As someone who doesn’t find watching paint dry interesting, this did feel a bit of a filler episode to me.

That was epoxy attempt at a pun P-Jay. You should be made two-pack your bags for that

Ok, so it was just about the preparation for the painting, but as they said, that’s 250-350 hours of work, so a large percentage of the build time. Also interesting about the apparent slow progress. 20 project on the go, and 10 people working on them, so 18 months per project doesn’t seem unreasonable.

Interesting soundbite – they’ve got about 20 cars on the go and 10 people so these projects take 2 years. Perhaps they need to take on less work or expand so that these videos arrive faster 🙂

Ok, so it was just about the preparation for the painting, but as they said, that’s 250-350 hours of work, so a large percentage of the build time. Also interesting about the apparent slow progress. 20 project on the go, and 10 people working on them, so 18 months per project doesn’t seem unreasonable.

Staggering isn’t it.

I think the average back-street garage charges £35 an hour, it’s a guess but what do you think £50 an hour conservatively?

That’s going to be a £15k ‘paint job’ before it’s done easy.

https://youtu.be/OEZqJNFBxS8

Latest episode (still haven’t figured out how to embed video in this infuriating new forum “upgrade”). If Mr. Bean did UX…

I managed to get through this one with only a little fast forwarding. I wonder what the final bill for Gordon Murray will be – I suspect it is beyond eye  watering.

Is it driveable yet?

Is it driveable yet?

Don’t be daft! It’s still only a painted shell and boxes and boxes of bits. I reckon the christmas episode ‘might’ have it being driven from one end of the yard to the other and another couple of months of fettling before it’s good to go.

Was hoping to see some bits bolted on to it by now but it will get there when it gets there.  Got to respect leaving the paint to harden off for a week. It does look lovely and I doubt there will be many escorts put together with such care.

Looking forward to seeing it finished (sometime in 2019).

I do really want one ;o)

Episode 12 now online
Vid

Sweet, I was looking earlier on yt to see if the next episode had been posted. It has now!

It is getting there.

Bonnet catch. Nice.

The Stratos is looking good as well.

Bonnet catch? I haven’t seen the vid but do know that RS Escorts should only ever have bonnet pins.

It’s not an RS replica/restoration. It’s not a replica/restoration of anything, not even a MK1 escort. It’s a completely bespoke uniquely engineered car that happens to resemble a MK1 Escort. It’s a fantastic project and that company seems to knock out some amazing cars. The video’s are hard to watch though. I don’t thinkni’ve Got through one without falling asleep yet! Looking forward to see it completed though and would be great to see it being put through it’s paces.

If I won the lottery
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/a13069340/icon-derelict-1958-rolls-royce-jay-lenos-garage/

It’s a fantastic project

The more I see the more I fail to see the point. I drove a proper Escort, Graham Hickman’s TUM (he of Jordan F1 hill climb fame). It was objectively horrible, impossibly heavy steering, no brakes, awful clutch, recalcitrant engine, deafening, until… when everything was properly warmed up (which required going a lot quicker than reasonable) and it was revved to the point where it stayed on the cam after changes, it all made sense. The weight of the driver on the brake pedal at 1g deceleration was about what was needed to get close to lock up, the gear changes barely needed the clutch (which when dumped bit instantly), the steering was still heavy but super fast and precise – RWD rally perfection. Just briefly I enjoyed driving it, then realised it wasn’t mine, represented several years of salery and it was time to give it back in one piece. Thanks, Graham, if ever Googling your name brings you to this.

So what is this project to be? A road sanitised Escort that will never drive like a proper G4 at full chat, a vanity project, something to park in a hangar under a cover that will hardly ever turn a wheel.

I fail to see the point.

What’s wrong with liking the mk1 Escort but not being fussed about originality/heritage or wanting a full-on race or rally car? Why not want a fast light RWD car that turns and stops well and fits a tall person properly, and happens to be in a mk1 Escort shell? And if you’ve got the money, why not commission a company to build the very nicest example of that?

it’s interesting (the car not the video presentation of the building of the car) and the attention to detail is exemplary . Think I would have “road” tested that prototype rear suspension somehow first though if it needs major modification now it will be very costly.

