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It’s not uncommon for Mk2 Escorts to have put in some time on the club-level rally circuit, but only a handful have done so in the hands of one of the world’s best-known drivers.
Classic cars are as much a product of memories as they are metal, and some have more than their fair share of stories to tell. Ranked among Britain’s best-selling models, countless families grew up with a Mk2 Escort outside the house, and its club-level rally popularity means many have chalked up some motorsport pedigree. Including this one. Despite being restored at classic car specialist, Border Reivers near Glasgow, it’s still wearing the marks of a 35-year competitive career under the ownership of Scottish rally driver, Hugh ‘Shug’ Steele, with a notable chapter in the hands of his nephew; Colin McRae.
Its place on Colin’s race history is as incongruous as it was hard-earned. By October 1990 the future world number one had already been named Scottish champion and, alongside Derek Ringer, his Sierra Cosworth was chasing down the fastest cars in the British Rally Championship. Weeks away from signing his career-defining contract with Prodrive and Subaru, the Hackle Rally — a local event — was a chance to retrace his roots.
“Colin didn’t have a car to do the rally in,” recalls Hugh. “We hired out three different cars at the time, and he came and said, ‘Uncle Hughie, I’m looking to loan one of your cars.’ I told him to carry on, and he took the car away.”
NUS 877P would have seemed outgunned even by 1990 club-level standards. Having serviced Jimmy McRae’s cars in the late 1970s, Hugh picked up the Escort in 1981 as a route to getting behind the wheel himself. It was an affordable entry point, equipped with 2-litre Pinto, Bilstein suspension, and forest-spec brakes, and Hugh wasn’t the only person learning the ropes with it.
“[Colin] was driving Minis in autotests, but this would have been one of the first cars he drove when he was 16 or 17,” he continues. “There was an old mine pit nearby, and I remember him bringing it back in after he’d run out of fuel — my fuel! So he knew my cars and how they were set up.”
For hire
By 1990, the Escort had joined a small fleet of rally cars serviced and rented out at Hugh’s Autofit garage in Stonehouse, near Glasgow, and a 2.1-litre Pinto with a high-torque BF63 cam and a four-speed Quaife gearbox had solved earlier reliability issues. Not a bad machine to have at your disposal when you’re a professional rally driver with a weekend to kill.
An added perk of Colin’s notoriety was good connections within the rally community. His good mate, Robbie Head was co-driving with Robert Reid — himself only a couple of months away from his first event with Richard Burns. Long-running discussions about teaming up were about to come good, says Robert.
“My background is in farming, and I was in a potato field when the phone rang,” he tells us. “It was Colin, saying, ‘What are you doing at the weekend — fancy coming to do the Hackle?’ He’d twisted his uncle’s arm to lend him a car, and he had some Colway remoulds in the garage, so it was a cheap way of having a bit of fun. It was probably as much about the party in the bar afterwards as the event itself. Scottish events were always notoriously good craic.”
Professional support was left at the door. Short stages meant most preparation work could be packed into an evening of mapreading and “rattling spanners” ahead of an event prone to the full fury of Scottish autumn weather. It didn’t disappoint; by the time the duo reached the opening stage at Ladywell, the spare wheel well had collected 2 inches of rainwater and a hovercraft would have been better suited to the conditions ahead.
Colin was undeterred. “There’s a fairly notorious, fast piece of road in a stage called Drummond Hill,” Robert continues. “The Escort was probably only geared for 90 mph, so you have to take advantage of all the fast bits.
Coming down the hill, I was reading the map — in those days we had no pace notes — and caught out of the right corner of my eye, Colin lifting his belt off while flat out in top gear.”
“I realized that he was leaning across to my side of the car to look out of the windscreen, because the wiper had lifted off. The thought was never to slow down, it was always, ‘What can I do in order to see a bit more?’”
That fearlessness paid off. The Escort finished the event two and half minutes ahead of Jimmy Girvan’s second-place Celica GT4, its skinny Colways skimming over the stagnant water and thick mud that had hobbled more powerful rivals. Not surprisingly, Robert says it was a talking point.
“We were as surprised as anyone when we wound up winning the rally. I knew the stages well, so there were murmurings that we took the correct tyre choice. The reality was those were the tyres that were in the van — that was it.”
“COLIN HAD TWISTED HIS UNCLE’S ARM INTO LENDING HIM THE CAR”
Brother
Colin wasn’t the only McRae to put the Escort through its paces. Six weeks after dominating the Hackle, the Ford returned to take on the Galloway Hills rally with Robert co-driving and Alister at the wheel. Having fought its way into the top three, its luck ran out before its second shot at the history books.
Alister explains: “My first two years in rallying were in a front-wheel drive Nova, so apart from two rallies in a Sierra I had no experience of rear-wheel drive. It was obviously a different style. We clipped a log with the rear wheel, and the halfshaft failed in the next stage — so a DNF.”
Punishing travel schedules as professional drivers meant neither McRae would drive the Escort again, but it left a lasting impression. Both would both go on to build and compete in their own Mk2s, while Hugh recalls Colin using a Subaru to push the wounded Ford to the service area after the Pinto bowed out of the 1992 Circuit of Ireland rally with a cracked block. Instead of being mothballed, a damaged shell donated its 2.4-litre Holbay engine, giving the car a second life as a 180 bhp Group N wide-body, which lasted until the family parted ways with it in 2017.
Good use
Tucked in amongst priceless classics at Border Reivers, it’s found another long-term home. A sympathetic three-year restoration has put the Escort back to a near-1990 spec, and CEO and part-time racer, Tom Fitzsimmons has no plans to stop making memories with it.
“I could have doubled my money without even touching it, but I have no intention of selling or sticking it in a museum. I’d like to get it out at least once a year and do an event in it. People should be able to enjoy it,” he says, and it’s a hard mentality to argue with. After all, isn’t that what classics are all about?
“THE ESCORT LEFT A LASTING IMPRESSION BOTH McRAES WOULD GO ON TO BUILD THEIR OWN MK2s”