"Escytec" - The Zetec Escort

Although quite a common conversion in the UK, my Zetec powered Mk 2 Escort was one of only a handful about in Australia at the time. The reason for this was the strict pollution and engineering requirement imposed on modified cars in Australia (and particularly Victoria) where I lived.

This particular car was probably the best driving Escort I have ever owned. Very smooth and easy to drive and had bags of performance. You could cruise around at 60kph in 4th, then drop it down a gear and have the back wheels spinning all over the place. Unfortunately there were very little options for driving it on the roads as VicRoads, (the local roads authority) would not allow it to be registered without costly engineering tests and certificates. 

I looked into getting it engineered and registered however I already had a very nice standard RS2000 to drive about so I thought it was best to reserve for the track.

After some basic modifications, I prepared it for a couple of track days. The first was at Winton about 3 hours drive away so the weekend was fun but very expensive with trailer hire and fuel. Later that year I took the car out to Sandown which was my local track but that event was expensive for different reasons. Trying to keep up with the faster cars I blew a head gasket and damaged the front valance doing some "gardening" at the end of the main straight.

The car sat for awhile until I finally decided to get it fixed then I got an offer from a young guy in Queensland who wanted to returning it to the road. Queensland had slightly better rules with regard to modified vehicles so as far as I know it now is getting about on the Sunshine Coast.

I bought the car off an engineering student who and fabricated most of the parts himself. Although it wasn't a full-on professional conversion, it was standard car from the bellhousing back, it definitely opened up my eyes to modern engine conversions. Moving to the UK has firmed up my plans to (eventually) go down this route with a Capri rather than an Escort. I'm all for conversions of modern powerplant in an Old Skool Fords. As parts become harder to find and fuelling systems are required to be more and more environmentally conscious, anything that keeps our old cars on the roads longer can only be a good thing.



The exhaust note wasn't too bad on this one as well.

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