Imports

[TheCracker]

You should contact SH with that story and these photos. 👍

I might send them, and plenty of others i'm yet to scan in, to Classic Ford mag who originally ran the article, and possibly to the guy who owns the car now.

I'd have to tread lightly though, i get the impression that the owner maybe thinks, or would like other people to believe that the car is a now very rare ex-Broadspeed (factory) racecar, which it isn't really. Although the car looks remarkedly original to how it was when it was built 35 years ago, which apart from the engine, wheels and drivers seat, it amazingly is, there's very little to it that is original Broadspeed, it was never raced by them, it was probably just a spare shell for if one of their cars was crashed heavily. It certainly doesn't have any broadspeed parts on it, unless the guy's sourced them and added them recently. But then they wouldn't be the car's original items.

If someone some point down the line is expecting the car to have value as an ex-Broadspeed car, the info that i've provided and the more detailed info that my dad and uncle have, could effect any potential sale of the car. An ex-works car is much more collectable than an obscure club racer.

I'm totally chuffed that the car still exists and looks almost exactly as it did back then. I expected that it had been scrapped by now or at the very least heavily modified beyond recognition. I was only talking about it with my dad at Oulton Park last year when we happened to bump into the guy he sold it to. He said it had been sold on to th guy in Ireland, but that was all he knew. That car was an important part of my childhood in some ways, either as the focal point of many family weekend activities, or just something i used to sit in and pretend i was driving as a kid in our garage.

 

[CodeRedR51]

If someone some point down the line is expecting the car to have value as an ex-Broadspeed car, the info that i've provided and the more detailed info that my dad and uncle have, could effect any potential sale of the car. An ex-works car is much more collectable than an obscure club racer.

I personally would have a problem with this. Isn't that considered fraud?

 

[TheCracker]

I personally would have a problem with this. Isn't that considered fraud?

It happens a lot in classic car circles, especially with ex-race cars. It's not always that the owner of a car in question is trying to pass it off as something that it isn't, it's quite often that the owner only knows a partial history of a car and some of the finer details have been changed in a chinese-wispers kind of way. It might be that the person who owns it now, or any other owner down the line, has misunderstood the facts given and before you know it a box of spare parts has become 'an important piece of automotive history'

There are a fair amount of classic Ferraris and the like out there that share the same chassis number, due to complete cars being rebuilt from sections or parts of cars that have crashed or being broken up at some point, or even the factory taking the chassis plate off a crashed car and putting it on a brand new one to get around period homologation issues. The owners of these cars then spend a lot of money in courts arguing over who holds the rights to call their car the 'original'

In the case with 'our' Escort, The car could be passed off as 'a remarkably original 1970's Super Saloon Escort Mk1, built up around an unused Broadspeed prepared shell' but calling it a 'genuine Broadspeed Escort' is stretching the truth slightly IMO.

 

[CodeRedR51]

It happens a lot in classic car circles, especially with ex-race cars. It's not always that the owner of a car in question is trying to pass it off as something that it isn't, it's quite often that the owner only knows a partial history of a car and some of the finer details have been changed in a chinese-wispers kind of way.

^^^ That's the other thing I was thinking. Maybe he doesn't know the complete history? I would contact him first and find out what he knows and where he got his information, then break the news to him.

Does your family have anything in their possession that you could use to confirm it's the right car? Chassis number or something?

 

[McLaren]

Last week someone posted a set of pictures in this thread (to which the link has now expired) which included a photo from the SpeedHunters site of a MK1 Escort in Castrol livery. The Escort looked immediately familiar to me so i searched SpeedHunters for more info on it. The article states that the car's an ex-Broadspeed car built to Touring Car/Super Saloon specifications. Super Saloons were very much an amateur series with cars built up in peoples garages and sheds during the 1970's and had freer regulations than Touring cars. Broadspeed, to my knowledge wouldn't have bothered with such a small series as they were, in Britain at least, the Ford 'Works' team at the time and were busy building and running cars in the British and European touring car series.

Since the 60's, my dad and uncle had been racing various Fords in the various Special and Super Saloon series around the country. In the early/mid 70's they bought a bare Escort shell from Broadspeed, who at the time were winding down their involvement with the Escort programme and were selling off what they had left. The shell was in primer, was seem welded and had a cage, but that was the extent of it. They then bought a complete Alan Mann Escort, took out it's Cosworth FVC engine to put in their own car and then sold the Alan Mann rolling chassis on to someone else. They purchased from Ford a 'Works' suspension set-up and completed the car with larger bubble arches, a front valance/splitter and rear wing designed to their own specifications, in other words, a unique design.

They ran the car up until the late 70's when growing families forced them both to retire. They sold the engine but the rolling chassis lived in our garage at home for another ten years or so until it was sold on. The guy who bought the car sourced a different 4cyl Ford/Cosworth engine and began racing it. I recall going with my dad to Cadwell Park to watch the guy's first race in it. He's had the car re-painted from the Orange and Grey of my dad and uncles sponsor at the time to the famous Castrol livery of Zakspeed's Escorts of the late 60's. The last we heard, the car had been sold on to someone in Ireland.

