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This was just maximum horror for Ford and rally fans. It already says enough that the MkIII Escort road car was launched in 1980 and one year later Ari Vatanen was to win his WRC title using the old car while the MkIII Escort was still nowhere to be seen on rally stages. Read all about what the Escort was about at the time in the according sections for MkI & MkII Escorts (RS1600, RS1800 & RS2000). Of course at some point there had to be a replacement, but the MkIII Escort was an entirely different car that shouldn't really have kept the Escort name. Saloon turn hatchback, RWD turn FWD, longitudinal engine turn transverse.... Apart from its name the MkIII Escort had absolutely nothing in common with previous Escorts. And with exception maybe of the design, the MkIII was worse in every single aspect!
Indeed the Escort in its Mk3 generation was a very nice and unique looking car with tailgate, a short boot designed into it like a crisp, sexy bum, the boot also showing a hint of a rear spoiler in all versions, the front and rear lights in a crisp straight design a la Granada Mk2 - a real interesting design for its time. Though design is a matter of taste and the rest of the car....so difficult to find positive words, especially when for rally fans this replaced a legend.
For a start the MkIII was not available with anything bigger than a 1.6 engine and even that was in a layout that wasn't ideal for tuning. In fact already this may go some way to prove the wrong thinking by this car's engineers; when everybody went to OHC or DOHC engines, Ford proudly advertised the Escort Mk3's "OHV" concept, which was just another name for it being a pushrod! So is it remarkable that the fully tuned 1.6 engine was only 15BHP up on the Talbot Samba Rallye's 1.2! Ford realised the problem and launched a limited edition version called the RS1600i, that was in road as well as group A trim 10BHP stronger than the XR3i. But the lack of a 2000cc and a 16v engine was probably still the smallest of problems for the MkIII Escort. The far more substantial issue was the lack of RWD!
OK, FWD doesn't need to be a bad thing, but the MkIII Escort was certainly not one of the better FWD cars. It was understeering badly and the rear axle was a solid axle, a low tech solution that had a life of its own. If the MkI & MkII versions convinced with idiot proof handling, the MkIII made even the best acrobats look like idiots!
But maybe even worse, the front design didn't gell with the rest of the car. Not in looks. More accurately it seemed engine bay had nothing to do with the rest of the car, there were no proper connection, or however could it be so flimsy. No joke, drive it hard and you were guaranteed a cracked bulkhead, as if the front wanted to seperate from the rest of the car. In front of the bulkhead, the technical parts as the suspension looked and felt flimsy and on the other side of the bulkhead the flimsiness carried on. There were many reports of going over jumps with this car at acceptable speeds would result in huge dents in the roof and the whole chassis being twisted. As one example how the Escort had changed for rally people, on the MkII Escort you could change a front wing in losening and tightening a number of screws, on the MkIII the same job reqiured a welding job. If previous Escorts were indestructable, easy to maintain cars, this one was made of custard!
About 3 years later came a Turbo version that than had the right power. In fact, power was on the impressive side considering it was still a 1.6 8v, in torque this version could have been a winner, but this of course did nothing to help its massive chassis problems.
|
Model & Evo. (Activity) |
BHP@ RPM |
Torque (Nm)@ RPM |
Length Width Height |
Weight (Kg/BPM Ratio) |
Trans. (W'base) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Escort (Mk3) RS Turbo (86-90) |
210/5000 | 245/3500 | 3970.1640.1384 | 905 (4.3) | FWD (2402) |
|
Escort (Mk3) RS1600i (83-83) |
160/6000 | 193/4800 | 3970.1640.1384 | 920 (5.75) | FWD (2402) |
|
Escort (Mk3) XR3i (82-85) |
150/6000 | 183/4800 | 3970.1640.1384 | 920 (6.1) | FWD (2402) |
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This is an unofficial Car Results list and may be incomplete.
| Pos | Event | Driver | Co-Driver | # | Rego | hh:mm:ss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24th. |  1985 WRC Swedish Rally |
 M. Lovell |
P. Davis |
#16 | [UNKNOWN] | 0:00:00 |
| 13th. |  1985 WRC Rallye de Portugal |
J. Santos |
M. Oliviera |
#10 | [UNKNOWN] | 0:00:00 |
| 28th. |  1985 WRC Rally of Finland |
K. Hämäläinen |
 . UNKNOWN |
#56 | [UNKNOWN] | 0:00:00 |
| 23rd. | 1984 WRC Swedish Rally |
L. Aitken-Walker |
E. Morgan |
#51 | [UNKNOWN] | 0:00:00 |
| 13th. | 1983 WRC Rally of Great Britain |
M. Wilson |
P. Short |
#20 | [UNKNOWN] | 0:00:00 |
| 23rd. | 1983 WRC Rally of Great Britain |
M. Lovell |
P. Davis |
#71 | [UNKNOWN] | 0:00:00 |
This is an unofficial Car Model Retirements list and may be incomplete.
Citroen
Fiat
Mitsubishi
Peugeot
Skoda
Subaru
