With a track record for owning and building some incredible motorsport Fords like this Mk1 Escort, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was in father and son, Vince and Jake Falzon’s blood.
Despite its relatively small size and population, Malta punches well above its metaphorical weight when it comes to both the number of Ford fanatics and classic and modified Fords you can find on the island.
With a huge following in drag racing and a geographical landscape that lends itself to hillclimbs, it’s not surprising that the majority of modified cars are built for one of these disciplines, so to find something ready to take on even the most demanding of rally stages or race tracks (when there isn’t one in the country) is somewhat of a rarity, especially when it’s been built to such an impeccably high standard and is loaded with what can only be described as a mouth-watering spec list!
Vince has owned some pretty fine examples of the most popular Ford’s over the years — in fact, he still has a few in his collection today, but it’s obvious his latest builds is his jewel in the crown.
Like father, like son
Vince’s relationship with his son, Jake epitomises how most car-mad Dad’s would want it to be, so when Jake suggested to his Dad that they should build a Mk1 Escort together, it was like an itch that just had to be scratched.
“It’s his fault!” Vince laughs, pointing in his son’s direction. Those two things as it turned out, were all it took to start the build and the end result, as you can see, is what’s undoubtedly up there as one of the finest Mk1 Escorts around today.
A donor Mk1 Escort in standard road trim was found on the island and Vince spent no time in dismantling it back to a bare shell, before the real work could begin; “Everything has to be immaculate when I build a car, outside, inside, engine bay and also underneath”, he says with a smile.
The shell was prepared to his strict standards and that included fitting the bubble-arches and making the necessary