The Mad Mex
Its around the early 2000s when my memory of the order of which I bought the many Ford starts to blur. I know there was a Mk 1 Escort in this period, at least 2 Capris, several Escort panel vans, a track day Mk 2 Cortina.....the list goes on.
I actually started trying to date all the purchases during an office clearout I had one year. I grabbed a box of receipts, collated the dates and tried to order the dozens of cars that were purchased in that time. Many were wrecks, non-runners and parts cars. Very few made it back onto the road.
One such car that did make it back onto the road was a rather hot pinto-powered Mk 2 Escort that I dubbed "The Mad Mex". It came about through a conversation I had with a new Capri Club member I got chatting with at a meeting one night.
The club member was a man called Jan Watters who has just bought a 1600 Capri, joined the club and we got chatting about his Escort. He wanted to part with it in a hurry because his Capri was out on the street (in St. Kilda, no less) while the Escort sat in the yard of his girlfriends place, minus the radiator. I was looking for a track project and he mentioned it had a rather "warm" engine. I was curious but my budget was pretty low at just a $800. Jan did me a deal and I became the owner of one rather modified but slightly well-loved Mk 2 Coupe.
I made my way down to pick up the Escort, along with radiator and some basic tools to get the beast running. Jan and I had to running fairly quickly but the idle on the engine didn't seem to be right....To say it sounded lumpy was an understatement. This thing had the full "Vizard" treatment and I'm not talking about the late night TV host that was on at the time in Australia.
The engine had been fully balanced, had a big valve head and a speedway Essingler cam. I still remember the journey home along the St. Kilda Esplenade and two uniformed police officers laughing their heads of in the car next to me as I struggled to keep this thing from stalling.
I actually started trying to date all the purchases during an office clearout I had one year. I grabbed a box of receipts, collated the dates and tried to order the dozens of cars that were purchased in that time. Many were wrecks, non-runners and parts cars. Very few made it back onto the road.
One such car that did make it back onto the road was a rather hot pinto-powered Mk 2 Escort that I dubbed "The Mad Mex". It came about through a conversation I had with a new Capri Club member I got chatting with at a meeting one night.
The club member was a man called Jan Watters who has just bought a 1600 Capri, joined the club and we got chatting about his Escort. He wanted to part with it in a hurry because his Capri was out on the street (in St. Kilda, no less) while the Escort sat in the yard of his girlfriends place, minus the radiator. I was looking for a track project and he mentioned it had a rather "warm" engine. I was curious but my budget was pretty low at just a $800. Jan did me a deal and I became the owner of one rather modified but slightly well-loved Mk 2 Coupe.
I made my way down to pick up the Escort, along with radiator and some basic tools to get the beast running. Jan and I had to running fairly quickly but the idle on the engine didn't seem to be right....To say it sounded lumpy was an understatement. This thing had the full "Vizard" treatment and I'm not talking about the late night TV host that was on at the time in Australia.
The engine had been fully balanced, had a big valve head and a speedway Essingler cam. I still remember the journey home along the St. Kilda Esplenade and two uniformed police officers laughing their heads of in the car next to me as I struggled to keep this thing from stalling.
I never actually discovered how much power the Mad Mex engine was putting out but it had a penchant for blowing diffs and one particular time it spun me around on a wet road and the wheel snapped off at the axle. Conveniently the car fell on the wheel and no damage was done to the car whatsoever. My pride was dented but the cars was up and running within a few days.
After the third diff blew I decided to remove the engine and sell on the car. It sold for $300 to a circuit racer who I believe fitted a V6 Holden engine into it. I went on to fit the engine into my RS2000 and was utter flabbergasted by the sheer performance it was able to produce in a decent shell with poly bushes all round. It scared me so much I had to remove the engine out of fear of destroying my pride and joy.
The engine sat dormant for years in my shed waiting for the right project to come along....Its still waiting.
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