2400 sounds quite high. Whilst quite a few could be seen around "in period", a lot of dealers shrugged their shoulders when asked about getting one...(OT but someone I know in Wales claims dealers were often quite ready to order an RS1800. Whether they would have got one is another matter...)
Jeremy Walton says in his book about 3500 RS2 Mk1s and 5,900 odd Droopsnoot RS2 Mk2s. No figure for Mk2 Mex but 2400 seems high against that. The "man in the street" with limited memory skills who recalls he had "a Mk2 Mexico" may well actually have owned the car that killed it off - a 1600 Sport?
The flat front shell for the RS2 Mk2 was homolgated under "evolution" rules, requiring 500 off. No one seriously counted in those days so how many "Escort 2litres" (the official name homologated) were built in Aus is unclear. The homologation of the Mk1 RS2 into Gp1 (5000 off) is about as dodgy as the Lotus Cortina...
The Mk2 Mexico was homologated into Gp2 (1000 off) as evolution of the Mk1 (which by then I believe had been re-homologated under evolution at 1598cc rather than the original 1601cc forced upon it by the earlier RS1600 homolgation games).
When the RS1800 was homologated as evolution of the RS1600, the RS1600 already had the new alloy block. The Mk2 Mex evolution from the Mk1 was a step beyond that as the entire engine as well as the shell was new. For 1977, Ford had also homologated the BDA head on the 1600 Sport (despite none ever being built), effectively re-introducing a dominant 1600 class Escort for the first time since the TC (all the other bodywork mods could be freely done under Appendix J).
Was told yonks ago that about 2400 were built. RSOC say 2500 as here:-
The MK2 Escort RS Mexico was produced between November 1975 and July 1978, all the UK models were built in Saarlouis, the West Germany. Only around 2500 MKII Mexicos were sold over this period. The MK2 was a replacement for the successful MKI Mexico. Mk2 Escort Launch video Click The MKII Mexico was produced at the same time as both the Escort 1600 Sport and the Escort MKII RS2000 . Available colours were:
Diamond White
Daytona Yellow
Signal Yellow
Signal Amber
Signal Orange
Carnival Red
Venetian Red
Calypso Green
Peppermint Green
Signal Green
The interior was available only in black. The Engine The engine was a 1600cc overhead cam Pinto unit producing 95bhp at 5750 rpm. To fit the this unit into the standard Escort MKII body shell a number of components needed modification:
Aluminium alloy sump
Aluminium alloy engine mounts
Aluminium alloy alternator bracket
Cast iron exhaust manifold
Gearbox and Transmission The gearbox was a 4 speed Type-B unit featuring a quick shift action. The rear axle is known as a Timken (or English) type this was mounted using forward facing radius arms bolted to the chassis rail. Steering was non power-assisted and used a rack and pinion. Front suspension was via independent MacPherson struts and Sachs dampers. The rear also used Sachs dampers with multi-leaf springs. The MKII Mexico ran either steel 5.5 x 13 inch wheels or optionally 6J x 13 inch four spoke alloy sports wheels. Standard tyres were Pirelli 175/70 x 13 CN36's. The Interior The front seats were 'Recaro' style made by Scheel and were the same as those fitted to the early MKII RS2000 . Competition front bucket seats were listed as an optional extra. A sports steering wheel was fitted with a five white needle instrument cluster.
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