Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2021 i Classic Ford

NO MORE MOTS FOR NI CLASSICS Northern Ireland follows Great Britain in making most 40-year-old vehicles MoT-exempt. A 40-year MoT exemption has been introduced in Northern Ireland for vehicles of historic interest following changes to legislation announced by Infrastructure Minister, Nichola Mallon last month. The change brings Northern Ireland in line with Great Britain, applying to private vehicles constructed or first registered more than 40 years ago. The exemption applies to vehicles which have not been substantially altered, or are no longer in production. In Northern Ireland vehicles first registered before 1960 are already exempt from periodic testing. In addition, the exemption will also include other vehicles such as motorcycles and light goods vehicles (LGVs) of no more than 3.5 tonnes maximum gross weight. These vehicles must also no longer…

PRODUCTS THE LATEST, GREATEST BITS FOR YOUR CLASSIC FORD DURATEC SPACESAVER DCOE MANIFOLD £479.16 Webcon This new short billet inlet manifold from Webcon is just 35 mm long and is perfect for space limited installations when dropping a Duratec HE engine into your classic Ford. The new manifold is manufactured in the UK from billet aluminium and ported at 45 mm, but it can be increased to 48 mm to suit higher powered engines. Contact: 01932 787100, www.webcon.co.uk GAZ GOLD CAPRI COIL-OVERS £TBC GAZ Shocks GAZ can now supply its Gold coil-over struts for the Capri coated in black zinc for added durability. The coil-overs are both height and damper rate adjustable. Front ride height is adjustable through 80 mm of adjustment. The height adjusters have a coarse acme form…

CLUBS OF THE YEAR ANGLIA 105E OWNERS’ CLUB, MK1 CORTINA OWNER’S CLUB, CORTINA MK2 OWNER’S CLUB It wouldn’t be an over-statement to remark that the 2020 events calendar has been utterly decimated. But realising the need for classic Ford enthusiasts to still congregate and share their cars and stories, some clubs and groups have taken a lateral approach — not least enterprising members of the Anglia and Mk1 and Mk2 Cortina clubs who decided to hold a virtual weekend to replace their own cancelled annual gettogethers. Using Facebook as the platform, the clubs put together a cracking weekend’s worth of special events — including a virtual tour and prize-giving — that not only felt inclusive, but provided a welcome distraction from everything that’s going on right now. “A WELCOME DISTRACTION…

HOMEBUILT HERO THE RIGHT STUFF With a background in the VW scene, Steve Harris has taken a refreshingly-different approach with his outstanding Mk1 Fiesta project. Words and Photos Jon Cass As classic hatchbacks go, there’s something about a well-modified Mk1 Fiesta that really stands out from the pack. That angular styling seems to have aged gracefully, more so than many of its contemporaries and they’re rare enough now to turn heads anywhere. When we first saw this stunning Mk1, built to an impeccably high standard by Outlaw Motorsport’s main man, Steve Harris we just had to find out more. 32-year-old Steve first got into cars through his Dad, Russ who was often to be found tinkering with classic Minis on the family driveway. “As I got older he bought a…

MAILBOX YOUR LETTERS, EMAILS & SOCAIL MEDIA COMMENTS LETTER OF THE MONTH Our favourite letter, email or social media comment each issue wins a 768 ml bottle of Meguiar’s superb new Hybrid Ceramic Wax worth £20 —ceramic protection that’s so easy to use, you can actually wax your paint as you rinse off your car! For details of the complete Meguiar’s UK range, give them a call on 0870 2416696 or visit www.meguiars.co.uk. MK2 MEMORIES Recently I was having a chat with a good friend of mine, Alan Feaver about the Fords that we owned in the 1980s and 1990s. After looking at some old photos of them, and sparking a few memories, we decided to look on the DVLA’s database to see if any of these vehicles still exist.…

classic ford’s project cars Minder Capri Christmas might come early for the TV star Mk2, reckons Matt, as its rebuild in the hands of the pros is progressing rapidly. If you’ve restored a car at home you will know how long it takes, how many small parts are needed to make the big thing, and how some things cant be rushed. It’s no surprise some projects take years or even decades, so its incredible how quickly a car can come together in the hands of the professionals. In the last few weeks, Terry the Minder Capri has come back together at a great pace. Once the wings were welded in their final position the engine bay and the front panels, the areas that will be hidden behind the headlights and…

