JOHN PECK ESCORT COSWORTH
John’s Bastos- liveried Escort Cosworth rally car was definitely one of the most eye- catching cars at the entire event. It certainly attracted some of the biggest crowds – especially when John popped the bonnet or fired up the YB within. Why? Because this thing is a pukka Group A rally weapon. “We’ve just finished rebuilding it,” John explains, “and we plan to attack some Tarmac rallies in it later in the year.”
John and his team have recently gone through the whole car from top to tail, and the fully recommissioned machine is now ready to hit the Tarmac. The rebuild saw every aspect of the car reinstated as full Group A spec, including that ferocious YB powerplant and the incredibly expensive and hard-to-source transmission. “It’s running a sequential gearbox that we just had refreshed by Bara Motorsport,” recalls John, “they did the 9in rear and 8in front diffs too.”
The latter, causing its fair share of headaches and hard work to overcome. John explains: “the 8in front diff is so big it doesn’t allow room for a normal RHD steering rack to be used – most of the Group A rally cars using the 8in front diff were LHD, so it wasn’t an issue for them – but I wanted to convert the car to RHD. It took a bit of working out, but we got there in the end.”
With the build finally complete, the finishing touch was the iconic Bastos livery – that undoubtedly helped attract so many crowds at the show here.
John’s got a couple of shakedowns planned but hopes to be using the Escort in full competition anger later in the year.