FAST ROAD MK2 MEXICO
It’s taken him 14 years, but Wayne Arrowsmith has finally reached the end of his mammoth Mexico rebuild — now all he has to do is enjoy it.
Some 14 years after he first started the project, Wayne Arrowsmith has finished his Escort Mexico and it’s turned out better than he ever expected.
When Wayne Arrowsmith reveals it’s taken him 14 years to finish this Mk2 Mexico, we’re not surprised. Unless you build top-level Escorts on a full-time basis with a team to back you up, there’s no way you could turn out a car with this level of finish, spec, and frankly, thought and detail, and hold down a job and family in less time — especially when you factor in a complete change of powerplant midway through the build.
As Wayne glances back at the Mk2, while standing at the side of a deserted country road in mid-Wales, waiting patiently for Ade to take some photos, he simply says, “You know how it is. I got married, we bought our first house... your priorities change and the Escort got knocked down the to-do list for a while.”
Now though, the Escort is finished and looking, and sounding, very much the part (and an ’80s road-rally one at that) — a far cry from the slightly unloved, but genuine and solid Mexico that Wayne first came across all those years ago.
“I bought this back in 2006, and it was my first Escort, though I’d been involved with Mk2s and rallying for a long time before that thanks to my Dad, Alwyn and brother, Will.” Your first Escort was a Mk2 Mexico? “Yes, I don’t think I appreciated that at the time,” he grins.
Bought locally, the Mex had been stored in the back of a garage for some time and had survived exceptionally well. “Once I’d wiped all the dust off and had a good look over, I discovered the shell was immaculate - still on its original sills, rear arches and A-posts. I was well pleased — even though it came with no engine and was rolling on mismatched suspension.”
No way back
Wayne’s initial plan was to get the car back on the road as quickly as possible, in order to do some road-rallying and have some fun. Only he got carried away.
“I started to go through the shell, doing some localised repairs to the floors, then I started buying up new-old stock (NOS) panels, and once you’ve gone down that road, there’s no turning back!”
Wayne scored a pair of genuine front wings, along with a passenger-side door skin to replace the dented originals, and at this point decided he might as well go to town on the spec, with gusset plates, diff tunnel, turrets, Watts linkage towers and four-link boxes added to the list and carefully let into the shell.
“I’d restored and built up a Mk1 XR2 for road-rallying with my brother previously, so all the fabrication work didn’t bother me,” he admits. “What did though was that hardly
anything fitted up straight out of the box. This was probably the most-frustrating part of the build as everything needed modifying to fit properly. I could have just welded it all on as they came and put up with the shoddy fit, but I knew that later down the line it would bug me.”
It was around this time that Wayne settled on the spec of the powertrain — and it wasn’t staying Ford. Honda S2000 engines and ’boxes were relatively cheap at this point, and with their known power and reliability a given, the upgrade made a lot of sense. Wayne sourced the bigger gearbox tunnel from an auto to cope with the huge Honda ’box, and lowered it and the engine into place — the latter chassis-mounted.
With the levels of finish going up and up, a full dry build prior to paint became the only option and it was at this point that we first met Wayne — capturing the Escort mid-build for a
“THE ENGINE IS DEFINITELY MY FAVOURITE PART OF THIS BUILD”
Grafters feature in the November 2011 issue. Even then we could tell this was shaping up to be one special Mk2, but little did we, or even Wayne, know at that point that the direction of the project would change quite dramatically.
“The following year, I had a change of heart,” he admits. “By that point I was beginning to get an inkling of just how rare genuine Mk2 Mexicos were starting to become and knew deep-down that it really ought to be running a Pinto.” The Honda powertrain was pulled out and sold on, and Wayne sourced a 2-litre from a late Granada, which was duly taken to Shropshire and left in the capable hands of John Yeomans (see boxout left). “I asked him for a proper, big-power Pinto with good torque for the road, but also one I could use for sprints an hillclimbs,” he reveals.
To match the new engine, Wayne had a Type-9 built by Steve Perks at SP Components with one of his close-ratio Tracsport gearkits. “It’s a semi-helical kit,” Wayne confirms, “I didn’t want straight-cut gears as it would be too noisy for the road.”
Frozen paint
With the new engine and ’box sorted, Wayne could finally get some fresh coats on the mint shell, and that task fell to his father-in-law, Derek. “He runs a bodyshop and used to paint cars for race teams back in the day, so he was well up for it. I did the prep and he laid on the paint — we went for Frozen White in the end. Even though Diamond White was the original colour, I wanted something a little cleaner.” A fine choice, we think you’ll agree.
With the shell back in the garage, Wayne could crack on and fit up the running gear, starting at the rear with a fully-floating Atlas built to Wayne’s requirements by Roger Hicks — to Baby Atlas length (48 inches) so that the Mk2 could comfortably run 7 inch wide rims.
The suspension set-up is well-proven and largely Bilstein-based, only using a pair of CNC-machined billet strut housings up front, along with WRC-style bottom arms, while for brakes Wayne has opted for “amazing” AP Racing discs and callipers. With a lack of separate handbrake system at the rear though, Wayne had to come up with an alternative. “I now run separate Wilwood callipers at the rear just for the handbrake,” he reveals. “These were a bit of a head-ache to fit, needing brackets making up that had to be carefully positioned on the axle, but they work really well.”
Inside out
There was no deviation in Wayne’s plan for the interior — he knew from the outset
“ANY EXCUSE FOR A DRIVE IN THE MK2 AND I’M THERE EVEN IF IT’S JUST A HALF HOUR BLAST UP THE ROAD ON A SUNDAY”
exactly what he wanted. “I wanted it to look like a normal Mexico where possible,” he reveals, “so I sourced a whole load of new or very good second-hand trim and have hidden the extra fuses and relays out of sight behind the centre console.” Wayne’s even kept the back seat, something not normally possible once you’ve fitted the boxes for the link bars. “I pretty much removed all of the guts from underneath the seat squab, “he admits, “you wouldn’t want to sit on it...”
With plans for sprints and hillclimbs in the mix, Wayne did have to deviate from running a completely standard-looking interior though, with a full Safety Devices roll cage and Recaro buckets now gracing the immaculate interior. Wayne’s particularly chuffed with the footrests he made up himself to fit neatly around the gearbox tunnel and oil pipes, which were subsequently engraved and powdercoated black to match the rest of the interior.
Wayne finally finished the Mexico and got it MoT’d in late February — just in time for lockdown. “Obviously, I’ve not used it much since,” he admits, “though I’ve done enough miles to find out that the exhaust system caught on bumps in the road. I’ve since remade the system with oval tubing to the same diameter. Problem-solved.”
“I just want to get out and use it now. I’ve got an entry for the classic tour organised by the Epynt Motor Club coming up — I really hope it goes ahead. Any excuse for a drive and I’m there — even if it’s for a half-hour blast up the road on a Sunday. As soon as the engine fires up, I forget about all the time and stress it took to build the car — I just love it.”