1969 Ford Escort Mk1 Twin-Cam - Ex-Mick Briant

By the time the Escort first came out in 1968, Ford were already firmly wedded to the marketing strategy of 'win on Sunday, sell on Monday' and were keenly aware that they would need a race/rally version to take over from where the mighty Lotus Cortina had left off. To this end, Ford’s Boreham-based competition department had been quietly beavering away on a Lotus-powered Escort that was ready to roll as soon as the standard models hit the showrooms. Called the 'Twin Cam', the hot new Escort immediately excelled on the international race and rally circuits, winning countless events and securing Ford the coveted World Rally Championship manufacturer’s trophy in its first year of production, a feat which it also repeated the following year.

Introduced in 1968 in very limited numbers for homologation purposes, the Escort Twin-Cam is now one of Ford's most revered cars and still regarded as a formidable road car. Based on a reinforced Type 49 body shell with wider wheel arches, quarter bumpers, uprated suspension and front disc brakes as standard, it was powered by a Lotus-designed, 8-valve twin camshaft head mated to Ford’s 1.5-litre pre-crossflow block bored out to 1,558cc offering 110bhp and 115mph. Only 883 Twin-Cam models were made before production ended in 1970 to make way for the BDA-powered RS1600. 

The car presented here is a very special Twin Cam - NBH 769H was an early production example, bought brand new from the Aylesbury Motor Company in 1969 by Mick Briant – the hugely successful British rally driver who won the Motoring News Championship three times, the BTRDA and the Welsh Championship. Mick has documented his illustrious history in British National Rallying in three books in which NBH 769H features. Mick recounts his exploits in the car with much enthusiasm: 'I don’t recall my actual first outing (in NBH 769H), but my first National event was the January 1970 Rally Bristowe, with Mick Mancy navigating (numerous photos of the pair appear in one of Mick’s book, 'Do you have to drive like that?'), we managed eighth overall out of 150 starters'.

Mick went on to endow NBH 769H with an upgraded engine, courtesy of Racing Services of Twickenham, stroking and boring the original block and taking it out to 1,860cc. The engine was dry-sumped, had a steel crank and rods, Cosworth pistons and L1 cams, big valves and some other 'trick' bits. Mick states: 'I don’t recall the actual power output, but it was the best engine possible until the 2-litre alloy-blocked Cosworth BDA become an option'. Mick recalls that NBH 76DH went onto receive the de-rigueur big arches of the time and a colour change to orange (which coined the car the nickname 'The Orange Box').

He did several rounds in the prestigious Motoring News Championship in NBH 769H, always finishing in the top ten and in 1971 Mick won the London Counties Rally Championship in NBH 769H, with Donald Close navigating. The car was renewed in-period and returned to white bodywork with a black bonnet that displayed the ‘Go Perrys’ livery (the Ford dealer in Aylesbury). NBH 769H is listed as 'Escort 1860' (car #40) on the entry list of the 1971 Jim Clark Memorial Rally, in which Mick drove (with Peter Robinson navigating), and of which a photo exists of the car on the start line.

In 2017, our vendor (a rally enthusiast, driver and car collector) acquired NBH 769H and entrusted it to master engineer, Andrew Stapley of ASM Classics in Kent, who specialise in restoring some of the best classic Fords in the UK. Over some four years, our vendor has invested c.£65,000 in bringing this venerable rally car up to a remarkable standard. So much so, it was invited to be displayed at the NEC Classic Motor Show 2021, where after nearly 50 years apart, Mick Briant and Peter Robinson were reunited with the car, plus some of its navigators, all autographing the inside of the doors (captured in photos and video).

ASM's expert attention included a full renewal of the Twin-Cam signature paint colour, Ermine White (with black bonnet and in period livery), its big-arch Type 49 shell, its revered Lotus Twin-Cam engine (with associated dyno readings), its DCOE Weber carbs, 4-speed gearbox, competition clutch and pressure plate, English axle (with 4.7 diff ratio & LSD), coil sprung front Bilstein suspension, leaf sprung rear, plus the addition of Cibie spotlights and a whole host of mods to make this into a formidable period rally/fast-road car.

NBH 769H has only been used sparingly since its complete restoration, residing in our vendor’s private Collection, but notably, it was driven ‘up the hill’ at Shelsley Walsh by our vendor and indeed, one Mick Briant – again, all captured for posterity and provenance. MOT'd and 'match-fit', this is a turn-key classic performance Ford.

This really is a special car and deserves to be fully appreciated and enjoyed by a similar enthusiast. If you simply want the best possible Mk1 Escort Twin-Cam, this one might just be too good to miss!