FEATURE / Has the Ford Escorts crown been toppled in Historic Rallying?

Words By Andy Cook | Photography By: Andy Cook, Andrew Scott and Nigel Pratt

Ever since the late sixties, and particularly throughout the seventies and eighties, Ford’s Escort has dominated rallying globally, from the world scene to regional national rally championships, including right here in the UK.

Since its birth, or at least when some bloke called Henry Taylor got the lads at Fords competition department to shoehorn a Lotus Twin Cam engine from the Cortina in one on a Friday afternoon in 1967; the MKI and MKII variants have both continued to live a rather healthy life in national rallying, even after its replacement at the sports topflight by its successors. In the hands of an array of rally drivers in both the British and World Championships, such as our very own, the late great Roger Clark, its success story in rallying, has been immense and has left a legacy in motorsport.

Even to this day it still makes for a very competitive machine “to go rallying in” and is also considered to be somewhat of, a bit of a “go-to weapon of choice” in not just Historic rallying circles but also with modern adaptations of the car. It has, therefore, continued to be successful, particularly in the British Historic Rally Championship, remaining relatively unchallenged year after year throughout the past few decades. However, in more recent times, and particularly this year, we have seen it come under threat by three other machines, and that were not products of Henry Ford.

So, the question is, has the Ford Escorts crown come under such a sufficient threat this year, to the point where it may no longer be the winner’s choice in British Historic Rallying?

In 2023, Roger Chilman took the British Historic Rally Championship title in an MKII Escort RS1800; yes, he did face some stiff competition from the likes of Nick Elliott in the Rallye Sport Developments Fiat Abarth 131 and two Porsche 911s piloted by Richard Tuthill and Seb Perez. Yet the MKII Escort was not ready to give up its crown and still delivered the Championship title.

There is no denying the success that the Escort has achieved, or the mellifluous sound of a BDA engine on song echoing through a Forest, which together with the sights of them going sideways is still something that excites the rally fans of all generations. However, there has been an increasing number of times that I’ve heard comments about the endless stream of Escorts competing on an event. It is perhaps also, not outrageous to suggest that there is a desire from many, to see more variety out on the stages, and this year (2024), we have finally seen another small step forward on this front.

This came in the form of, the sound of a V8 burble emitting from a Triumph TR7 hailing from the David Appleby Engineering stable, added into the mix; joining Perez’s Porsche and Elliott’s 131 in a full Championship assault for the 2024 season, and together all three of them, have really put a cat well and truly amongst the pigeons.

Perez’s Porsche reigned supreme by first picking up Category 2 honours, having outclassed a handful of MKI Escorts but then went on to clinch the overall title the week of the final rally of the 2024 season. Of course, the Porsche hasn’t had it all its own way, former British Rally Champ, Mark Higgins would return to national rallying behind the wheel of that TR7 with a touch of Tony Pond-ness about him, joining the party from the second round in North Wales. Initially, Chris Ingram would pilot the machine at the season opener in North Yorkshire, (The Riponian Rally), but Higgins would take over the reins to campaign the rest of the championship in her from Rally North Wales and he would very much be in the hunt.

Despite Higgins opening his account with a DNF in North Wales, he went on to secure three outright rally wins on Asphalt at The Manx, Argyle, and Tour of Epynt mid-season. These along with some strong scores on the gravel made him also, a serious contender for the title in 2024. The TR7/Higgins combination has also shown that in the hands of a competent driver, the car can be a very competitive machine, holding its own amongst the Category 3 MKII Escort but also achieving the team’s goal of securing the FIA Category title. Having picked up an injury just a week before the final rally of the 2024 season, Higgins wasn’t able to contest the two-day Anglo-Caledonian, finale robbing us fans of that one last dual on the stage which enabled Perez to crowned our 2024 champ. Soon after the final rally of the season, Appleby listed the machine for sale having proven itself on the British stages as a rally-winning, championship-contending machine.

Meanwhile, outside of the battle for the overall Championship glory between the Porsche and Triumph; Nick Elliott and the Rallye Support Developments outfit have continued to progress the Fiat Abarth 131 on gravel. Although there have been no Asphalt outings by Nick himself in the car, Adrian Hetherington, another traditionally die-hard MKII Escort driver has laid his hands on one towards the back end of the year. The Irishman took it for his first competitive outing on the Asphalt at the Wexford Stages rally in mid-September, where he would also drive it to its first Asphalt rally victory.

Although Elliott scored one win on the gravel at Rally North Wales in April, the rest of the season didn’t produced quite as strong of a performance nor the results compared to his rivals in the other marks. Of course, we know the Fiat is capable of winning rallies and indeed challenging for the Championship, remember a few years ago multiple British Rally Champion Matt Edwards peddled one for which he narrowly missed out on the 2022 Championship title.

And so, with all this in mind, if you had a few pennies to spend and wanted to go rallying in the British Historic Rally Championship next season, where would your spend your money?

Would you stay with the good old faithful MKII Ford Escort? Or would you perhaps look towards the up-and-coming Fiat, Porsche, or Triumph… or maybe even something completely different?

So, in an attempt to answer the initial question… Has the Ford Escorts crown been toppled in British Historic Rallying?

Well, not fully or just yet, in my humble opinion, it is still a very good choice and very capable, to the point where you can’t really go wrong with them, but one thing that is certain is that the presence of these other marks being used in anger out on the stages regularly is a very welcomed sight and one hundred percent makes both the Championship and our sport better for it.