The Ford Escort WRC was a car bolted together in record time. It wasn’t the brand’s most successful rally weapon, but it was a solid stepping-stone into the World Rally Car era.
With the ink barely dry on M-Sport’s contract with Ford, Escort WRCs were frantically being prepared in time for the 1997 Monte Carlo Rally – offering two more years with one of the sport’s most famous models before the arrival of the Focus.
Given that it only competed at the highest level for two seasons, lifelong fans of the Escort WRC are relatively thin on the ground.
Except in Waterford. Craig Breen loves them. And that’s how he ended up making his first outing in a Ford since signing for M-Sport in a Bastos-liveried ex-Patrick Snijers Escort WRC at Rallylegend in San Marino.
“The car’s just some piece of kit,” he told DirtFish. “People saw the car stationary before the first stage and a lot of them commented on the livery, telling me it was one of their favorites. I agree.
“But when we started the car and went into the stages, the reaction was amazing. People had forgotten just how aggressive the proper anti-lag systems were. This car was fitted with the twin side exhausts, one of either side. Snijers only ran this for two events in Belgium before it was banned because of the noise.”
It was back in San Marino.
“I could hear it all in the car,” said Breen. “It was just epic. It’s a savage thing. You just go to war with the thing.
“You switch it on, then try and stay on top of it until the end of the stage. I love how hard it is to drive and how much you have to struggle to get the car to do what you want. The noise was something else, as were the flames…”
As in period, the Escort wasn’t eligible to compete for the big prizes and had to make do with being part of Rallylegend’s show event.
“Every upshift, the whole street just lit up. It was amazing. I’ve seen some of the videos from the event and watching in the night stages, you hear this huge bang and two huge flashes of flame – it’s absolutely epic. I love the car.
“We only ran it for about 15 minutes before we went to the rally, but it didn’t miss a beat. OK, there was some small thing on the injector system, but we soon had that fixed. And the event was just great. Rallylegend is such a great weekend out.
“For the first time the weather wasn’t just quite so good, but that didn’t matter at all. It’s such a great event, there’s no pressure and not stress and it was brilliant to be out in the car.”
