The second article in the “EVO Supercars Through The Decades” piece saw a change of scenery as the 1980’s Supercars gathered in Snowdonia and our workshop team readied our trusty (but not rusty) 1981 1.3 Ford Escort for its two days out.
The Escort Mk3 was the runaway best seller in the 1980s sales charts and Ford made much of its front wheel drive layout, the new CVH engines and a crisp hatchback design which was well in tune with the 1980s. CVH stands for Compound Valve angle Hemispherical which all sounds very clever but it’s a harsh and rather noisy unit which needs to be revved hard to extract the 68bhp on offer.
As I meandered through mid Wales, I could certainly see why this car had sold so well. A nice airy cabin with a large glass area and the usual Ford slick gear change and exemplary ergonomics with everything in easy reach. As the hills became steeper and morphed into mountains, the gearbox was kept busy as I down-changed to find more power.
Eventually high above Blaenau Festiniog, I found the Supercar paddock: a De Tomaso Pantera, Lamborghini Countach, a Lotus Esprit Turbo, an Aston Martin Vantage, and a Ferrari TestaRossa all basking in early summer sunlight.
As in Volume One, the Lamborghini was chosen to be the Escort’s nemesis: a 5175cc 48-valve V12 monster ready to devour the Ford CVH engine and all.
Yousuf Ashraf wrote up his impressions of the Escort in the August Edition of EVO, and his words were accompanied by the usual dazzling photos by Aston Parrott. When it was all over, I trundled back to Derbyshire unshaken and unstirred.
