2000 already scheduled to take place at the end of 1978, Ford SA decided to introduce a cheaper Sport version, using the dormant two-door shells and substituting the 1.3 with a 1.6 Kent motor.
But how to promote it? DeVilliers and Schonfeldt was Ford SA’s advertising agency tasked with creating an ad campaign, and SA’s Dakar Rally reporter Peter Burroughes was part of the creative team at the time. Peter recalls one inspirational night. ‘It was long after normal working hours when three of us were battling to come up with a personality theme for the car. One of the artists also played guitar and was strumming and humming and began to form the magic words of a jingle – “dual halogens and a three-spoke wheel, tuned suspension for that rally feel, safety belts with inertia reel, fatter tyres on wider rims styled in steel, the one-six-double-oh Sport”.’ (My two sons thought the jingle was great and wrote to de V&S for the words, to which Peter replied. Alas, the letter is now missing but the boys still remembered these lines.)
Teaser TV and press ads were prepared depicting a roller-shutter door rising to reveal a red Escort 1600 Sport head-on, and as the base of the door reached bonnet height the twin halogen spotlamps flashed twice. And so began a tradition amongst 1600 Sport owners that whenever you approached another one on the road, two flashes were exchanged, a gesture that lasted for many months after launch. Silly, but passionate – that smile factor, you see...
‘Born to Perform’ was the marketing theme. Under the bonnet, the twin-choke Weber carburettor was retained but a banana-branch exhaust manifold was fitted that fed into a big-bore tailpipe. The Sport was fitted with halogen headlamps, a deep, black front spoiler, front quarter-bumpers with over-riders to protect the dual rally-style spotlamps, blacked-out grille, 5.5J styled steel rims with ‘low-profile’ 175/70 SR13 radials (it was 1979 remember!) and some custom bodyside decaling. Cabin upgrades included a simple three-spoke padded-rim steering wheel, a rev counter, a short RS2000 gear shift, a ‘Sport’ embossed facia insert, console mounted clock, inertia-reel seatbelts and seats with head restraints that were upholstered in really smart pattern-and-plain woven cloth that featured stripes colour-coded to the body colour. Well, sort of.
Because the original 1300 trim had to be used up as well as the bodies, there were a few slightly odd colour mixes, especially towards the end of the production run when chocolate brown and black trim were mixed regardless of body colour. Also near the end of production, one side of the tail-lamp lenses ran out, causing some cars to be sold with odd lenses – an evenly-spaced lens on one side and an asymmetrical one on the other. All of which added character.
Minor tweaks to the suspension made a disproportionate improvement to the ride and handling. Stiffer dampers all round, an increase in the front anti-roll bar thickness from 19 to 22 mm, and the fitment of an anti-roll bar at the back made what was a comfortable family saloon suspension into a sportily firm and responsive yet still compliant set-up.
The whole deal certainly won me over – helped, naturally by my ad-brainwashed two sons – and I bought one of the first to be sold in Cape Town. It cost (even for the time) an amazingly reasonable R4 340 and I splashed out on an optional heated rear screen and an RS2000 boot spoiler (THAT surprised the salesman), which turned out to be too heavy for the boot lid springs so I had to fabricate a manual prop. A sunroof and a set of Minilite-lookalike Carmona mags came later.
Painted white, the 1600 Sport was my family’s first new car and it gave us all endless pleasure for nearly 16 years. I taught my wife to drive in it, and she taught the two boys, each of whom had a period of ownership, and for us all it provided endless kilometres of memorable journeys. It once got stolen from Green Point Stadium but was recovered, and was finally passed on to a Sport enthusiast, battered a little around the edges but still proud.
Knysna businessman Jonathan Gunn has always considered the Sport to be an iconic design – its proportions ARE good – and his favourite racing car was Sarel’s ‘Kolbenschmidt’ touring car. A couple of years ago he decided to look around for a Sport for himself and partner Mari. A light blue car was spotted in a used car lot and he did the deal there and then. A respray followed that revitalised the car’s appearance. The red example featured here had been sitting under a tree on a farm in Port Elizabeth for 15 years but had only 40 000 km on the odo. Again, a respray was carried out that rectified the damage bird droppings had caused, and this car must be one of the best examples around.
He acquired a third example after he parked the red car outside a shop in Knysna and a lady came out and said she had a similar one parked in the back yard of her house in Plettenberg Bay and would he like to come and have a look at it? He found a white, hand-painted wreck with a ‘beware: snakes inside’ sign on the door but felt so sorry for the car that he bought it. It was licensed but not running. The body plate revealed that it was originally painted silver, so Jonathan had the car repsrayed and refurbished, including fitting a new set of decals obtained from a supplier in England. Someone was in for a surprise, though...
Watty Watson, a local journalist, spotted the car parked at last year’s Knysna Hillclimb and had a feeling he knew the car as the one he once owned. His dad had bought the car for his mom (who named it ‘Spookie’) who, in turn, passed it on to him. The youthful Watty found the car to be ideal for attracting the fairer sex and it became the transport of desire for visits to movie drive-ins and roadhouses. Serving in the Navy then meant little time was spent with the Sport and it was passed on to a nephew who, sadly, neglected the car. By 2009 it lay forlorn at his sister’s house, which is where Jonathan took up ownership. But Watty’s intuition was not misplaced as subsequent investigation revealed that it actually was ‘Spookie’.
Getting behind the wheel of a 1600 Sport after some 16 years or so was akin to being united with an old friend. Instant warmth and smiles, a flood of fond memories recalled and a general feeling of well-being. The big door opens wide to ease entry and exit to the roomy cabin, and once seated the feeling of airiness and the superb all-round visibility was immediately remembered. I had forgotten the off-set steering wheel but it did not feel odd – the driving position just feels right and the seats, now softened with age, provided adequate support. Fire-up and the crossflow, pushrod OHV motor springs to life and settles into that familiar big bore beat, which reminded me of when we lived in Port Elizabeth and used to charge down White Road, windows open, grinning and listening to the exhaust’s crackling resonance on the over-run bouncing off the buildings.
The clutch is light and first engages with a slick snick. No power steering of course, so tight manoeuvring can be a tad heavy by today’s assisted standards although the turning circle is a modest 8.9 metres, but once on the move it feels precise and provides welcome feedback. There is no red line on the rev counter but maximum power of 62kW appears at 5 500 and the Kent will run to 6 300, with peak torque of 125Nm arriving at a middling 3 500rpm – outputs that, by comparison, are near identical to today’s Ford Figo 1.4.
Top ratio of the four-speed gearbox is 1:1 and once selected the engine pulls sweetly. Road tests of the day produced a 0-100kph time of around 12.7 seconds, which is quicker than the Figo, indicating that the 1600 Sport is more than competent in modern traffic conditions. Foot to the floor and the Sport falls 5/6kph short of the ‘Imperial ton’ – 161kph – but that is academic, really. Show the car a winding route – on tar or gravel – and it comes alive, capable of being flicked left-to-right and back again with such ease of control and responsiveness that it is no wonder it was such a sporting success. The disc/drum brakes are well up to retarding the near-one tonne Escort with reassuring consistency.
The Ford Escort 1600 Sport grew from a production stock headache into a roaring sales success. Once launched, dealers had trouble meeting demand and the car perhaps epitomised the very best of Mk 2 ownership: good looking, fun, easy to maintain, a hoot to drive – and affordable. Enough to put a smile on anyone’s face.
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