Sideways Mk2 Rally car

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  • Sideways
    Racer
    Decade Plus User
    • Aug 2002
    • 2028

    Sideways Mk2 Rally car

    Ok, a wee bit of history and info about my mk2 Escort rally car.....

    I have owned the car since 1985 when it was a bog standard Mk 2 1.6 litre RS Mexico apart from a rear cage and a pair of the usual Cibie super Oscar spotlights and big bore exhaust for that street racer look. About this time I was regularly spectating on road rallies in my area and thought "I can do that" and as they say "the rest is history" when in 1987 I took the plunge and entered my first road rally along with my good friend Iain Douglas on the maps which if my memory serves me correct was the Coalville Car Club road rally in Leicestershire, all I can remember is we got totally lost somewhere and ended up going home. Also about this time the engine was swapped for a standard 2.0 litre RS2000 engine.

    Auto windscreens road rally in Derbyshire somewhere.....



    We continued to do more road rallies and actually managed to finish some! With the best result being 3rd in Class and 15th O/A on a Welsh Event (The 1990 Markates Briedden I think) and the car slowly got upgraded as time went on i.e. billies, lsd, quick rack, 5 speed box, sumpguard etc.

    Splashing through Tissington Ford


    And round the popular "Dunn Cows" hairpin, which is a light tighter than it looks in the pic, and only a few people can manage to get round it in one go, which I did of course :-)


    In 1990 the car was converted to make it legal for use in both road and stage rallies i.e. full cage, firewalls, extinguishers etc.
    I plucked up the courage and entered my first single venue stage event, which was the DAT stages at Manby in October '90 along with Steve Hallmark (who incidentally is a paramedic which may have come in usefull) standing in for Iain, as he had other commitments that weekend. The car was still in road rally spec with full interior trim still fitted along with second hand road tyres and single carb. We were lying 8th O/A when one tyre blew on the stage and we lost a lot of time, however we managed to crawl back to 13th O/A and 3rd in class, a great result for my first event.

    First stage event at Manby


    It’s easy this stage rally lark a pot first time out I thought, you cant get lost, just follow the arrows lol!

    I continued to enter in quite a few more road and stage events with mixed success, the car still in the road rally spec.
    Little did I know that the car was to become a bottomless money pit as the car slowly evolved and I chucked even more money at it. Road rallies were eventually knocked on the head as I was having more success on the stages and the interior was binned along with a change of engine for a more powerful unit complete with twin carbs, change of rear axle to astronger baby atlas as I was continually breaking the English half shafts (which resulted in many non-finishes) plastic side windows turreted rear shocks and a straight cut 5 speed gear box.
    We completed in this spec and had a few ‘minor incidents’ for a few years winning my class on quite a few events and winning class 3 in the East Midlands Championship for single venues in '94 & '95, my best result was 5th overall 1st in class at Twyford Wood in 1996.

    Wilbarston


    Stafford County Showground



    Swinderby


    Twyford Wood, on the way to 5th o/a 1st 2wd



    However in early 1997 I decided single venues were getting a bit boring and needed a new challenge so we decided to enter the world of multi-venues. How wrong I was when we entered our first multi-venue (Tour of Lincs) and my world was turned upside down literally! It was all going well whilst we were in the top ten, 8th overall, when we rounded a sharp 90 corner on one of the farm track stages only to find some gravel, slide wide and end up upside down in a water filled dyke. "Oh dear!" (Or worse to that effect) I thought as I clambered out, & I clearly remember Iain’s comment was "I didn’t like that vinyl roof anyway!" (But I'm sure there is a cheaper and easier way to remove one!). Although the roll was slow, it was enough to damage the roof skin as we landed on top of the only wooden post in the dyke!, the rear window, fibreglass boot lid, door skin and the front wing were also damaged. The car was righted and pulled out of the dyke by some friendly spectators, but although the car was still drivable (just) we were OTL and decided to call it a day and go and drown our sorrows. A photo even appeared of us in Accident Blackspot in the old RallySport magazine. This roll was the second one in two years on this event for my navigator Iain, as on the previous years event he ended upside down with Mike Gilman in his Talbot Sunbeam, Jinxed or what!

    Scanned from Rallysport magazine


    Anyway this put us out of action until the back end of the year whilst I repaired the car, when I completed in the '97 Flookburgh Challenge which consisted of four rallies held at Flookburgh airfield in Cumbria, in which I managed to finish 2nd overall and 1st in class 3 and also equalled my best result on one event of 5th o/a first two wheel drive without damaging the car! I then managed to finish a multi-venue and competed in a few more single-venues until the rallying had to take a back seat as funds were tight due to me moving house (bigger garage!) and getting married, then the arrival of children has delayed the rebuild and me from getting back out onto the stages,

    Manby


    Flookburgh


    During this "enforced" break & whilst the car was off the road I took the oppertunity to tidy her up, however this was a big mistake as I have since thrown even more money at it as it progressed to 5-linking, better engine, carbon dash, speed sensitive electronic power steering, better brakes, better suespension, new seats, alloy fuel tank, plus lots more little mods and repairs including new paint as time allowed.

    I have since competed in a few more rallies and also a few old school track day events since the rebuild....

    Wilbarston earlier this year



    Rockingham Stages in December






    So what’s next? Well I hopefully more stage rallies mixed with a few track day outings as funds permit.
    Also I would love to take my car over to Ireland to compete on some Irish tarmac events, just need to save some pennies up....

    keep it sideways..........

