Ford Escort RS1600

ED HEUVINK with JOHN DAVENPORT, McKlein, £74.99, ISBN 978 3 927458 98 7

Beginning with a foreword by Hannu Mikkola and Gunnar Palm, and followed by a dip into Ford’s rallying history from the 1950s onwards (100Es, Zephyrs, Cortinas – they’re all here), this limited-edition hardback is mostly about the Ford rally team’s fortunes on the famously fearsome East African Safari Rally. In particular it’s about the Escort RS1600, registered RWC 455K, in which Mikkola and Palm won the 1972 event, the first win for a non-local crew since the rally’s inception in 1952.

Atmospheric imagery, mostly from rally photographer Reinhard Klein’s archives, illustrates the very detailed tales by Dutch author Ed Heuvink who has tapped contemporary co-driver John Davenport (who, in the 1972 Safari, was in a Datsun 180B) for on-thespot knowledge. Ford’s fortunes on the rallies, and the stories behind them, are reported in detail deep enough to thrill any Ford rallying obsessive, as will the chapter dedicated to statistics and scanned documents from the 1972 International Rally Championship. Refreshingly, cars from rival teams are given photographic space too.

The final chapter covers the life of RWC 455K since its retirement, right up to its current residence in the N-Anadol Collection in Switzerland and 2016 concours win at Lake Como. It has never been restored.

The long paragraphs and justified type make this a visually daunting read, but there’s historic gold within. It’s printed on top-quality paper and just 999 copies will be produced – ours was number 760 – complete with a protective slipcase. Robert James