Wesley Whitfield was unable to choose between the Mk2 and the S2 RS Turbo? So he got both!
It took a lot of hard work to get here, but now Wesley Whitfield’s garage is populated with the Escorts of his dreams
Making your dreams come true is seldom easy. More often than not, you have to work to achieve your fantasies, and fate won’t just drop it all into your lap – unless you’ve scooped the winning Lotto ticket.
So when Wesley Whitfield set out to fill his driveway with the Escorts he’d always yearned for, he knew there was work to be done. This wouldn’t be a case of finding the perfect Fords in the classifieds – this was a rescue mission, saving them from tinworm and re-imagining them in his idealised image.
He says, “From a young age, I was always involved with cars. This was largely due to my late father – he would take to me his garage after school or at the weekend, to motor shows, and to watch banger racing.
“My involvement with Fords came from my good friend Chris, who owned a Mk2 Escort when we left school and were on a YTS mechanics’ training course. We were always messing about with Fords, which led me to purchase my first, a Mk1 Fiesta 1.1L, which soon turned into a Supersport lookalike. This led to a string of other Fords: Mk2s, RS1600i, Sapphire Cosworth, the list goes on.”
The RS Turbo was a box Wesley had never ticked, and in 2009 he began to search in earnest. The car you see here was won on eBay for just £1500, although it wasn’t quite the dream ticket he might have hoped for: the usual ‘very little work required to make mint’ description hid behind it all sorts of rust, bad wiring and botched repairs. Before he knew it, Wesley was stripping the whole thing down to repair the rot, ready for Steve at RA Body Shop in Darlington to give the perfected shell a repaint in its original red.
Wesley says, “He knew what my expectations were, and made an absolutely amazing job of the paintwork. Ten years on, the finish is still fantastic. The underside was also fully stripped back, repainted and protected; then all of the suspension, bearings, brakes and bushes were replaced and all powder-coated.”
Three accident-damaged RS Turbos were sacrificed to yield the parts required for this rebuild, with everything built up better-thannew and stock aside from a few well-chosen embellishments – most notably the 17in softspokes, along with upgrades to the suspension and brakes. “Now the car is completely sorted and just how I want it,” he smiles.
After a few years enjoying the retro-tinged fruits of his labours, that old mate Chris bought himself another Mk2 Escort in 2013, which was all the impetus Wesley needed to get the mental cogs churning. In the twinkling of an eye, he was back on the internet looking for another forlorn Escort to save.
He explains, “This time I wanted a project, so rust and botched repairs didn’t bother me. The worst part was that prices of these cars were rapidly increasing and I was
constantly being outbid on cars. I’d almost given up, when the Mk2 you see here appeared on eBay: a left-hand-drive 1.3L in silver with tax and MOT. No bidding, just a buy-it-now price of £2500.
“No questions asked, the car was purchased – the owner was gob-smacked as it had only been advertised for 20 minutes. I wasn’t bothered what it was like, it had tax and MOT and it was a Mk2 Escort; I collected it from Birmingham and drove 170 miles home to Darlington, and it never missed a beat.”
This project followed a different trajectory from the RS Turbo, as when Wesley started stripping the Mk2 it turned out to be better than expected. Yes, it needed new sills and wings and various other bits, but on the whole it was amazingly straight and decent. Perfect arches, solid tank and spare wheel well – a real result.
So our man embarked upon his weld-fest, finessing the shell, strengthening it to heavyduty spec and adding RS anti-tramp bars. Oh yes, and the small matter of converting it to right-hand drive.
Wesley says, “This was a task I was familiar with, having converted one in my younger years. It isn’t as big a job as you may think, although the conversion parts were not as easy to find or as cheap this time around.”
Wesley had his heart set on grey for the body and, keen to try something different, he opted for Jaguar Quartz Grey, with some very cool period side-stripes to complement.
He says, “I know it’s not really a 1600 Sport, but I love how stripes look on a Mk2, and the silver decals look subtle against the grey.
“With the car painted, attention turned to the underside, with everything renewed – bearings, bushes, brakes and suspension. A 1600 Crossflow was sourced, and the black interior was refitted. It wasn’t the greatest, but it did the job at the time.”
“He knew what my expectations were, and made an absolutely amazing job of the paintwork. Ten years on, the finish is still fantastic”
This setup was only to be a stopgap, as another friend – Mark – made available a very alluring package to transform two key elements of this Mk2: a Zetec engine, and a red Ghia interior. The latter was easy enough to swap, and its vivid tone looks outstanding against the demure body. That modern-era motor decided to fight back a bit, though.
Wesley says, “The Zetec needed a lot more modifications than I first thought. The engine transplant took longer than expected, largely due to the birth of my son, Harry. But in early 2020 the swap was complete. I wanted the engine to run with a carb setup for simplicity and to keep a retro look, and the performance is vastly improved. A new differential was purchased with a 3.77 CWP and Blackline LSD diff, improving the traction and motorway cruising revs.”
After all of these in-depth endeavours, Wesley now has a pair of sublime old-school Fords in the garage, perfectly finished to the dream image in his head. And now that Harry is 20 months old, Wesley can feel the ingrained familial passion passing down to yet another generation.
Wesley smiles, “He’s showing a great interest in all things car-related, and one of his first words was ‘car’.”
Clearly, Wesley’s rescue missions haven’t just been achieved to fulfil his own dreams – he’s handing the torch down the line as a deep-seated passion, passed from generation to generation.