DAVID EVANS

GROUP RALLYING EDITOR “Block knows it’s wrong, but his hands are tied”

I t’s not often Ken Block gets it wrong, but he got it wrong this time. I wasted no time in pointing out the error of his ways. He wasted even less time getting back to me letting me know he knew. But his hands were tied.

Block’s desire to breathe life into machinery he could only yearn for while he was busy making skateboard shoes through the 1990s is a real demonstration of his understanding of the history of our sport. It’s why he started last weekend’s Oregon Trail Rally in a pukka Group A Ford Escort Cosworth.

I loved and still love the Escort Cosworth. But the icing on the cake was a side exhaust. From memory, I can’t remember if the original Boreham car exited from the side or rear, but certainly as time progressed and the car evolved, the side exhaust became de rigueur.

And Ken knows it. His car was fitted with one, but it had to be removed to comply with all manner of rules and regulations required to drive the thing on the road. Shame.

But still, fantastic to see such a beautifully restored car competing again. I know, I know Escort Cosworths are out and about up and down Britain every weekend, but this one’s special. It’s a time machine back to 1992 and the Scottish Rally.

The Sierra RS Cosworth 4x4 had pretty much had its day and Ford Motorsport was busy shipping transmission parts – including a glorious seven-speed gearbox – across into the Escort. Malcolm Wilson and Spain’s Mia Bardolet were charged with making the thing work and they managed that job splendidly.

A Wilson victory on the Centurion Rally, a Kielder-based BTRDA round, didn’t come as much of a surprise early in 1992, but the Scottish of that year would be a much better indication of the Escort’s pace. Ford entered MW in the development car, running in a separate class as it had yet to be homologated. Crucially, it was running in Group A trim and met with the same criteria as Colin Mcrae’s Subaru Legacy RS.

Wilson was quicker and, had both cars been running in the international field, the Escort would have won quite comfortably. Boreham had built a winner. Yet, staggeringly, it didn’t take a title at the highest level. In 1993, Ford was pipped by Toyota in the makes’ race and, while Francois Delecour won three times, he lost out to Juha Kankkunen.

That was as good as it would get for Ford and Delecour, who broke both ankles in a road accident while driving a mate’s Ferrari F40, ruling him out for much of 1994. At the end of that season, Boreham announced it was shutting its doors as a factory development team, with RAS Sport taking over the running of the cars for 1995.

The Escort RS Cosworth’s moment had passed, side exhaust or not.

Sadly, I wasn’t in Portland for the Oregon Trail Rally, but I can well imagine the Block Escort would have been a sight to behold. Then again, when is a car driven by Park City’s happiest handbraker anything less than spectacular?