MK3 ESCORT KIRSTY BAKER
We saw Kirsty running this rather unassuming-looking Mk3 Escort up and down the strip all day Saturday and for most of the day on Sunday too. Instantly our suspicions arose, and when we saw a similarly sheddy-looking brown Sierra Estate always in the opposing lane, we knew there was more to the story, so we went searching for some answers…
The Sierra we mentioned, we’ve seen before – it was Chris Locke’s amusing 500bhp- plus Cossiepowered sleeper. And the Escort, it turns out, is another of his projects – yup, you guessed it, Kirsty is Chris’ better- half! “I got fed up of watching him always on the drag strip at days like this, so I decided I wanted a car of my own,” Kirsty laughs, “and you can’t be with Chris and drive anything ordinary or slow!”
So, in keeping with the ‘Brown Pants’ theme (Chris’ pet name for the Sierra Estate), a new project, christened ‘Brown Thong’ was soon underway in the garage. The base was a surprisingly tidy and very straight Mk3 Escort, complete with wads of history, the original bill of sale, and just 40k miles on the clock. But there were ambitions for concours restorations in Kirsty’s mind – she wanted something that blows the doors off everything else on the drag strip. So the wheezy CVH was lifted out and replaced by a full- blown Zetec Turbo, producing in excess of 300bhp. And in a car as small and light as this Mk3 Escort, that makes it fast, very fast. “My best time of the day so far has been a 13.7s, but that was on low boost (18psi, rather than the 25psi high- boost setting),” smiles Kirsty, “but I’m not after the fastest times of the day, I just want to batter it and have some fun!” How can you argue with that? Keep your eyes out for a feature coming soon…