    Cheers
    Steve


    Remember, at the end of every straight, there's a corner......
  • tim
    Racer
    Decade Plus User
    • Apr 2004
    • 3187

    #2
    Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

    nice read there steve, nice black line ur puttin down in the first rockingham pic

    Comment

    • Med
      Spanner Monkey
      • Aug 2005
      • 317

      #3
      Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

      keep it rollin' dude!!!~
      sigpic

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      Comment

      • Sharon
        Drive by Flasher
        Decade Plus User
        • Jul 2001
        • 7641

        #4
        Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

        21 years you have owned the car And raced it top stuff

        Comment

        • steveo_mex
          Mechanic
          • Feb 2004
          • 545

          #5
          Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

          Great story

          Nice to see it progress from the early days to what it is now, im sure your wallet would agree
          Ta

          Steve

          Comment

          • Kevmk2
            Part of the furniture
            Decade Plus User
            • Dec 2003
            • 10228

            #6
            Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

            Very interesting read Steve! Well done mate

            Comment

            • GP4
              Pit Crew
              Decade Plus User
              • Sep 2003
              • 1607

              #7
              Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

              I've never seen the car in the flesh, but having watched the latest rebuild via Steves website over the last couple of years, I'd have to say that it looks like one of the most immaculate and professionally prepared Escorts I've ever witnessed. I know people with more expensive cars, and much bigger budgets than Steves...but I reckon that his car puts the vast majority of them to shame.

              It's a real credit to you Steve...top-notch job mate

              Comment

              • Lee S
                Pit Crew
                • Aug 2003
                • 1640

                #8
                Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

                Ive seen this car in the flesh and it is proper nice and well prepared!

                Do you remeber me Steve? I came with my brother on what was probably the coldest night of the year to buy a rad and prop off ya!

                Im trying hard to convice my brother not to sell his mk2, so we can hopefully do some road rallying when I finish uni!
                - Lee

                Comment

                • Retromotorsport
                  Part of the furniture
                  Decade Plus User
                  • Mar 2004
                  • 14285

                  #9
                  Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

                  Originally posted by GP4
                  I've never seen the car in the flesh, but having watched the latest rebuild via Steves website over the last couple of years, I'd have to say that it looks like one of the most immaculate and professionally prepared Escorts I've ever witnessed. I know people with more expensive cars, and much bigger budgets than Steves...but I reckon that his car puts the vast majority of them to shame.

                  It's a real credit to you Steve...top-notch job mate

                  Exactly what Simon said.... and a cracking read with all the pics and History.

                  Catch up with you this summer Steve
                  Gary

                  Don't be mean, become green and support Turbosport - Click here

                  Comment

                  • PIG
                    Part of the furniture
                    Decade Plus User
                    • Oct 2004
                    • 11882

                    #10
                    Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

                    as above really excellent read m8,hope things keep getting better for you and the car
                    sigpic

                    Comment

                    • mrjimbo
                      Mechanic
                      • Oct 2004
                      • 668

                      #11
                      Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

                      Excellent reading m8, keep up the good work
                      sigpic

                      Comment

                      • escort greg
                        Mechanic
                        • Dec 2005
                        • 551

                        #12
                        Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

                        well done and i thought i had my escort a long time great read
                        sigpic

                        Comment

                        • FOSSIE
                          Pit Crew
                          Decade Plus User
                          • Oct 2004
                          • 1591

                          #13
                          Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

                          Steve - who is that young bloke driving your car in those early pictures? Not the same Steve Tew that i know, surely? Sorry mate.

                          Yeah, beautiful car and nice write-up too. I love that picture of it arse-down in the ditch. Still, at least it gave you a good reason to lose the vinyl roof.

                          We seriously want to get over to Ireland too mate - how about Killarney later this year? Or Donegal? We'll enter as "Team Turbosport".... Foster -vs- Tew? You'd have to promise not to beat us though.
                          Failing that, we'll just have to go head to head at Weeton popcorn:

                          Oh yeah, and if you don't do anything else, you've got to do Otterburn! You won't be dissappointed, honestly!

                          cheers
                          Tom

                          Comment

                          • Sideways
                            Racer
                            Decade Plus User
                            • Aug 2002
                            • 2028

                            #14
                            Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

                            Thanks for your kind comments guys

                            glad you enjoyed reading it, its just a little something I knocked up in my lunchbreak lol

                            TIM
                            I dont think all that rubbers mine mate

                            Sharon,
                            yep, had it that long I cant bare to part with it, part of the family you might say, my wife always says "there's three of us in this relationship, you, me and that damn car!"

                            Si
                            Cheers mate, but its not that immaculate, its still got plenty of battle scars to show

                            Popee
                            How can I forget you? it was -10 outside and you turn up at my house wearing a short sleeve t shirt and your overalls rolled down to your waist!

                            Gary,
                            yes mate, catch up with you sometime this summer

                            Fossie
                            yer cheeky git that was back in the good old days when I was young free and single, & before I had the stress of a mortgage and mithering kids

                            BTW that sounds like a challenge mate I really would love to go over to ireland just for the experience & to say Ive done it, also as Ive got a mate over there with a Rothmans replica who said he would help out, but pennies are tight so we may have to make do with weeton

                            Cheers all
                            Steve


                            Remember, at the end of every straight, there's a corner......

                            Comment

                            • GavinR
                              Pit Crew
                              Decade Plus User
                              • Jun 2004
                              • 1494

                              #15
                              Re: Sideways Mk2 Rally car

                              Yep good story and pics there - like me I'll never part with my rally car either - luckily my wife is as keen on it as I am

                              You'd enjoy Ireland, having been over there a few times over the years, its worth every penny but you'd need to reckon on £1500-£2000 for a 2 day event inc ferries, B&B, Entry Fee, Insurance, etc
                              GavinR

                              sigpic

                              Comment

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