GROUP A RALLY CAR
We look back at the works rally career of the Escort RS Turbo, and discover the fate of the most notable example, that of Mark Lovell...
The one and only Mark Lovell's ex-'works' RS Turbo lives on.
On the face of it, the Mk3 Escort’s competition career can’t hope to compare to those of its immediate, rear-wheel drive predecessors, machines which largely made the British forests their own domain for over a decade. Things might have been different had the Quattro not upended the WRC order and killed off Boreham’s RS1700T programme at a stroke, but as it was, the third gen Escort was denied the chance to step out from the (massive) shadow cast by its older brothers.
Look a little deeper though, and another story begins to emerge, one of national rally success, trial and error and a great deal of innovative thinking and engineering, all based upon the first front-wheel drive Escort. It all culminated in the car you see here, one which will be familiar to those of you with a couple of RAC rallies under your belts, Mark Lovell’s RS Turbo. Now owned by
Chris Hutchings – of PIAA (lighting suppliers for a number of World Rally Teams), and owner of Mores Motor Company (a car sales company specialising in sought-after Fords). and a confirmed Ford motorsport devotee – the car enjoyed an active competition career and occupies a small yet significant place in the history of Ford’s rally activities.
“I knew Mark personally from back in his early rally days, just before he signed with Ford,” muses Chris. “I got to know him through the XR3-based Escort Turbo Championship series which he won comfortably, and within months he’d been signed up to drive the new RS Turbo for the following year, 1984.”
It’s worth us taking a trip back to mid 1980s at this point, just to get a clearer idea of the motorsport environment which gave birth to this very special RS and the struggles Boreham (and Lovell) faced in turning it into a competitive proposition.
It isn’t hard to see why a front-wheel drive rally project appealed to Ford’s marketing men at the time. Sure, the looming presence of the Group B RS200 was Boreham’s most pressing concern now that the RS1700T had been killed, but it was hard to ignore the fact that the BDT supercar had very little in common with Ford’s bread-and-butter models bar its Sierra windscreen. It was hoped therefore that a Group A RS Turbo programme would help raise the profile of the new, front-wheel drive RS Escort, while also adding another string to Boreham’s bow in the process.
Aware of the limitations of period frontwheel drive when faced with a slimy British forest stage or a rutted strip of Irish Asphalt, Boreham commenced a comprehensive re-development programme, albeit one restricted by the need to comply with Group A homologation requirements. The need to re-engineer the RS Turbo’s suspension arrangement was perhaps the most pressing problem, not least as Ford’s early attempts at a RS1600i-based rally car had proved far than perfect, with one engineer describing it in less than favourable terms: “When we began development with this thing, the entire width of the M1 wasn’t wide enough for it!”
Even the most cursory of glances at the Rose-joined suspension and overhauled rear-end of Chris’ car shows that Boreham pulled out all the stops in order to cure the wayward handling, so much so that it remains an impressive looking arrangement over three decades on. The rear of the Group A car sports completely different suspension mountings and pick-up points to its predecessor, a modified floorpan and the aforementioned Rose-joints, giving Chris (and anyone else charged with looking after it back in the day) near limitless scope in terms of set-up.
One of the biggest challenges associated with turning the RS Turbo into a capable Group A rally car was how best to transmit its power to the front wheels without it being spun away and lost to the ether. A simple enough task nowadays, it was several orders of magnitude more difficult in the mid ’80s, a world still years away from sophisticated limited-slip diffs, and where rock-hard tyres were de rigueur. The task of doing so in a reliable, tractable manner fell to Ferguson Formula Developments
“...A chance conversation with a seller in Kent led us to the subject of an ex-works Group A Mk3 he happened to own, one once driven by Mark Lovell...”
“The first time Matthew ever saw the car was when he pulled off the sheet covering it! It meant a huge amount to allow him to sit in the very same car that his dad drove so well...”
(FFD), who devised a trick (for the time) viscous differential, albeit one totally reengineered to lend it improved reliability via strengthened internals and casing, plus a revised fluid viscosity.
“The transmission work was only partially successful, and the vast majority of Mark’s retirements with the car were down to gearbox-related issues, with the gear-selector system being especially troublesome. So tricky was it to operate that Mark would struggle to get it into the correct gear all of the time, which resulted in a number of costly gearbox failures.”
This issue underscores the limitations imposed by the Group A formula, namely how little room Ford had for manoeuvre once the RS had been homologated. It was discovered that a relatively minor modification to the bellhousing could effectively re-route the linkage and cure Mark’s gear-selection issues at a stroke, but the company simply wasn’t permitted to make the change, and thus he was forced to muddle on.
Other aspects of the RS were more fruitful, its engine being a case in point. Progressive improvements saw power up to a healthy 215bhp by 1985, while the CVH itself was tweaked to ensure its power
delivery came as low down as possible, both to combat turbo lag and to avoid placing the transmission under undue stress. Lovell would later comment that he completed much of the 1985 West Cork Rally without ever going above 6000 rpm, the CVH’s T3 turbo set-up making a full 1-bar of boost, more than enough to make up for any shortfall in top end ‘shove.’
Chris’ personal, long-standing connection with Lovell, easily one of the most talented rally drivers the UK has ever produced and one all too often overlooked, meant that he was present for much of his success, including the 1986 British Open Rally Championship at the wheel of an RS200. It also meant that Chris was understandably bereaved when Lovell passed away in a horrific accident in 2003, and also played a part in his decision to purchase his ex-works RS when it came up for sale a few years ago.
“In truth, I wasn’t looking to buy another old Ford at the time, certainly not another Mk3 Escort, but fate seemingly had other ideas. I’d just opened our new dealership (Mores Motor Company) with an area to display my old Fords, and a chance conversation with a seller in Kent led us to the subject of an ex-works Group A Mk3 he happened to own, one once driven by Mark Lovell...”
What Chris doesn’t know about works rally Escorts isn’t worth knowing, so it didn’t take long for him to work out that the car had to be Lovell’s old Radio Paging RS Turbo (the only RHD example remaining), a realisation which ultimately prompted him to open his wallet. A deal was made, a deposit paid, and Chris began plans to collect his latest Mk3 from the other side of England. The car he found was in solid, if less-than-perfect condition, a legacy of it being worked upon by a raft of different specialists and something Chris was well placed to put right.
“I know Baz Cannon, now of Rallyworld but formally of Gordon Spooner Engineering in Essex – the company tasked with engineering aspects of this car when new – and therefore the perfect person to entrust the car to now. Baz was happy to work on it again, not least as it gave him a chance to carry out the bellhousing alteration he’d wanted to do over 30 years ago!”
This already touching tale has been lent further significance by Chris’ friendship with Mark’s son, Matthew; tragically just a boy when his father passed away. Aware of the significance of this particular Escort for both Mark and Matthew, Chris organised to have Lovell Jnr unveil the RS Turbo at Mores Motors open day a couple of years ago.
“The first time Matthew ever saw the car was when he pulled off the sheet covering it! It meant a huge, huge amount to allow him to sit in the very same car that his dad drove so well, and we’re looking forward to putting it to good use again this year.”