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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nAmazingly, Andy has been racing this Escort since 1992<\/strong>. As he told me \u201cTo coin a popular phrase, it\u2019s Trigger\u2019s Broom\u201d \u2013 the same car, but most of it has changed. Growing up in East London, Andy bought a black RS2000 straight after he passed his driving test \u2013 the following week he had a prang and wrote it off. It has always been Escorts for Andy, so it was inevitable he’d end up racing one. He\u2019d found a few Mk1 shells which turned out to be useless, but a stroke of luck hooked him up with the car that would be his pride and joy for the next thirty years. I\u2019ll let Andy tell the story…<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad was driving past a scrapyard in Walthamstow one day and there was a Mk1 Escort just dumped outside. My dad went into the scrapyard and said to the bloke \u201cdo you want to sell that car?\u201d Back then Escorts were two a penny and the bloke said \u201cTo be honest mate, two kids have just dumped it off and wanted to scrap it, but because they didn\u2019t have the log books, I couldn\u2019t take it.\u201d So he said to my dad \u201cIf you come back tonight and take the car \u2013 and if I come in tomorrow and the car\u2019s gone, I don\u2019t give a monkey’s\u2026\u201d. So we went back that night and trailered it away \u2013 and that\u2019s how I got it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Escort was a bog-standard 1100cc production model<\/strong>, but was destined to become Andy\u2019s race car. All the main structural components remain as manufactured by Ford. But a lot else has changed. Andy told me how the original racing version was built…<\/p>\n \u201cI got friendly with another bloke called Ray Donner, who at the time was building race cars \u2013 and he built the car for me. The original engine and gearbox when I first started racing was a 1600 Crossflow, which was out of Ray\u2019s road car. He built it over a year or so and he asked me what colour I wanted it \u2013 I said \u201cblack\u201d. So, he painted it yellow \u2013 because there weren\u2019t many yellow Escort race cars out there at the time.”<\/p>\n \u201c1992 was my first season. I\u2019d never done racing before \u2013 and I was absolutely crap at it. At the end of \u201892, a mate of mine was racing in the Falken Tyres Championship and had a chance of winning it. We decided to help him and put Ray Donner \u2013 who\u2019d been racing in karts since he was a nipper \u2013 in my Escort. On that eventful day, Ray put it on its roof… He repaired it and repainted it and then over the years I got a little bit better, but then money ran out and my zest for racing sort of ran out as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Andy put the Escort up for sale to pay the deposit on a house<\/strong>. It didn’t sell – the \u00a35,000 asking price was conveniently too high to find a buyer. Things settled down in Andy\u2019s life, he rediscovered his appetite for racing and started developing the car again. He got involved in an online community \u2013 Turbosport \u2013 where he met a group of like-minded enthusiasts…<\/p>\n \u201cWe upped the engine from 1600 to 1800, put fuel injection on it and then a fabricator I know who\u2019s done a fair bit of work on the car \u2013 Gary Martin \u2013 he put something on the Turbosport forum to say I needed bigger wheels and tyres to go faster. This is the days before crowdfunding, but all the people on Turbosport clubbed together \u00a31,000 to allow me to bubble arch it so I could use wider wheels and slicks.\u201d<\/p>\n When Andy says \u201cwe\u201d, he\u2019s indicating that the Escort is very much part of the family<\/strong>. The car lives in a normal garage at the side of his dad\u2019s house. Andy\u2019s brother and sister help pay for the running costs and his stepson \u2013 now 26 \u2013 has become Andy\u2019s trusted chief mechanic. None of them work in the motor trade, but they know what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Saturday before every race, I go down there and check the car over, check every nut and bolt, all the fluids and make sure it\u2019s ready for the next weekend. My dad\u2019s always tinkering on it because he\u2019s retired. I\u2019ll go down and it\u2019s \u201coh, I\u2019ve done this, I\u2019ve done that\u2026\u201d – so he\u2019s permanently in the garage.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve talked about selling it a couple of times, but it\u2019s never going to happen now \u2013 it\u2019s my legacy. My stepson Alex \u2013 the car\u2019s going to him and then when he has kids, it\u2019s going to them… if it\u2019s still in one piece!