Ford Escort Mk 2 Rally

Notes

The Escort Mk 2 continued the rallying success story of the Escort in the 70s competing against Lancia's Stratos, Fiat's Abarth & Porsche's 911 amongst many other notable contenders.
Many top drivers of the day drove Escort : Mikkola, Vatenen, Waldegard, Clark, Makinen - it reads like a whos-who of rallying.

RAC Rally

The RAC rally of Great Britain and the Escort were made for each other. The 3 straight victories from 1972 - 1974 in the Mk 1 were continued in the Mk 2 with victory in 1975 for Makinen (his third straight win), 1976 (Clark again), 1977 for Bjorn Waldegard and in 1978 & 79 for Hannu Mikkola. The car continued winning rallies into the 1980's with the Rothmans sponsored car of 1981 winning the Acropolis rally for Ari Vatenen who also picked up the drivers title that year. Those cars are shown left top to bottom in that order.
Competition was also fierce to feature your products on the sides of these all conquering rally cars !

Safari Rally

The Safari rally of 1977 was one of the wetest on record. Conditions were severe but the Escort thrived. It took everything that Africa could throw at it and came out victorious in conditions where just finishing was a major achievement.

Privateers

The Mk 2 Escort was entered by many private drivers (often with Ford support) as well as the successful works rally teams. It was easy to fix, rugged, reliable and powerful enough to get many privateer entrants into good rally finishes. It also had a long life span way beyond the works teams, it would pop up in all sorts of rally events years after it had been replaced.

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