GREY MATTER
Think you’ve seen it all when it comes to Mk1 Escorts? Prepare to have your mind blown. The level of oˆbeat thinking inside this Australian ’73 is truly ingenious…
Many seasons have passed since the covers came off the box-fresh Escort at the Brussels Motor Show back in 1968. Little did the designers and engineers know just what a phenomenon this dog-boned three-box would become; indeed, 53 years later the versatile platform is still finding new ways of surprising us. We may think that we’ve seen it all over the years (nay, decades), from rally reps to South London cruisers, velour-trimmed V8 bruisers with jacked-up rears to full-blown race builds… but as the magnificent 1973 two-door here demonstrates, this timeless entity still has plenty more to give.
Yes, the fundamentals are in place: the oh-so-familiar silhouette, the quarter bumpers, the slender arches, the characterful window-line… and yet we also find a Nissan engine, Volkswagen paint, Singer-esque interior trim and super-slick body mods. Frankenstein’s monster? Oh no, there’s nothing monstrous here. Think of it more as a fabulous evolution; an extraordinary remix of a number-one hit; a new-wave twist on an age-old recipe.
Perhaps the fact that its creator, John Dennis of New South Wales, is a tattooist by trade is what’s informed such offbeat creativity. There’s a distinctly counter-culture vibe to it all, deliberately subverting the norm to get the purists across the globe choking into their rally jackets. For what John’s created here is something very artistic, hyper-intelligent, and not a little naughty.
Worth the wait
This build has really been a long time coming for this irrepressible enthusiast. While his native Australia’s Ford scene may be best known for its brutal V8 tyre-shredders, he’s been a small Ford man from the get-go; when he was growing up, John used to play in the back of his uncle’s Squire van — which was packing Cortina GT running gear.
Fast-forward to a few years ago and John, having notched up a number of interesting cars himself, was alerted to this particular Escort coming up for sale by a mate who’d spotted it on a dealer forecourt. Resplendent in mellowing yellow, it looked remarkably solid, so he rushed down there to make a deal. And this initial impression of solidity bore fruit when the time came to sandblast the stripped-down shell: aside from some surface rust in the sills, there were only four holes in the whole body, and they were in the firewall that was going to be replaced anyway. Game on, then!
The first steps to get the project in full swing started at The Chop Shop in West Gosford, a suburb of NSW, but sadly with the owner suddenly passing away, John hit something of a roadblock: he had all sorts of ideas about custom fabrication and unique modifications, but struggled to find a shop willing to take on a half-completed project. Thankfully, Aaron Gregory, a colleague of the deceased, wanted to continue the good work and, having opened his new workshop in Western Sydney, things could really start moving forward.
It’s a really important element of a project like this for the builder’s sensibilities to mesh with the owner’s, and that was very much the case here. John’s brief to create a fast and sweet-handling strip car with a high-end finish was wholeheartedly embraced by Aaron. To build a strong base he began by beefing up the underpinnings, with a custom four-link set-up, brawny Borg-Warner diff and competition-spec coil-overs, with the four-pot brakes from a Nissan 200SX at the business end and Falcon discs out back.
When it came to the aesthetics, it was a case of augmenting what was already an outstandingly straight and solid base. A two-door with rectangular headlights is always a strong start, and Aaron brought John’s ideas to life with a reprofiled rear incorporating a custom diffuser, a bespoke bootlid featuring a recessed filler for the fuel cell, along with carbon fibre bumpers and spoilers at either end. Bringing the looks screaming into the 21st Century is a delectable modern paint shade — the sparkly Limestone Grey pinched from the new VW Golf R.
Power house
The engine choice is a supremely unusual one (see boxout), but somehow the 1980s Nissan motor looks weirdly at home now that it’s had its Japanese castings milled off the rocker cover. Looks almost period-correct, doesn’t it? (Well, aside from the bonkers exhaust manifold and whacking great turbo.) It certainly adds a frisson of extra adrenaline over the stock 1300 motor that was ousted to make way. Thanks to a mighty Borg-Warner EFR-7163 turbo and Haltech management it makes 260 bhp for now, and that’s at a nice safe 8 psi — the plan is to run it at 20 psi on pump fuel, or up to 25 psi on E85, which should see some hysterical numbers being delivered to the back wheels.
Oh, and what wheels they are! It can be a bit of gamble fitting oversize rolling stock to a 1970s Ford, as you run the risk of overembellishing. But the Australian Pro Touring look is a holistic affair, characterised by a suite of mods that work to make the rims fit right in, the chassis set-up allowing the huge wheels to tuck right up into the stock-width arches, Touring Car-style. Those back wheels are 10x17 inches, packing 255-section tyres, which is a remarkable footprint for a Mk1. Of course, the more you pore over the details of this car, the more ‘remarkable’ presents itself as the primary driver of the project. Take a look at the interior: there’s something of the Singer Porsche about it, such is the extraordinary quality and attention to detail that’s been achieved by the team. Aaron fabricated the amazing custom switch panel
“BRINGING THE ESCORT’S LOOKS SCREAMING INTO THE 21ST CENTURY IS A DELECTABLE MODERN COLOUR”
as well as the door trims and footrests (with all the custom bits powder-coated by Scotty Barter at Oxytech), and a friend of John’s, Dave, retrimmed a pair of early Recaros, the rear bench, and the doorcards in leather and cloth to create something truly unique and show-stoppingly gorgeous.
Show and go
It’s a thoroughly impressive build throughout, but perhaps the most impressive part is John’s attitude towards it now it’s finished. It may have the looks and the fit-and-finish to win show trophies all summer long, but this thing’s been built to be used, and used hard. It was engineered from the start to be a competent handler on the track, and a ballistic weapon on the dragstrip. But it also needs to cut a dash on Saturday afternoon cruises, and be something in which to pick the kids up from school throughout the week. A real polymath, right? The quality of the build ensures that the finished product is excellent at all of these things.
Ford’s Escort brochures in the early 1970s bore the legend ‘How to sell a million and remain individual’. What John’s achieved here is to remix that notion for 2021. There’s plenty of life in the old dog-bone yet.
“THIS ESCORT WAS ENGINEERED FROM THE OUTSET TO BE A BALLISTIC WEAPON ON THE DRAGSTRIP”