Driving Ambition

A go-fast Escort was always John Dennis’s goal, but the turbo street/track weapon he ended up with is a genre-busting masterpiece

- Iain Kelly

Ford’s Mark 1 Escort is a legend of motorsport across rallying, touring cars and even drag racing, thanks to its tiny size, generous engine bay and rear-drive layout. As a fan of four-banger Fords from a tender age, John Dennis knew this all too well, but it took him a while to get around to building the righteous turbo pro touring Esky you see on the pages before you. “I’ve been a small-Ford guy since I was a kid,” says the

Sydneysider. “Years ago my uncle had a Ford Squire van with a GT Cortina motor in it, and we used to play in that as kids. I had always wanted a Mk1 Escort, but my first car was a two-door Cortina. I was too young and didn’t have the funds to build it, so it got sold off. I didn’t get a Mk1 until I got older and I had some extra money to play with.”

It was a mate of John’s who spotted this particular Escort several years ago, sitting in the front window of a car yard on Parramatta Road. Johnno wasted no time in whipping down there to do the deal.

“This car was clean enough that it probably should have been restored, but it made the build so much easier,” he says. “I dragged it home and it sat for six months while I built a house and started talking to Laurie Starling at The Chop Shop about how to build the car.