Cologne tappets Q I have an ongoing problem with my Capri 280. The car has done just over 80,000 miles but in the past year I’ve had to adjust the tappets three times — twice within a month! On removing the rocker covers, I noticed that some of the adjusters are bone dry. However, if you put oil in the holes on the rocker shaft they become soaked in oil, which would indicate that there isn’t a blockage. I just can’t understand how some can be coated in oil and others aren’t. The car has also developed an erratic oil pressure gauge. The needle shakes violently on acceleration and tickover. Dean Stuart UK A The Cologne engine is well known for a camshaft problem where the lobes wear out. Unfortunately,…

ARGY (SERVICE) BARGY CHRIS’ NEXT PROJECT It turns out there’s one, rather sizeable downside to running what effectively amounts to a works Escort rally car from before the oil crisis, and that’s truly eye-watering fuel economy. Chris reckons he gets 5-6 mpg on an average run, while the modest, 120-mile round trip between his house in Essex and Silverstone costs a massive £250! The solution, or at least the solution settled upon by Chris and Gordon Spooner, is to tow his Escort to its many shows and gatherings behind a suitable, period-correct vehicle. Or in rally parlance, a service barge, hence the Mk1 Transit you see here. “Me and Dad bought it from Scotland earlier in the year — it was designed and built by Ford as a fire tender.…

CE BUYING RESTORING Rustproof the rear of a front-wheel-drive Ford Follow our guide to keeping tinworm away from the rear suspension on most front-wheel-drive classic Fords. Words and Photos Rob Hawkins Front-wheel-drive (FWD) Fords ranging from a Fiesta to a Mondeo all seem to suffer from corrosion in the rear suspension. One of the biggest threats concerns the rear coil springs, especially those that are separate to the telescopic damper. They usually sit on a spring pan, which may be part of a lower suspension arm, or part of a beam and trailing arm set-up. Whatever the arrangement, those spring pans often fill up with dirt and water, so they eventually corrode. At worst, the coil spring becomes dislodged or even fractured because it too has rotted away. Taking the…

PHOTOS OF THE YEAR PARTING SHOT View these images full-size and download them as desktop wallpapers from: www.classicfordmag.co.uk Mk1 Escort Photographer: Adrian Brannan From the February 2020 issue Mondeo Super Touring Photographer: Adrian Brannan From the December 2019 issue Escort RS Turbo Photographer: Andy Saunders From the July 2020 issue A4069, Brecon Beacons Photographer: Paddy McGrath From the April 2020 issue 1980s Heroes Photographer: Adrian Brannan From the Spring 2020 issue Mk2 Zephyr Photographer: Ben Hosking From the April 2020 issue Mk1 Capri Photographer: Andy Saunders Featured: August 2020 Mk1 Cortina project Photographer: Chris Frosin From the Spring 2020 issue Escort Rally Special Photographer: Jeannot Boesen From the December 2019 issue Mk1 Escort van Photographer: Oliver Brookwell From the December 2019 issue Fiesta van collection Photographer: Matt Woods From the…

THE PERFECT FESTIVE GIFT! Welcome With one year coming to an end, and another about to begin, it’s a fine time to celebrate the great and good of the classic Ford scene with our annual Classic Ford Awards, which kicks off on page 23. The best cars, gear and more of the last 12 months are given their dues, plus if you haven’t already turned to the feature to find out who won, we reveal your Classic Ford Of The Year. It’s been a tumultuous year for everybody, but one thing that has helped keep us going is our obsession with classic Fords — never has a hobby been more important for our metal wellbeing. And if you’re ever worried that your obsession may be getting the better of you,…

