SEA FRONT FIESTA

I was flicking through the May/June edition of Classic Ford and the Grafters feature on Sam Mould’s Mk2 Fiesta project caught my eye because of the colour and the patina that looked rather familiar. I wondered if it was a Mk2 Fiesta that had been an almost permanent fixture at my workplace that had recently disappeared?

As I started reading the article it made mention of the accident damage and how rotten it was which tied in with the car that I knew. My suspicions were confirmed when at the end of the article I read that it had been transported up to Yorkshire from the south coast.

I managed to track Ben Szanto (who’s helping Sam restore the car) down on Facebook and he was able to confirm that it was the same car! I told him what I knew and gave him a bit of history. I like the route that Sam’s going down with it — I’d have definitely lost the mouldings, and changed the bumpers, too. The four-spokes are perfect for it.

The reason why the Fiesta was so rotten was the fact that it had spent many years of its life sat in a long stay car park in Portsmouth Naval Base. It was owned by a member of naval personnel so it was used very infrequently between deployments. It would have been a lot worse than it was if it was parked by the water rather the perimeter wall of the dockyard. In fact, it’s been in the dockyard that long I was able to pinpoint it on old aerial photos that I sent to Ben. The recent accident damage to the rear and rear quarter probably sealed its fate and the owner decided to part with it. I always looked out for the Ghia on my drive into work, but weeks and weeks went past with no sign of it. Thanks to the Grafters feature, I now know!

If I was going to do a Mk2 it would have to be an XR2 in Tasman Blue like the one my parents owned. An ex-colleague is currently fitting a Turbo Technics conversion to his Tasman Blue XR2 restoration project. I might just have to twist his arm and try and get him to part with it after all the hard work’s done!

Tom Peters UK