Some 30 years after first falling for one, Alan Bradshaw now has the Mk3 he always wanted.
Original classic Fords:
Some of history’s greatest road cars have come about thanks to homologation regulations. When manufacturers want to go racing, the rule-makers often stipulate a specific number of road cars that need to be sold in order to make the racers eligible, and Ford have historically understood this more keenly than most. Take the Sierra RS Cosworth, for example, or the equally iconic Escort RS Cosworth: respectively required for Group A racing and WRC competition, these cars grew to represent so much more than simply box-ticking appeasement, they’re living legends. And so it was with the Escort RS1600i — in a production run lasting less than two years, the car was effectively an XR3i with a lot of expensive developments bolted on to turn it into a fully-fledged RS car; AFT twin-coil electronic ignition, solid tappets, racier cams, castor-adjustable front suspension, unique spoilers… in Group A race trim, these cars could produce 160 bhp and rev to 6500 rpm. In road tune, it was more like 115 bhp, but the combination of high-end spec, on-trend sticker graphics, quad spots and RS seven-spokes meant that this special edition sold like hot cakes. Ford only planned to build 5000 to meet homologation criteria, but demand saw that figure soaring to 8659 in total. 2600 of these were officially sold in the UK, and the one you see here is a bona fide survivor — a matching numbers car that’s enjoyed one or two minor tweaks, but largely just refreshed to its early-1980s glory.
First impressions
Its owner, Alan Bradshaw, is a man who appreciates the finer nuances of performance motoring, his automotive CV boasting all
manner of adventures from Audi RS4s and R8s to Mustangs and Porsche 911s, although his Blue Oval passion stretches way back to a time when all this was sepia-tinted fields:
“After passing my test in 1978 I had a Signal Green Mk2 Escort, which I traded in 1981 for a Sunburst Red XR3,” he recalls. “While I owned that, a very good friend of mine had an RS1600i, and I loved it — such an underrated car, fantastic to drive and certainly a step up from a Mk2!”
It’s fair to say that this car planted a seed in Alan’s heart; a seed that lay dormant before bursting into life a few decades later.
“I bought this RS1600i from Cannock, Staffordshire in 2014,” he says, nodding affectionately toward the pristine white Mk3 that’s posing for us today. “The car had a new MoT and looked to be in fair condition; it had a Janspeed exhaust and a few blue hoses — it had been pimped up a little — and the reg had been changed to A16 XRS in 2005, but I swapped back to its original A121 HCP in 2015 to keep the car original. It was always my intention to fully restore a car, and this one was perfect for it.”
There will always be a long and complicated list to draw up when it comes to embarking upon a restoration, and it’s a fact of life that a Ford resto will invariably feature a body overhaul in thick red capitals.
“The company commissioned to do the body repairs told me it would take eight weeks… but in the end it took eight months to get the painted shell back,” Alan recalls with a grimace. But such is the way of things when you’re doing it properly. Some rust was (unsurprisingly) revealed when the shell was
efforts of Simon at Aldridge Trimming (01902 710805, www.aldridge.co.uk), who fitted a new headlining in the original grey as well as recovering the RS seats. Alan originally requested the correct material that he’d seen Aldridge using on the TV show told them,” Alan grins. Er, sorry, we’ve kinda given the game away now…
The carpet and sound deadening were replaced too, while the dash (which was cracked, inevitably, they always are) was replaced with a more solid example. Alan even managed to source a period Ford radio and footwell speakers. The attention to detail here really is quite remarkable.
The quest for new-old-stock parts turned up some real gems, with the RS steering wheel and front spoiler being particular highlights. When a rare car such as this is still running its original drivetrain, the importance of using period-correct and model-specific parts is huge, and when they’re as obscure as these you can imagine the drama Alan had tracking it all down — particularly since such things tend to be jealously guarded by owner