1972 Ford Escort Mexico (Vauxhall)

The Ford Escort Mexico was introduced in November 1970 and was so named because of Ford Motor Company's victory in the World Cup Rally which started in London on 19th April 1970 and finished some 16,000 miles later in Mexico. Originally, Ford intended to use Escorts with the Twin Cam or BDA engine, but after some local reconnaissance, it was decided that high speeds and large power outputs were less important than reliability and ease of servicing, and therefore the Kent pushrod engine was used in the Escort shell. It seems likely that Ford already had plans to produce a high-performance Escort to fit in the range between the 1300GT and the Twin Cam/RS1600, but their victory in Mexico provided an ideal platform to launch such a model.

The engineers at the newly formed AVO (Advanced Vehicles Operations) quickly developed the Mexico, marrying the Type 49 bodyshell, as used in the Twin Cam and RS1600 with the 1,600cc Kent crossflow engine and 2000E gearbox. So, effectively, the Mexico was basically a re-engined Twin Cam/RS1600. The Mexico became AVO's most successful and numerous of the 'Rally Sport Escorts,' and had a number of advantages on the road in that it had excellent performance, was easy to maintain, relatively easy to insure, and above all, it was great to drive, something which is still true today.

ODJ 888L is a UK-supplied Escort Mexico and was first registered on 1st September 1972, originally finished in Sunset Red with the signature white stripe. It passed through the hands of a few different custodians before it was purchased by our vendor around 25 years ago.

He was keen to take up rallying and decided to rebuild the car and hopefully be competitive on the club rallying scene, so the shell was fully rebuilt with steel bubble arches and refinished in Ford Motorsport White. The decision was taken to fit a Vauxhall 'red top' 2-litre engine which offered 150bhp in standard tune, a lot more power than the Ford 1600 'crossflow' and was permitted in the rally regulations at the time. This was coupled to a Quaife Professional 5-speed gearbox and through a bespoke propshaft to an English LSD back axle. Other modifications and upgrades included an aluminium radiator with built-in fan, a two and a quarter turn 'quick-rack', a biased pedal box, adjustable Bilstein suspension, an aluminium fuel-cell with twin Facet fuel pumps and the car now sits on a set of wide gold Minilite replica alloys which certainly fill the arches.

The little Mexico ran well for our amateur rallying racing custodian who enjoyed many seasons with it, but it has not seen a competitive life for a few years. Clearly its MSA papers have expired but we believe it would not take much to get this cracking entry-level package back on track and what lot of fun for a very sensible outlay.