The good ole days....................you should have been there

[graham John]

when you could walk into the local RS dealer and see the Entire RS range in the showroom

when you could only dream about owning one,

when you could actually afford one


i remember quite vividly buying my 1300 sport and wishing i had the extra few hundred quid to buy the mexico next to it (1977), however the insurance was also a "killer" in those days.

remeber out on the lombard, and all you would ever see parked up in the spectator area was Escort mk1 and mk 2's, usually adorned with pairs of cibies.

remember attending the very early RS shows, and fed up being there because all there were to look at were Escort RS's

watching rallying club events and wondering what other cars would finish in the top 20, as sure as daylight would come up, escorts would fill the top 10


Watching Mikkola, Vatanen, Waldergard, Clark, Brookes, Airikkala, Toivonen, makinen, Coleman, wilson et al out in mk2's on the RAC and possibly not realising what a great period this was, and others would only dream of such scenario years later.


going into the local RS dealer part dept and the guy behind the counter actually knowing what you wanted without looking at Microfiche / Computers, and wanting to talk about "your" RS

talking to bog standard escort owners whose aspirations were to progress to a 'Sport' model, and then hopefully an 'RS'

feeling sorry for non escort owners whilst down at the motor club meetings, Escort snobbery existed in those days


watching full group 4 ex works escorts on night event's



great days, great memories,


how about you ?


cheeRS

[TimGR]

As above, but with Mk 1 Escorts

[driverace]

Yes

Yes those were the days! we older guys remember,a road rally to take part in every 2 weeks.I can even remember ian Appleyard of leeds coming down Skipton High Street ,in about 1961 or could have been earlier in NUB 120,a Jaguar XK 120 with his wife navigating on the RAC. She was the daughter of sir William Lyons ,the jaguar managing director,and thats how he got the works cars.
Started rallying with escort 1300GT ,then mexico ,then RS2.Then got involved with semi works teams,
BUT although we remember so far back, these youngsters will see further into the future ,and we have only limited time left !!!!!

[Dave1800BDA]

well i remember watching rallycross on either world of sport or grandstand, the escorts were a dream at the time,
Got a job as apprentice at a ford dealer bristol street motors, the blokes there had modified anglias and cortinas etc.they were awesome back then.

Past my test in a Mk2 Escort

Got to work on the mk2s and a RS2000 came in for a service, that was it i had to have one, the road test was great ( i didnt drive)
The bloke i was the apprentice to owned a Mk1 RS2000 and i bought that of him at a later date, mum thought i was mad

like you say the parts lads knew everything then

remember the sounds of the cars on one rac through the forests, that was great the first time, and still is to this day tbh

who remembers in at the deep end, just had to watch it at the time

the early shows at stanford hall so many cars, didnt know which way to turn

my first sighting of an RS1800 road car outside a country garage local to me, all dirty and rough looking somebodies daily runner great times

loads of other memories

[taffr]

remember buying my first mex in 87, it was on a ford dealers forecourt right at the front, VHK 527S diamond white, went straight to lloyds bank for a loan, begging for the money, got it serviced at day's in swansea later that year, the workshop had a few mk2's there getting work done, always remember there was a tuscan beige one there, think it was owned by a guy from ammonford, i always remember thinking why would you buy one that colour, remember meeting up several times a week on the kingsway in swansea with fellow enthusiast, mk1's & 2's everywhere, it was like a race track, at the weekend chasing the rally's around the lanes up in mid wales,....................................those were the days

[hally]

im too young cant remeber!

[grum]

see G.J's bored now he's finished his car

[KL]

Remember out on the Lombard, and all you would ever see parked up in the spectator area was Escort mk1 and mk 2's, usually adorned with pairs of cibies.

...and most of those t*ssers loudly bemoaning the fact they couldn't afford to do the RAC (no one I ever knew called it "Lombard") when reality was a lot of those who were doing it were actually spending less money than them by not having new road cars, wearing old clothes, not going out on the town very often and slaving in a cold garage building their own cars rather than watching rallies...

[Andyc]

i aint that old

[Martin]

Great post Graham

Remember the RAC Rally and Cumbria Rally stopping in Carlisle (at the castle) in the early 80's and we would all drive into Kielder for the night stages in our Escorts, Cortina's and Capri's.

MK2's, Manta 400's, Audi Quattro's, 6R4's had just started, Lancia Delta's and Peugeot 205's etc.

It would be pitch black then you'd hear the noise, then the marshall's whistles then the cars spotlights pointing all ways as they flicked sideways until they came screaming past you and you usually ended up covered in gravel as they passed

Then out of the stage and try to follow one of the cars to the next stage

GREAT TIMES

[Martin]

RAC Rally at Carlisle Castle in the mid 80's

[graham John]

when you could walk into the local RS dealer and see the Entire RS range in the showroom

when you could only dream about owning one,

when you could actually afford one


i remember quite vividly buying my 1300 sport and wishing i had the extra few hundred quid to buy the mexico next to it (1977), however the insurance was also a "killer" in those days.

remeber out on the lombard, and all you would ever see parked up in the spectator area was Escort mk1 and mk 2's, usually adorned with pairs of cibies.

remember attending the very early RS shows, and fed up being there because all there were to look at were Escort RS's

watching rallying club events and wondering what other cars would finish in the top 20, as sure as daylight would come up, escorts would fill the top 10


Watching Mikkola, Vatanen, Waldergard, Clark, Brookes, Airikkala, Toivonen, makinen, Coleman, wilson et al out in mk2's on the RAC and possibly not realising what a great period this was, and others would only dream of such scenario years later.


going into the local RS dealer part dept and the guy behind the counter actually knowing what you wanted without looking at Microfiche / Computers, and wanting to talk about "your" RS

talking to bog standard escort owners whose aspirations were to progress to a 'Sport' model, and then hopefully an 'RS'

feeling sorry for non escort owners whilst down at the motor club meetings, Escort snobbery existed in those days


watching full group 4 ex works escorts on night event's



great days, great memories,


how about you ?


cheeRS

meant 1977 not 1997......oops

cheeRS

[KL]

I can even remember Ian Appleyard of Leeds coming down Skipton High Street, in about 1961 or could have been earlier in NUB 120,a Jaguar XK 120 with his wife navigating on the RAC. She was the daughter of Sir William Lyons ,the Jaguar managing director,and thats ow he got the works cars.

Nearer 1951? (you can't be that old!)
Jack Kemsley's early forest RAC stages (1960 onwards) were said to have been very rough by later standards and would surely have done for an XK120 in no time (the big Healeys had to be well-modded from their "Alpine"-type spec?).

[KL]

As someone said on another forum recently:
"we used to think rallying could only get better each year -and it did, up to the 80s, but look at the cr*p we are left with now..."

[RS2000CUSTOM]

meant 1977 not 1997......oops

I was going to alter it but Tim and andyc would have complained that I was abusing my power again by reducing it by 20 !

p.s. Black round things in stock tomorrow