WANNA RACE? Automotive sculptor and early Cortina fan, Terry Ross of Speed-Still is back with another Cortina creation based on circuit racing legends of yore. This time he’s turned his attention to the Alan Mann Racing Lotus Cortinas — specifically John Whitmore and Jackie Stewart battling it out at Snetterton circuit in July 1966. The wall-mounted works are big, measuring 123x60 cm and are being produced in strictly limited numbers. If you’re seriously interested, drop Terry an email at terry@speed-still.com. To see more of Terry’s incredible work, go to www.speed-still.com.…

FRONTEND SECRET FORDS Steve Saxty’s brilliant new book, Secret Fords lifts the lid on hundreds of never-seen Ford cars from the ’70s and ’80s. We asked him to tell us a little more about the three featured cars on the cover. The Escort Coupe Patrick le Quément, the famous chief designer at Renault previously led Ford’s main design studio in Germany. He created this car in 1972, just after the main two-door Mk2 Escort had been designed. There are, believe it or not, four never-seen Escort coupes in Secret Fords but this is probably the most interesting. The car looked great, but Ford got cold feet when the Morris Marina Coupe struggled — plus the highly-profitable Capri was still selling well. I had my illustrator draw the Escort up in…

DRIVE IT DAY TO SUPPORT CHILDLINE Classic vehicle owners and clubs have long been associated with raising vital funds for charity, but they’re set to do it nationwide next spring, with the announcement that the Federation Of British Historic Vehicle Club’s Drive it Day 2021, scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 25, will be run in support of the NSPCC’s vital Childline service. The FBHVC introduced Drive it Day in 2005 with the aim of getting the nation’s transport heritage seen by the public. Each year its date is set coincide with the anniversary of the 1000 Mile Trial back in 1900 — an event which served to prove that motor vehicles were viable personal transport rather than just a fad. Over the past 15 years, Drive it Day…

Join the club Transit Van Club Classic or modern, restored or modified, the Transit Van Club is open to everyone, reckons Peter Lee — you just have to love Ford’s iconic van. When was the club founded? The club was formed in 2004 when I was asked by Ford for help due to a former Transit club closing. I honoured the old members’ subscriptions and we were up and running. Also at the time Ford had started getting a number of calls about classic Transits and the owners needing help. I was also aware of the need to get the true Transit history story told due to enthusiasts not knowing the full history and the myths about these vans were increasing. While more and more classic Transits were being sent…

CLASSIC FORD OF THE THE NOMINATIONS The best feature cars from the last 12 months Allan Brown’s Capri 280 TT The votes are all in, they’ve been counted, recounted and verified, and we are pleased to reveal that your Classic Ford Of The Year is Allan Brown’sTurboTechnics Capri 280. The subject of a lengthy and detailed recent restoration, the rare 280 TT is a clear crowdpleaser and worthy winner of the 2020 crown. No-one was more surprised about the positive reaction the Capri would get when the completed restoration was first revealed, and Allan was the first to admit that a lot of this was down to the car’s restorer, Trevor Steadman of Steadspeed Restorations. Trevor is famed not only for his knowledge of how Capris go together, but also…

UPGRADE GUIDE MK1 CORTINA How to get the best out of your ’60s saloon or estate — without ruining its classic appeal. The Mk1 Cortina has been a firm favourite with Ford fans for years. With a successful racing heritage, drivers like Jim Clark firmly established the car’s potential in the minds of the public — and with the tuning houses, too. As a result there have always been cheap and easy upgrades for the Mk1, and mixing and matching parts from other models has been the norm for Cortinas for decades. Not only were Mk1s a cheap and accessible way into the modifying scene, their classic looks accompanied with bucketloads of charm never fail to catch people’s attention. The massive increase in popularity in recent years has led the…

Simon’s Mk1 Cortina With winter on the way, he could have timed it better, but the Cortina makes it back on the road after some fine fettling. At the start of 2020 I made a promise to myself that the Cortina would be back up and on the road with its new running gear in time for the Classic Ford Show in June. This year has panned out in a way that I don’t think anyone expected, so you won’t be surprised to hear that both the show and the new running gear didn’t happen. But it’s not all doom and gloom, and — just in time for winter — the Cortina is road-legal once again after being tucked away in various units and lock-ups since 2014. Being laid-up for…

