CarBrandLogos archive · Ford · 1968

FordEscort

Ford of Europe's workhorse, and the rally car that made a small saloon famous.

Photo: Brian Snelson from Hockley, Essex, England · CC BY 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in Ford history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Ford Escort, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The Escort replaced the Anglia in January 1968 and was the first car developed jointly by Ford's British and German operations, a genuine milestone in the creation of Ford of Europe. What arrived was conventional to the point of plainness: a small rear-wheel-drive saloon with a MacPherson strut front end, a live rear axle on leaf springs, and Kent four-cylinder engines. Its recognisable feature was the pressed shape of the grille, which gave the first cars their dogbone nickname.

1983 Ford Escort RS1600i black · Martin Pettitt from Bury St Edmunds, UK;cropped and plates blanked by uploader Mr.choppers · CC BY 2.0

Design and engineering

That simplicity was exploitable, and Ford's competitions department exploited it thoroughly. The Twin Cam, then the RS1600 with Cosworth's sixteen-valve BDA engine, and later the Mk2 RS1800, turned the Escort into the dominant rally car of its era — winning the World Rally Championship and an extraordinary list of individual events, and doing it on loose surfaces where the light body and long-travel suspension worked. For a generation of British and Scandinavian enthusiasts the rear-drive Escort is the reference point for what a rally car is.

1982 Ford Escort 1.3L 5-d · Rob from United Kingdom,cropped and levels altered by uploader Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 2.0

In production

The third generation of 1980 changed everything mechanically. It went to front-wheel drive with a transverse engine and a hatchback body, won European Car of the Year, and became one of the best-selling cars in Britain for most of the following decade — a company-fleet default rather than an enthusiast's choice, though the XR3i and the turbocharged RS models kept a performance thread alive. A four-wheel-drive Escort RS Cosworth later returned the name to top-level rallying with an entirely different kind of machine underneath.

1980 Ford Escort Van Mk II · Mick Huett from Whittlesey , England · CC BY-SA 2.0

Legacy

Production of the European Escort ended in 2004, by which time the Focus had replaced it and comprehensively outclassed it. The van version's role passed to the Transit Connect. In North America and Asia the Escort name covered quite different cars, and it survives today only on a model built for China.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1968–2004

Technical specification

The Escort, in detail.

Production: January 1968–2004
Class: Small family car (C)
Layout: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (1967–1981, 1987); Front-engine, front-wheel-drive (1980–2004); Front-engine, four-wheel-drive (1990–2004)
Manufacturer: Ford Europe

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