Today it’s the turn of the Mk1 Escort. I’ve been hunting around and have found some great clips, and I want to post them all at once, but I’m not going to.
This is a scene from On Her Majestys Secret Service. James Bond and Tracy Di Vicenzo are escaping Blofelds goons, and they drive their Mercury Cougar onto a stock car track while there’s an ice race on. Minis and Mk1 Escorts fill the slippery circuit. Those of you of a nervous dispositon, look away now.
Yesterday afternoon I did a few miles up the motorway to my mates house. As I slowed down, coming off the motorway, I noticed a nice plume of white smoke in my mirror, followed by the mistakable smell of a hot, empty radiator. At the roundabout steam was engulfing the bonnet. Only 30 seconds to my mates, so I pressed on, slowly. When I arrived, I popped the bonnet, and water was spraying out of a pin hole in the rad, onto the exhaust manifold. Later when it was time to go I filled up and went home, taking it easy. When I got home it hadn’t really lost any water. It only seemed to leak when it was under pressure.
Last night was the latest Old Skool Ford northern meet up. I thought the rad would be ok, so I topped it up and flew down the M1 to the pub. When I arrived there was that smell again, plus the sound of running water. We couldn’t see the hole in the dark car park, but I’d got a containter of water which I used to fill it up, and it used most of it. After the meet, I followed my mate Simon back to his house to top up the rad and the container. He lives halfway between the meeting place and home. When we got there and popped the bonnet and nothing was leeking out. This may have been because Simon said I deposited it over his car a few miles back. We filled it up and the hole was now the size of a knitting needle, as it was p*ssing out. I left the cap undone as I risked the 8 mile drive back. I’d only driven about two miles when I got stuck behind a fully laden (ie: very slow) forty foot artic. I couldn’t pass, but I guessed he was off to the Tesco that was nearby. I guessed right, and he turned in. I wanted to be driving steadily home, not slowly. Relief turned to grief when twohundred feet after the wagon turned off, there was another wagon in front. This one must had just delivered to Tesco. The next few miles of road is covered in about 150 speed cameras, so there was no way I was overtaking. I just had to sit and bear it, hoping the rad didn’t pop. Fifteen tense minutes later I turned off onto my road, and got home safely.
Today, I rang GS Escorts as I was in the area, and was able to pick up a second hand radiator for a tenner. It’s from a 1300 Escort, but hopefully it’ll do the trick until I get a nice ally one in the future. But you know what these ‘put you on’ solutions are like. They turn into permanent solutions. Just like the block of Bars ’stop leak’ I dropped into the rad a few weeks ago. It fixed it for a while….
The van has been more reliable since I fitted new plugs so I thought I’d risk going to Manchester (80 mile round trip) and do some logging so I can tune the map. The van behaved perfectly there, and got a good log, and was able to generate a new map. The same can’t be said for my laptop, which decided to throw the pointer all over the screen. It especially liked the top right hand corner, and it shot off over there whenever I lifted my finger off the ‘clitoris control’ (That’s the little device near the G key on the keyboard. Named that by an old MD). In my struggle, I accidentally loaded up a wrong map, but didn’t realise until I was getting onto the M60. At speed it was coughing and farting, so I had to slow down to 50mph. I hoped I’d make it the 10 miles to the services, and I did.
While hunting around on the lappy for the right map, a car pulled up. I looked across and a man in his car was saying ‘Hello’ in an Italian accent. I said ‘I know you, and I’m not interested’. Around four years ago at the same services, the same man stopped me, claiming to have just finished displaying goods at a clothing exhibition and had to go back to Italy, but couldn’t take back his ‘designer leather’ jackets so were selling them off at the bargain price of £50 each. I wasn’t interested so I said I’d no money, and he said he’d come to the cash point with me. It took me about 10 minutes to get rid of the guy that time. When I told a work colleage they said ‘Oh yeah, George bought some of those. They looked nice but fell apart after about two weeks.’
So this time, I was blunt and carried on working on the laptop. Thirty seconds later, ANOTHER car pulls up. A different guy says ‘Hello, do you speak Italian?’. I said ‘I’m not interested’, but he was insistant ‘How old is this car?’ he asked. ‘I’m busy.’ was my reply as I carried on loading up the right map. Found it. Started the car and floored it out of there while he was still trying to talk to me.
So, if you’re ever on the M62 at Birch services, keep your eyes out for two Italians trying to sell fake leather jackets. If they approach you, ignore them and walk away.
Hot on the heels of Richard Hammonds accident are the do-gooders who are trying to ban anything that is slightly risky. These are probably the people who helped ban playing conkers at school and snowball fights in the playground. These people believe that you shouldn’t do anything that may hurt you in anyway.
The following activities may be banned soon:
crossing the road (risk of being hit by a bus),
DIY (risk of hitting your thumb with a hammer),
going to bed (risk of falling out of it),
sex (risk of unwanted pregnancy),
riding a bike (risk of falling off),
fishing (risk of drowning),
watching TV (risk of heart attack due to lack of exercise),
exercising (risk of heart attack due to exercising)
You can attribute danger to anything. A couple of years ago I posted a story about the safety lobby wanting to replace top gear with a program about sensible and safe cars (Volvos perhaps) and make it appeal to woman. My wife isn’t interested in cars, but loves Top Gear simply because it’s an entertaining program. And it should stay that way.
So, if you want to keep Top Gear, please sign this online petition:
The kind guys over at Pistonheads.com are fundraising to raise money for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance service, the team which took Richard Hammond from Elvington to Leeds General Infirmary. So far, since the accident they have raised almost £40,000 which is fantastic.
Please help their cause by donating some money, however small.
After Richard Hammonds terrible crash on Wednesday evening, I thought it would be fitting to post this film of him reviewing a MK2 RS1800 on Top Gear. Get well soon Hamster. We’re all thinking about you.
This week I’ve found a nice video of a Polish driver showing you how to drift in a Cossie powered MK2 Escort. Combined with the music, it really is a good video to watch. See more at http://www.drifting.pl/download_us.htm
Roy Nunn spent two years and £15,000 restoring his 1977 Escort Mexico, only to have it stolen when he drove it to a mates only ten days after finishing it.
The car - registration SEG 661S - has copies of blue and red stickers from the original car’s sponsors including British Airways.
Other distinctive features are a Union Jack sticker on the roof and a set of four front-mounted Super Oscar fog lamps.
More eBay finds. This may be a genuine Super Speed Anglia. According to someone who went to view it, it has been sat in the owners garden for 20. He purchased it in ‘67 when it was just a couple of years old. Super Speed did a road going version of their race cars called the Little Red Rooster, and this may be one of those.
Click below for more pictures and link to the auction
If you’ve visited the OldSkoolFord.co.uk forums, then you’ll know Posse (Darren). He’s one of the admins, who owns this gorgeous modified Mk1 Escort Van. He’s decided to put it on ebay to raise funds for a new project. I’ve seen this van in the flesh and it’s every bit as good as it looks in the pictures. Bidding is expected to be fierce, as it’s well known in the Old Skool Ford circles.
