Fit For Purpose

Calvin South’s Mk2 Escort is the perfect tool for fast road thrills and long-range jaunts – a spot-on spec, beautifully put together, and eager to be used.

- Daniel Bevis

It’s no secret or surprise that the values of Mk1 and Mk2 Escorts are at an all-time high. We’re seeing original survivors selling for eye-watering sums at high-end auction houses, vying for kudos with Ferraris and Maseratis and whatnot, destined for a life of stasis in a hermetically-sealed collection somewhere. This scenario is a long way removed from the old 1980s/1990s way of doing things, picking up a cheap and knocked-about rear-drive Escort for beer money, throwing in a hot cam and a set of Billies and chucking it about down some country lanes.

Thankfully — and you’ll of course be well aware of this yourself, being an afi cionado of old Fords — this passion for fi nancial speculation hasn’t permeated every corner of the Escort world. There’s still a hardcore of fans who see these cars for what they are; simple pleasures, uncomplicated engineering that’s easily tweakable for fast road thrills. The idea of breathing a bit of extra power into one of these cars, upgrading the chassis, and then going off on some open-road adventures is as alive today as it ever was.

Calvin South’s 1978 Mk2 is a case in point. When this car came into his life, it was already together in a solid body and ready for action.

“I bought it from a guy named Craig Humphrey two years ago, and drove it home from Surrey to Cumbria,” he recalls. “That was a journey of 350 miles; it took seven hours!”

This was a real baptism of fire for Calvin’s relationship with the Mk2. When you buy a car, there are numerous ways of getting to know it; giving it a good wash is often the first job, as you can quickly learn all of its little foibles and idiosyncrasies, while others prefer job one to be to get it up on a ramp for a good poke around.