I like the idea, but am too in a quandary why Gordon has built a car around such a restrictive body shell/design.

Why not build a car up from scratch, wouldn’t have taken much more effort and he’s a bit of a dab hand at designing cars isn’t he.

Why not build a car up from scratch

Probably because that wasn’t what he wanted.

wouldn’t have taken much more effort

Yes it would. I would guess to take a something from idea to road legal, driving car would take a team of people about a decade. Prodrive once build a one-off car it took about 4 years, and in and it was an existing chassis and drivetrain (from two different cars) with a bespoke body.

Anyway, it would be a bit of a waste of his talent to spend that long to just build a one-off toy for himself.

Why?
Because Gordon Murray clearly likes the look of a mk1 Escort, but also likes modern kit like brakes, suspension and engines.
Like those E-Types you can buy with modern gear fitted to modern E-Type panels. And he’s got the money to pay someone else to do it.

it upsets my that a rare Mk1 shell is used for another different car. I like it when owners change the engine for a pinto or a cosworth but should not rebuild the car. There’s been one on ebay built from a honda s2000. I do not mind if a car is improved from original using modern parts but not a total rebuild, new car.

S’pose all I’m really interested in, if I’m honest, is will it have Carlos Fandango stripes and a sun visor that reads “ Gordon loves his Julie innit”

Still, great engineering concept. Still think he’s better off making a McClaren into an EV.. 🤷‍♂️🥴

Part 13

Another great episode (that most would find quite boring) proudly sponsored by Dynamat 😉
PS I do really love this build, the attention to detail is unreal, but I’m not sure I could watch it from start to Finnish in one or two sittings.

So many really nice touches. What do you think it’s going to cost when it’s all done?

Cost ? Not a clue but it’s a big number and if I had the money I’d gladly have one. And if you think it’s take a while check out project binky

I caught on to Binky at about episode 2 – can’t even remember how many years ago that was. This Escort is like Binky with more money. I used to think that it was disappointing, considering that they clearly had more money, time and resources, but some of the details in this latest episode are really nice, worthy of Binky.

So what is this project to be? A road sanitised Escort that will never drive like a proper G4 at full chat, a vanity project

That’s a fair point. I had the pleasure of nav’ing an ex-works GpIV Escort some years ago (OLD421P if anyone’s sad enough to recognise it). An utter joy in terms of performance, responsiveness and agility, flicking from turn to turn. A pig on the road, naturally. You wouldn’t choose to drive it to the shops.

The end of the latest video where he says that with a bit of luck they will be in a position to fire it up in another 2 months or so…..Gordon Murray is 72 – there is a fair to middling chance he’ll never get to drive it!

I think it’s great (the build, not the videos).

If I had the money I would certainly want to do something like this – a retro car, but with modern engineering.

Top of my list would be a delorean probably – would seem to fit in the window of being retro/cool, but not so much to be sacrilege to modify it (etype, db5 etc).

What do you think it’s going to cost when it’s all done?

I would guess it will be around £500K

I think it was Gordon Murray who once said an item should always have at least two functions. Which maybe explains the foot rest/washer fluid tank.

cost thing seems irrelevant these days. uprated e-types selling for near on half a million and mini’s going for £100k. He probably said try and keep it under £250k.

I would guess it will be around £500K

I’d have scoffed at that, but Singer Porsches are that sort of money and whilst they’re 911s and this is ‘only’ an Escourt they’re both simple cars and the doner car is a small part of the cost.

If you really want to mad, there are 10 original 911 Turbos being built at the moment that will cost between £1.1m and £1.4m depending on where you register them. They’re using original 1980s F1 1500cc V6 TAG-Porsche engines, detuned to a mere 530bhp. They’re water cooled of course which is tricky in a classic 911.

A Singer Porsche I think would be the car I would have chosen if I had tried a bit (a lot) harder at school and was in a position to spend silly money on one.

Part 14 😎

its going to be be one hell of a nice car when its finished but its no Binky