Ford Escort (Europe)
The Ford Escort is a small family car that was manufactured by Ford of Europe from 1968 until 2004. In total, the six generations were spread across three basic platforms: the original, rear-wheel-drive Mk.1/Mk.2, the "Erika" front-wheel-drive Mk.3/Mk.4, and the final CE-14 Mk.5/Mk.6 version. Its successor, the Ford Focus, was released in 1998, but the final generation of Escort was phased out gradually, with the panel van version ending production in 2002 in favour of the Ford Transit Connect.
The Escort was frequently the best-selling car in Britain during the 1980s and 1990s. More than 4.1 million Escorts of all generations were sold there over a period of 33 years.
In 2014, Ford revived the Escort name for a car based on the second-generation Ford Focus, sold on the Chinese market.
Ford Escort 100E (1955)
The first use of the "Ford Escort" name was for a reduced-specification version of the Ford Squire, a 1950s estate-car version of the British Ford Anglia 100E.First generation (1967)
The Mark I Ford Escort was introduced in Ireland and the United Kingdom at the end of 1967, making its show debut at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1968. It replaced the successful, long-running Anglia. The Escort was also presented in Europe as the first passenger car to be developed by the merged Ford of Europe. Escort production commenced at the Halewood plant in England during the closing months of 1967, and for left-hand-drive markets during September 1968 at the Ford plant in Genk.Initially, the continental Escorts differed slightly under the skin from the UK-built ones. The front suspension and steering gear were configured differently and the brakes were fitted with dual hydraulic circuits; also, the wheels fitted on the Genk-built Escorts had wider rims. At the beginning of 1970, continental European production transferred to a new plant on the edge of Saarlouis, West Germany.
The Escort was a commercial success in several parts of Western Europe, but nowhere more so than in the UK, where the national bestseller of the 1960s, BMC's Austin/Morris 1100 was beginning to show its age, while Ford's own Cortina had grown, both in dimensions and in price, beyond the market niche at which it had originally been pitched. It competed with the Vauxhall Viva, and from early 1970, the Rootes Group's Hillman Avenger.
In June 1974, six years after the car's UK introduction, Ford announced the completion of the two-millionth Ford Escort, a milestone hitherto unmatched by any Ford model outside the US. Ford also stated that 60% of the two million Escorts had been built in Britain. In West Germany, cars were built at a slower rate of around 150,000 cars per year, slumping to 78,604 in 1974, which was the last year for the Escort Mk1. Many of the German built Escorts were exported, notably to Benelux and Italy; from the perspective of the West German domestic market, the car was cramped and uncomfortable when compared with the well-established and comparably priced Opel Kadett, and it was technically primitive when set against the successful imported Fiat 128 and Renault 12. Subsequent generations of the Escort closed the gap somewhat, but in Europe's largest auto market, Escort sales volumes always came in significantly behind those of the General Motors Kadett and its Astra successor.
The Escort had conventional rear-wheel drive and a four-speed manual gearbox or three-speed automatic transmission. The suspension consisted of MacPherson strut front suspension and a simple live axle mounted on leaf springs. The Escort was the first small Ford to use rack-and-pinion steering. The Mark I featured contemporary styling cues in tune with its time: a subtle Detroit-inspired "Coke bottle" waistline and the "dogbone" shaped front grille – perhaps the car's main stylistic feature. Similar Coke bottle styling featured in the larger Cortina Mark III, launched in 1970.
Initially, the Escort was sold as a two-door saloon. The "Super" model featured rectangular headlights, carpets, a cigar lighter, and a water temperature gauge. A two-door estate was introduced at the end of March 1968, which, with the back seat folded down, provided a 40% increase in maximum load space over the old Anglia 105E estate, according to the manufacturer. The estate featured the same engine options as the saloon, but it also included a larger, clutch, stiffer rear springs, and in most configurations, slightly larger brake drums or discs than the saloon. A panel van appeared in April 1968 and the four-door saloon in 1969.
Underneath the bonnet was the Kent crossflow engine also used in the smallest-capacity North American Ford Pinto. Diesel engines on small family cars were rare, and the Escort was no exception, initially featuring only petrol engines – in 1.1 L, and 1.3 L versions. A 940 cc engine was also available in some export markets such as Italy and France. This tiny engine remained popular in Italy, where it was carried over for the Escort Mark II, but in France, it was discontinued during 1972.
File:Ford Escort RS1600 - Race Retro 2008 03.jpg|thumb|Roger Clark's 1972 RAC Rally-winning Escort RS1600
A 1300GT performance version was fitted with a tuned 1.3 L crossflow engine with a Weber carburetor and uprated suspension. This version featured additional instrumentation with a tachometer, battery charge indicator, and oil pressure gauge. The same tuned 1.3 L engine was also used in a variation sold as the Escort Sport, that used the flared front wings from the AVO range of cars, but featured trim from the more basic models. Later, an "executive" version of the Escort was produced known as the "1300E". This featured the same 13-inch road wheels and flared wings of the Sport, but was trimmed in an upmarket fashion for the time, with wood trim on the dashboard and door cappings.
A higher-performance version for rallies and racing was available, the Escort Twin Cam, built for Group 2 international rallying. It had an engine with a Lotus-made, eight-valve, twin camshaft head fitted to the 1.5 L non-crossflow block, which had a bigger bore than usual to give a capacity of 1,558 cc. This engine had originally been developed for the Lotus Elan. Production of the Twin Cam, which was originally produced at Halewood, was phased out as the Cosworth-engined RS1600 production began. The most famous edition of the Twin Cam was raced on behalf of Ford by Alan Mann Racing in the British Saloon Car Championship in 1968 and 1969, sporting a full Formula 2 Ford FVA 16-valve engine, producing over 200 hp. The Escort, driven by Australian driver Frank Gardner, went on to comfortably win the 1968 championship.
The Mark I Escort became one of the most successful rally cars of all time. The Ford works team was practically unbeatable in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Perhaps the Escort's greatest victory was in the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally, driven by Finland's Hannu Mikkola and Swedish co-driver Gunnar Palm. This gave rise to the Escort Mexico special-edition road versions in honour of the rally car. Introduced in November 1970, 10,352 Mexico Mark Is were built using bodyshells with additional strengthening panels in high-stress areas, making them more suitable for competition.
In addition to the Mexico, the RS1600 was developed with a 1601 cc Cosworth BDA, which used a crossflow block with a 16-valve Cosworth cylinder head, named "Belt Drive A Series". Both the Mexico and RS1600 were built at Ford's Advanced Vehicle Operations facility located at the Aveley Plant in South Essex. With higher-performance engines and sports suspension, like the Mexico, these models featured the strengthened bodyshell.
Ford also produced an RS2000 model as an alternative to the somewhat temperamental RS1600, featuring a 2.0 L Pinto engine. This also clocked up some rally and racing victories and pre-empted the hot hatch market as a desirable but affordable performance road car. Like the Mexico and RS1600, this car was produced at the Aveley plant using the strengthened bodyshell.
The Escort was built in Germany and Britain, as well as in Australia and New Zealand.