With the exception of the small triangular intake between the two main intakes below the grill, you can see a remarkable similarity to 'our' car:

As the car is now:

As it was back in the day:


One of the first races my dad did in the car was the support race to the 1975 British Grand Prix. The bottom picture shows it in plain white with an early rear wing that had no end plates and none of the holes in the rear panel between the lights - the article hints that these modifications, along with plenty others, were of Broadspeed design, but this clearly shows it to be untrue.

That's unfortunate. 👎

But, your family built a really sexy car. 👍

 

[TheCracker]

^^^ That's the other thing I was thinking. Maybe he doesn't know the complete history? I would contact him first and find out what he knows and where he got his information, then break the news to him.

That's kind of why i'd prefer to keep out of it. I'm sure my dad and uncle will feel the same way. If the present owner is under the impresion that he has in his possession more of a Broadspeed Escort than he actually does, then it could open up a whole tin of worms. For the same reason i don't really want to go spouting my mouth off on the Speedhunters or Classic Ford website about it either. I'm happy to let sleeping dogs lie, safe in the knowledge that the car still exists and is in rude health. 👍

I've ordered myself a backcopy of the Classic Ford magazine it originally appeared in to read the full story. It might give me a better idea of the situation. It might well be that the owner is fully aware of the cars origins and that it's just journalistic license that's bigging the car up. If after that i can find any contact info for him, i'll just send him what ever pictures i have of the car and if he gets back to me wanting more info on it i'll/we'll be happy to tell it like it is.

Does your family have anything in their possession that you could use to confirm it's the right car? Chassis number or something?

Not sure. But i've gone through stages of trawlling the internet searching for signs of the car's continual existance, looking at all the pictures of racing Mk1's to try and find it but with little luck (except this site) A lot of Special/Super Saloons of the day were similar in design and concept, none of them had exactly the same detailling. As soon as i saw this car on this thread, i knew it was the car - the details that make it unique are absolutely spot on, either this is the car, or someone has gone out of their way to replicate an obscure club racer from the '70's - of which to my knowledge, up until today, only two small images exist of it online. It's the car without a doubt.

 

[exigeracer]

As the old saying goes...

Of the 36 250 GTOs produced, it is believed that as few as 58 are left.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Just came across this car while doing research for work. Bone stock pretty much except for suspension (maybe) and a nice set of BBS wheels that really set it off:

 

[eSZee]

Not sure if this should go here or the questionable mods thread but here it is.
TripleCharged 3.3L Solara.

 

[filphil89]

 

[happycorey]

 

[Eric.]

Seth's car is ballin'.

 

[happycorey]

Idk if I would say ballin

 

[Eric.]

We got him to autox a few months ago...Swapped it to stock BBS wheels. Rubbed so bad that paint caught fire on the engine-bay-side of the fenders. Found burn spots and melted wiring a couple days later. Needs less low.

 

[happycorey]

Yeah it's really clean and simple, that's what I like about it. But if it was how I would want it, it would be jacked up on all terrain tires

 

[Eric.]

Yeah, I couldn't bring myself to make an Evo or STI that low. Maybe an inch lower than stock.

 

[happycorey]

 

[Small_Fryz]

As the car is now:




As it was back in the day:

Very nice car 👍

Does anybody have youtube video's of these old Super Saloons from the 70's? I also really love the big Turbo Zakaspeed Carpi's too.

 

[TheCracker]

Very nice car 👍

Does anybody have youtube video's of these old Super Saloons from the 70's? I also really love the big Turbo Zakaspeed Carpi's too.

Cheers 👍

Not many vids around of 70's Super Saloons, these are the best i've seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFXun8uSMHY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFTBgnCanJo&feature=related

Zakspeed Capris are my favourites 👍

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIdTiZ4iYuc&feature=related

 

[Encyclopedia]

Wow they look a real handfull to drive!

Great videos!👍

 

[speed junkie]

^Anyone have more of this?

 

[CodeRedR51]

Damn you Ford! Bring them to the US!

 

[hemisport15]

The build on this Alfa is insane. The owner has an attention to detail that I haven't seen in a very long time.

Here is the link to that...
http://www.stanceworks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13411

And to motivate you to check out the thread, here is how it sounds...

 

[speed junkie]

^An addition to the previous discussion...

 

[Eric.]

This car is so damn cool.

http://www.stancenation.com/2011/06/30/old-school-rocks/

 

[Keef]

Wow, you don't see that very often. Clean little sucker.

 

[misnblu]

That MR2 gets around all over the forums and FaceBook.
Great photoshoot though and wonderfully done MR2.

 

[Eric.]

Ugh. I want a clean 89 SC T-top car too.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Ugh I wish I could drop my 7 that low. It would look so damn sexy. Maybe when it isn't my daily driver...

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]