\u201d<\/p>\n So how did the all-yellow Escort become the stylish black, gold and cream creation that Scalextric have copied?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI was doing a championship called the Quaife Modified Saloons, which was predominantly South East based. In my class \u2013 and I was in the lowest class \u2013 I was always the bridesmaid, never the bride. A good friend of mine, Graham Bahr said \u201cI\u2019ve got an offer you can\u2019t refuse \u2013 I\u2019m going to build you a Pinto engine. It\u2019s going to be all-singing, all-dancing and all it\u2019s going to cost you is the parts\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t go wrong with that, so he built me the engine that\u2019s in the car now \u2013 a 2.3 Pinto with a seven-speed sequential gearbox, fuel injection, dry sumps. We did really well with that, winning our class \u2013 and then back in November 2016, I was racing at Brands Hatch and we were on the support bill with the big racing trucks. It was slightly damp and they put all diesel and stuff on the floor. I\u2019ve come out of a bend, put the power down too quickly, spun it and wiped off two or three of the corners of the car.<\/p>\n \u201cRay Donner, who originally built the car, he re-panelled the car for me. Because I\u2019m an electrician, I do wiring on his cars and he does work for me \u2013 and all we do is charge for materials. Ray did everything \u2013 and I wanted it back painted yellow. Bear in mind this is the bloke who built the car for me all those years ago, he decides to paint it black \u2013 what I asked to do all those years ago. That\u2019s the car you see now. I\u2019m over the moon with it.\u201d<\/p>\n When the brand new Modified Ford Series started to be planned, Andy was one of the first people to be contacted. <\/strong>However, his car wasn\u2019t quite ready for the first few events. He took the nearly-finished Escort along to the 2019 Ford Power Live show at Brands Hatch and was standing next to it when something strange happened\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cSome bloke came up to me and said \u201cHello, I\u2019m Simon from Scalextric \u2013 do you mind if we do a model of your car?\u201d and I was like \u201cwhat part of asking me that question don\u2019t you understand?\u201d. Of course I didn\u2019t mind! And that was it. I didn\u2019t think any more of it and then about six months later he got in contact with me asking for photos and I thought \u201che\u2019s deadly serious now\u201d. That\u2019s basically how it came about \u2013 there was nothing from me, it was all from Simon.\u201d<\/p>\n Andy had a Scalextric set when he was growing up<\/strong> \u2013 the banked figure-of-eight with the Walter Wolf cars \u2013 and made regular trips with his dad to a local toy shop to add track and other bits. Many years later, Andy bought his stepson the Richard Burns \/ Colin McRae rally set which saw plenty of use. So naturally, it was pretty exciting to have his Escort turned into a Scalextric car…<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, I am over the moon with it all. Being into cars and stuff, it\u2019s an honour to have your car immortalised for ever and a day. I understand it\u2019s a good seller. I joined a group on Facebook and I saw people posting pictures up of the car and saying \u201cgot this delivered today\u2026 got this delivered today\u201d – so I took a little picture of my one sitting on the bonnet of the car with \u201cYeah, I got mine today \u2013 and I\u2019ve got the real thing too!\u201d.<\/p>\n It was brilliant to chat to Andy<\/strong> and find out more about the history of the car. A big thanks to him for letting us share the pictures \u2013 some of which are from a thread on the Turbosport site<\/a>. Thanks also to Rafal Biniszewski<\/strong> (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/biniszewskiphoto<\/a>) who took the dozens of fabulous photographs at Mallory Park and Donington earlier this year – and to Paul Nevill, who runs the Scalextric-sponsored Ford Modified Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n Andy took his Escort Mk1 on a 600-mile round trip to race at Anglesey last Sunday<\/strong>. You can catch up with the coverage on the BRSCC TV YouTube Channel<\/a>. Tragically, the Escort came away with a suspected cracked engine block. If that’s confirmed, it could keep Andy out of action when the series travels to Cadwell Park next weekend. Hopefully, he’ll be back for Silverstone and Oulton Park in August, Brands Hatch in September and Snetterton in October. Why not get along?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.jadlamracingmodels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/2.1.jpg\")
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