FORD GT70
The GT70 was intended to be a world-beating rally machine.
On the way back from the 1970 Monte Carlo rally, when Boreham’s team had been thrashed by Alpine-Renault and Porsche, Stuart Turner and Roger Clark invented the GT70. The inspiration was clear; although the other cars which dominated rallying at the time (Porsche 911, Alpine-Renault and Lancia Fulvia) differed in detail, they all shared the same ‘engine-overdriven-wheels’ layout. Turner, ex-BMC rally boss, knew all about that layout and wanted a new Ford rally winner. So, because he and Clark were scheming up an ‘ideal machine’, they chose a mid-engined layout.
Back home, the lobbying began. And before long Motorsport chief, Walter Hayes, approved the building of six prototypes (of which only five would ever be completed). The original GT70 was designed by Len Bailey, whose track record included the Alan Mann Escorts and the F3L race car. For world-class rallying, the new car had to be compact and strong. Working totally alone, Bailey designed a new coupe, with rallying and road cars in mind.
By the end of 1970 the GT70 project was an open secret in the rallying world. The V6-engined car was unveiled at the Brussels Show in January 1971, where Ford stated that 500 would be built to secure Group 3 homologation. Turner and Timo Makinen then drove the prototype to spectate on the Monte Carlo rally, which caused the crowds to go wild.
The steel platform chassis was simple to build, with the engine behind the seats, driving the rear wheels through a ZF 5DS25 gearbox. Cortina Mk3 wishbone front suspension, disc brakes and steering were used, allied to racing-type wishbone suspension at the rear. Body skins were in glass-fibre.
The styling was ‘pure Bailey’, and we know that a wind-tunnel was only used after it had been finalised. The interior was cramped, really very small for a potential rally car. And engine bay serviceability was quite poor. Experience soon proved the cockpit to get very hot when the engine was being worked hard! The original fascia layout was not a success and would be changed considerably in the next two years.
Building prototypes was going to be difficult. Ford chose an enterprising individual, Maurice Gomm of Fairoaks . Bizarrely, the bodywork clay model was completed in another Gomm factory in Hastings, on the third floor of a derelict Victorian tenement. To get it out, a window had to be removed, the whole thing being slid down a ladder to get it to a truck.
The first car was assembled at Boreham in the autumn of 1970, with the hope of rallying to start in mid-1971. Bob Howe started to plan the production car, assuming
that it could take shape at AVO. Left and right-hand-drive were both considered, and probably the BDA four-cylinder or the fuelinjected RS2600’s V6 would have been fitted.
It was going to be expensive; a UK price would have been about £5,000. The gearbox, the ZF, was strong enough for its job but very expensive; the problem was no other production gearbox could do the job. Such a price was a huge stumbling block in 1971, which meant that the GT70 never really stood a chance. Almost as soon as the first car took to the road, the Cologne V6 engine was discarded, the Cosworth-bred BDA being fitted in its place.
Ford’s long pay strike of 1971 didn’t help, but there were always serious doubts about the car’s viability. Even so, most of the Ghia styling work on a new shape was done in 1972, but the end came in 1973 when the first rumblings of a Middle East Energy Crisis were heard. Prototypes were then sent off to Ford South Africa, where Bernie Marriner and Spen Stirling rallied them in non-homologated condition, but little came of this.
Most people now seem to recall the GT70 as bit of an orphan at Boreham, always back of the queue when priorities were handed out. Roger Clark always hated the handling (‘a camel’ is what he called it), but everyone agrees that it handled best with a fourcylinder BDA, rather than with the larger Cologne V6.
As the Escort RS1600 went from success to success, the GT70 lost its way, and was finally abandoned. Happily, for Ford enthusiasts, at least two prototypes still survive. Ford has kept one example in its collection (a lot of money was spent on restoration a few years ago), and at least one other car is in private ownership. Fifty years on, the GT70 is one of Boreham’s great ‘might-have-beens’.