DOWN THE WORKSHOP

FORD ESCORT RS1700T

Restorer: Ian Gwynne from Bgmsport

It’s taken a while “It’s been a five-year project. We took delivery of a project in pieces and all the major components were there with the original bodyshell, Cosworth BDT engine, the transaxle and all four corners. All the important bits were there. It came back from South Africa and a guy in the UK bought it as a project but, for whatever reason, didn’t follow it through.”

It ran for the first time “We bought it about five years ago and Race Retro on Saturday was its first outing. I don’t want to think about how many hours we put into it. But it has been a worthwhile project and it is what we do as a business. To save a car that is so rare and so unique and to bring it to an event like Race Retro and demonstrate it is fabulous.”

It has been totally restored “We had to make quite a few bits but we had the major original components with the car. Everything has been rebuilt and it didn’t look like the bodyshell had done a massive amount of work. There was nothing missing that couldn’t be re-manufactured, either from drawings or from a pattern. The biggest part of these projects is the research and trying to put together the jigsaw of how the car should be. What we have discovered is that all 18 cars that were built are all potentially very different. It was a prototype and development car so none of them were the same.”

Alister Mcrae drove it “It is fabulous and Steve Rimmer, who we built the car for, came over from the States to see it running. He went out with Alister Mcrae on its first run at Race Retro and Steve got out of the car with a big grin.”

It will be kept in running order “At the minute the engine runs at about 350bhp but it is capable of a lot more. That’s plenty for now. The BDT is the same as the RS200 engine but the Hewland transaxle is probably a lot rarer. All of the suspension components are unique to the car. We’ve built it properly and it needs running, but it also needs looking after.”