CVH SOLID LIFTERS Q My daily driver, that I have owned since new, is a 1990 Escort XR3i. The engine is the original 1600 CVH with hydraulic lifters. At 225,000 miles the engine has just eaten its third camshaft. Would it be advantageous, for longevity, to convert to non-hydraulic lifters? Alan Anstead UK A Yes, you can convert a CVH to solid lifters. Being lighter they produce less friction and so the camshaft will last longer as well as the valve gear running more efficiently. The downside is that solid lifters won’t work with standard CVH hydraulic camshafts - you’ll need to change the cam at the same time. You could either track down a complete RS1600i head, which featured solid lifters, or buy a solid lifter kit and matching…

CE BUYING RESTORING IT’S NOT EASY BEING GREEN Reader’s restoration: Wayne Champion has spent the last two years painstakingly restoring his stunning, ex-South African Signal Green Cortina 3.0S in his shed. Now complete, it’s clear to see all his hard work has not gone to waste. Words and Photos Dan Sherwood Nothing worth having comes easy. At least that’s what they say. This old cliché gets trotted out every now and again when someone is trying to justify the toil and trouble associated with a certain achievement. It’s the generic equivalent to that old adage from the bodybuilding fraternity: ‘No pain, no gain.’ Now while Wayne Champion would happily admit that his physique is some way off from worrying the swollen contenders of the Arnold Classic, at the same time,…

your projects: mk1 capri FEDERAL LAW Your projects: Brought up surrounded by Capris, it was almost law that Matilda Malmkvist would have one of her own — albeit a Fed-spec Mk1 left behind by a GI. Photos PatrickTompers Name: Matilda Malmkvist Age: 19 Job: University student Location: Redange, Luxembourg Car: 1973 Federal Mk1 Capri 2.6 Start condition: Fair to middling! Condition now: Almost finished the bodywork Time taken so far: 2 years Estimated date of completion: June When your stepdad has five Capris parked on the drive, sooner or later you’re going to find yourself lusting after one of your own, and for Luxembourg-based Matilda Malmkvist, that came sooner when she took on her first project at the age of 16. It nearly didn’t happen that way, though. Being brought…

RUSTY CORNER Terminally-rotten old Fords This issue’s contribution comes courtesy of Neil Reed of E3 Autos, who recently rescued this late, 2.8 Sierra XR4x4 from a garden where it had been languishing for some years — looking a little sad but thankfully complete. “This one won’t be broken for spares, but instead will be a very longterm project,” he reckons. Best of luck with the rebuild, Neil. Spotted an unloved Ford on your travels? Email photos and details of your find to classicford.ed@kelsey.co.uk or you .co.uk can write to us at the address on…

THE BOOK Secret Fords is the first of two new books looking at how some of our favourite classic Fords were designed and developed, revealing how Ford of Europe’s stellar 1970s and 1980s design team created in secret hundreds of prototypes, one-offs and design studies that have been kept under wraps — until now. The 300-page, large-format book includes hundreds of never-seen-before photographs and sketches of prototypes and concepts from both Ford’s and Ghia’s archives, each with detailed captions, of secret projects including a gorgeous BMW-rivalling Granada Coupe, Mk2 Escort Coupe and a Sierra-based Capri. Secret Fords is out now, available from the author’s website for £39.95, with a signed, numbered Collector’s Edition that comes with an additional scrapbook in a boxed slipcase with unique cover art also available. Find…

COMING UP Inside the February 2021 issue of Classic Ford! We all love a fresh project, but actually seeing one through to completion can be incredibly difficult. In the February issue, out December 24, the pros and amateur experts reveal their essential tips on how to get yours finished on time and in budget while still retaining your sanity. Plus Mk4 Escort XR3i buyer’s guide, Anglia 105E tuning tips, and author, Steve Saxty reveals more unseen Fords from the Ghia archives. The February 2017 issue hits the newsstands on Thursday, December 24 — why not subscribe to make sure you don’t miss it? See page 28 for the latest subscription offers.…

