A 1977 Ford Escort tested by Colin Mcrae, the Scottish rally legend, will go under the hammer on February 22, 2014 at Race Retro Auctions Silverstone. It is expected to fetch something in the range of GBP 65,000 to 85,000 (Rs 66.24 to 86.6 lakh).
The car, a 1977 Ford Escort MK2 R1800, was developed and built by Prefab Motorsport Engineering. Jimmy McRae, father of Colin Mcrae, along with co-driver Andy Richardson raced to glory in the pre 1981 category at the 2007 British Historic Championship. Having won the race convincingly they finished many tarmac events successfully including the Rally of Flanders, Belgium.
The Escort was also driven by Alister McRae in the 2008 Colin McRae Memorial Rally where he finished with an outright win in the historic category. The result was very impressive especially when the other drivers were Ari Vatenen, Hannu Mikkola, Malcolm Wilson and Bjorn Waldegard.
The car was sold in 2009 to Jim Whelan who rebuilt it from scratch with the Eddie Stobart livery. The car was also seen at the RallyDay at UK’s Castle Combe race circuit, after it was rebuilt in 2009. The car will be sold with MSA stage rally logbook and Historic Rally Vehicle Identity Form in period category 3 class D5, plus MoT and tax until May 2014.
The car features a 2.0-litre motor churning out 260 race-bred horses, Weber carbs, Tony Law exhaust, ZF 5-speed direct top race gearbox, metric fully floating Atlas axle with 5.1 LSD. Single leaf slipper springs, turreted coil-over rear shocks, 4-linked + Panhard rod and AP 2382 2-pot rear brakes, hydraulic handbrake are some of other the features it is fitted with.
The suspension is bolstered by Bilstein adjustable platform front struts and AP Monte Carlo 4-pot brakes.Compomotive ML Gp4 alloy-wheels with Kumhotyres: 215/50R13 front, 235/45R13 rear is what the rally car sits on and Prepfab alloy fuel tank and dry sump tank, alloy spare wheel post, Powersafe lightweight battery complete the list.
This car will be a great collector’s item; it is iconic as it was tested by none other than the Rally Legend, Colin Mcrae.
