Ford played a major role in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s. The Escort seems to express this by its form alone. Although Ford also has a not unimportant German branch, the car with the dog bone on its face looks as British as a car can be at that time. And despite this, or perhaps because of it, it sold more than 2 million units worldwide by 1974.

If you also include the derivatives, which despite front-wheel drive and a completely different form were also called 'Escort', then the total number of examples is well over ten times higher. One looks but undoubtedly much more British, the Ford Anglia. It's incredible to imagine the first Escort as a smoothly ironed version of the Ford Anglia, still dating from the time immediately after the second World War.

Here you can see how long British cars were built almost unchanged, because in the case of the Escort we are talking about the year of birth 1967. For a good 30 years it was produced in different versions for Europe alone. Successor: the Ford Focus, which was also quite successful and even more individual in the first generation. However, even today one still cannot believe that the Escort was the second joint project between Ford Great Britain and Germany.

But if you think that the Escort was born obsolete with a rigid axle and leaf springs, you are very much examples. Even Opel didn't make it better, for example, with the Kadett until 1967 and VW was bound to the independent suspension by design, but that didn't make the Escort look old in practice, rather the other way round. Also the drum brakes at the cheapest model were not noticed negative, they had only just been dropped on the Kadett.

As technical features one can just about call the fully synchronised gearbox, of course still for a long time with four gears. The McPherson front axle with rack and pinion was already considered modern, the Kadett also had it combined with double wishbones. The fact that England had the upper hand in styling took its revenge at first in unsatisfactory sales figures in Germany. This was a little better in the motherland, not least because Ford had taken care not to let the prices rise too much compared to the Ford Anglia.

Of course it could not shine with too much engine power, in the simplest case 29 kW (40 hp) from 1.1 litres, a little less than the Kadett with the same displacement. In contrast to the engine of the Opel the famous name: 'Kent engine'. It is of course again from the Ford Anglia, but only from 1959 onwards. Its developer Alan Worters worked for Ford in Dagenham, but lived in the neighbouring Province of Kent. At the beginning it was just a simple püshrod engine with three crankshaft bearings, at that time up to date.

Perhaps it should be mentioned here that in contrast to earlier times, when British engines had much more stroke than bore for tax reasons, this time they used a bore that was almost twice as large which could only be changed a little in the Ford Escort at first. It kept the bore at a slightly increased cubic capacity. However, the intake manifold and exhaust were now on different sides, which in this case not only concerned the cylinder head, but also the combustion chamber, which moved into the piston when the valves closed flat, together with the large bore, first prerequisites for later tuning.

This was necessary, because the chassis was said to have magical abilities, not comparable to its predecessor. There have been many such things in the history of motor vehicles, a constant construction, but due to the dimensions and especially the tuning a special quality. Sometimes it is said that the chassis is faster than the engine.

But perhaps it was also the speciality of the almost regular races held in England on Saturday afternoons that made the car so famous. A 1.6 litre version and a three-speed automatic from Borg-Warner were soon added to the series. It was then available as a two-door, four-door, three-door station wagon with long rear side window and panel van.

Ford actually made Lotus really grow. So it was a matter of course to install the DOHC engine developed there into the Escort out of the Elan. However, there were considerable difficulties with its installation, from which the successor in the Escort engine compartment benefited. The Cosworth company, protected by Ford, too, got the profit. The famous Cosworth-16V 1,6L (RS 1.600) was developed, the Kent engine meanwhile reinforced and equipped with five main bearings.

Of course, the vehicle was successful. A version of the Ford Escort even bears the name of the famous victory at the 1970 London-Mexico Rally, after which the car started its world career with correspondingly distributed production sites, this time also in Germany. In the meantime, besides all parts of the competition versions, whole cars were also available, below the RS 1600 the 1300 GT and above the RS 2000 in a striking white-blue lacquer finish. 1974 the successor is released, this time really a joint production, but really nicer ?