A thing that may be old

[Cé hé sin]

The chronological space between the Ford Anglia and the Focus was occupied for thirty odd years by the Escort. There were two rwd models, the Mk1 and Mk2, and then three or four (depending on how you define a facelift) with fwd. Never mind the fwd models which have disappeared. The Mk1 and Mk2 were usually boring, basic small family cars. Usually. Ford liked to go rallying in the 60s and 70s and they needed cars to do it with. Enter the various RS Escorts - RS1600, RS1800, RS2000. Not many were made but if you find yourself with a genuine one (the other variety is plentiful) you've got something worth an increasingly serious amount of money. So serious that you'll have to keep it firmly under lock and key because in this case the sum of the parts is greater than the whole and they're commonly stolen and stripped.
Here's a Mk2.

They were made from 1975 to 1980 so it's a really old car now. Or is it? No, not this one. It was made in 2020 and is road legal. There's quite a business in making Escort bits and a company called MST Cars based in Pwllheli in Wales (yes, Pwllheli. Perfectly normal Welsh name) decided that seeing as though they make or can source all the parts to make a Mk1 or 2 they might as well go ahead and actually build complete cars. In return for substantial sums (the basic road going models start at around £69,000 plus VAT) they'll supply you with a brand new rwd Escort to a spec of your choice.
The catch, apart from the money? You'll have to live somewhere you can legally put the car on the road or else keep it for track use.

[Nauraushaun]

Must be a tough thing to make road legal, since it's literally a 2021 car that meets none of the requirements of 2021. Strange that if they'd taken a busted 80s chassis and used that, things would be different.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@cé-hé-sin said in A thing that may be old:

or else keep it for track use

The operative word there being "track"

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@nauraushaun You might be able to make a case for grandfathered homologation. That's how Rover managed to get the RV8 (aka MGB) through. Or buy a rusted out Escort 1100, transfer the VIN, and make a “grandpa’s axe” argument. I’d certainly be prepared to give that a go here if someone fronts the cash. Although you could buy somebody’s project RS clone with close to the same new parts count for far less.

[MUSASHI66]

@cé-hé-sin Can't take you for serious if you think any Welsh name is "perfectly normal".

[jminer]

@cé-hé-sin That's really cool! Does the EU/UK have exemptions from safety for low-volume or kit cars like we do in the US?

[SamV8]

@distraxi the amount of "mk2 escorts" for sale on ebay that are literally rusted beyond any use other than storing the flora that is growing in it, clearly being sold just for the logbook so wouldn't take much to buy one of these a put the old reg on it

[SamV8]

@jminer said in A thing that may be old:

@cé-hé-sin That's really cool! Does the EU/UK have exemptions from safety for low-volume or kit cars like we do in the US?

yes otherwise Caterham and their many clones would fail to exist

[Cé hé sin]

@jminer
The UK does to some extent. They have a thing called SVA approval for very small numbers of a car.

[Cé hé sin]

@nauraushaun
Covered by SVA approval I think. They don't have to pretend it's an old car that's been improved.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@cé-hé-sin said in A thing that may be old:

Covered by SVA approval I think.

There's some gotchas around that - can't recall the details but I seem to recall some of the "continuation" models that Aston et al are doing are non-road-legal because the SVA route was closed to them.

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@nauraushaun it's very likely that this car would be a legal road going import into Oz if you could take up the coin. Especially given both Caterham and Morgan come in under low number import approvals and the former has exactly the same classification in the UK as this Escort.

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@cé-hé-sin The really important question is do they do a panel van version?

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly Supervan Jr! I’d have a piece of that.

[pip bip]

@cé-hé-sin https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a35164722/ford-escort-mk-2-rally-car-replica/?source=nl&utm_source=nl_cdb&utm_medium=email&date=011221&utm_campaign=nl22523351
GIB!

[Cé hé sin]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly pay them enough...

[Cé hé sin]

@musashi66 well, the w is a vowel, literally double u so a long u, so not as strange as it looks.
It's the ll that is the tricky bit.

[MUSASHI66]

@cé-hé-sin said in A thing that may be old:

@musashi66 well, the w is a vowel, literally double u so a long u, so not as strange as it looks.
It's the ll that is the tricky bit.

So, it is pronounced Puu-phlem-heli then?

[Cé hé sin]

@musashi66
Just click on the speaker here

[Cé hé sin]

@distraxi
I'm not sure of the ins and outs of SVA. Some continuations aren't road legal but the reincarnation of Alvis offer new pre war and post war models (some actually use engines that have been stored sixty odd years) which are road legal, at least in the UK. They've made five or six I believe. They've been made to comply with some level of emissions regulation by treating the engines to a dose of injection.

[Darkbrador]

How do you say "farmkhana" in Welsh ?