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The original Mk 1 Escort was designed to take about 80 BHP. The shells were then stiffened by the factory, type 49 shells, to take a bit more power, about 120 BHP, from Twin Cams, RS1600s, RS1800s, RS2000s. These shells were then caged and stiffened even more to take the punishment of Rallying and Circuit Racing, up to a maximum of 250 BHP. We are now capable of producing engines with 600+ BHP and shoving them into very old and very tired Escort shells with more rust than paint!!!
We love the cars, we love the shape, we love the handling characteristics of our Escorts, but let’s give the shells a fighting chance to make it through to next week. At Whitspeed, we believe that the poor old standard Escort shell needs a little assistance in harnessing big power engines. Fortunately for most Escorts with big engines, the power from the engine gets dissipated in the form of wheel spin, which in some cases is the only reason the cars hold together at all. If 300 BHP actually gripped the road properly, then the shell would twist quite significantly, even with an aftermarket cage in it, (which do very little to stiffen the shell anyway).
For this reason, we favour the full chassis route to big power, where the chassis takes all the strain of coping with acceleration, cornering and braking, while the shell sits there looking pretty for all to see. Mk 2s are weaker than Mk 1s due to the slimmer windscreen pillars and many Mk 2 shells have distortion here, especially the rear pillars.
Each chassis is built to the customers own requirements and when finished, the car drives and handles like a production car, until you hit ‘the loud pedal’ when it launches itself at the horizon at an incredible rate of knots, but totally predictably and fully in control. The body shell has zero twist as the chassis copes admirably with the power of the engine and the twists and turns of the road or track. The body literally becomes an accessory to keep the rain off the occupants, to the point where our fibreglass bodyshell plays no part in the structure of the car.
With a chassied car, engine choice is virtually unlimited, subject to its intended use, of course. The first completed car of this kind is the green Mk 2 RS super x-pack, featured in Classic Ford magazine August 2005. Wayne’s Mk 1 is already well on its way and we have now started another Mk 1 chassied car which is being featured in Practical Performance Car magazine.
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