MK2 ESCORT BACK FOR SECONDS Chris Deane sold his beloved Escort Harrier show car a few years back, but he couldn’t shake the itch to build another — and this is the perfectly fitting replacement. Words Matt Black Photos Matt Woods There’s something very special about the way a clean-cut Escort looks when it’s sitting perfectly over the right set of wheels to fill the arches. It’s not a look that’s as easy to pull off as the simple recipe suggests, as the work behind achieving that balance is far more involving. But Chris Deane has certainly proven that he knows how to pull it off, as this is the second Escort he’s owned that turns heads and grabs attention at shows for that reason. Everyone knows that old Fords…

HERITAGE CORTINA CITY Original classic Fords: Welcome to Cortina City, where Pete Crompton is a virtual one-man production line, turning out a freshly-restored Mk3 Cortina every couple of years… Words Mike Renaut Photos Adrian Brannan You likely believe the last brand-new Mk3 Cortina was built in 1976, but Pete Crompton’s comprehensive restorations have virtually put them back into production. “I like a challenge,” explains Pete. “My dad and brother had Cortinas. I got my first Mk3 when I was 21, I love the Coke bottle styling, there’s not a bad angle on the car. I like finding really rotten Cortinas and saving them.” “The silver 2000 GXL is a rare two-door and rarer still for being an automatic,” explains Pete. “Built in January 1972 it had sat in a field…

EXPERT CLINIC Mk1 Cortina wings Q I have recently bought a MkI Cortina which, although in overall good condition, could really do with a new pair of front wings. The problem is, I really can’t afford the asking price for each wing. I’ve noticed adverts offering GRP panels for a fraction of the cost of steel ones — are these a viable option? Will it effect the strength of the front end? Do you need to reinforce the inner wings? Simon Edey UK A GRP wings are a good idea and you can get them from Smith & Deakin, Honeybourne Mouldings and Old Ford Auto Services (OFAS) for around £150 each – we covered fitting a pair from OFAS in the April 2011 issue and you can download a copy…

MOTORSPORT CLASSIC FORDS FLAT›OUT ON THE STAGE, STRIP AND TRACK Parental Photos Matt Woods GUIDANCE Gordon Spooner of GSE built some of the most evocative competition Fords of the last 50 years, and now his son, Chris, is keeping the family tradition alive with this works RS1600 replica. Words Jamie Arkle Photos Matt Woods There’s a fairly solid case to be made for the late 1980s being among the most exciting and innovative periods in the history of top-tier motorsport. Back then car makers thought little of committing to multi-million-pound motorsport programmes, propped up by lashings of tobacco megabucks and the overwhelming belief in the age-old mantra of ‘Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.’ One man with a better appreciation for the era and all it entailed than most is…

MOTORSPORT FOUR TO THE FLOOR In the late 1960s, four-wheel-drive in Formula One was deemed to be the future, so why did this Cosworth-Ford project fail? Words Graham Robson To quote Keith Duckworth of Cosworth: “The four-wheel drive F1 car? Well it was one of my daftest ideas.” Even so, at the time, it looked and seemed like a good idea. Duckworth had just designed the world-beating DFV F1 engine, he thought he could see the logic of mating this with a four-wheel drive system, (remember, the secret of making a race car work is to make optimum use of the rubber!), and Walter Hayes, his paymaster at Ford, encouraged him to think big. Thinking that future F1 cars would need four-wheel drive, Duckworth attracted Robin Herd from McLaren to…

BUYER’S GUIDE SIERRA RS COSWORTH A classic from the off, the three-door launched the Cosworth road car legend. Here’s what you need to know if one’s on your wishlist. Words ChristianTilbury Photos Chris Wallbank Ford’s reputation for transforming its family-themed models into performance icons was already well established by the mid-1980s, but it well and truly knocked the ball out of the park with the July 1986 launch of the most outlandish RS yet — the Sierra RS Cosworth. Based on the rather uninspiring three-door Sierra, the new RS was arguably the ultimate hot hatch but, like the vast majority of its Rallye Sport brethren, it wasn’t conceived to drive up showroom footfall. Instead, it was a by product of Ford’s desire to obliterate its rivals in motorsport, this time…