Lot 115: 1971 Ford Escort RS1600 Rally Car

PVX 400K is one of a handful of surviving factory cars prepared by Ford's competition department at Boreham. The car was originally built for Roger Clark to compete the 1971 RAC rally in a team of three (Hannu Mikkola and Timo Makinen were the other drivers) sponsored by the Wills tobacco company and running with Embassy branding. Clark, with Jim Porter co-driving, was 11th despite breaking the gearbox and running out of petrol. Their torrid time was brilliantly captured in the feature length film 'From Harrogate it Started' commissioned by Wills and produced by Barry Hinchcliffe. This film is still available and PVX 400K is featured extensively. Timo Makinen used the car for the 1972 RAC and as his recce car for that year in Monte Carlo. In 1973 the car was used by Hannu Mikkola for his recce of the Safari Rally. The car was then sold by Ford into private ownership. All of this information is verified through several sources including Graham Robson's 'The Works Escorts'.The car has a works spec 1791cc iron block BDA engine mated to a ZF five speed gearbox. It was sympathetically restored to its original condition and specification in 1995 including body work by Gartrac and engine by Terry Hoyle. The engine has since been refreshed by Millington race engines and has done 0km since. Although the car features a multitude of period items including seats, dashboard, plastic head lamp covers, Lucas spot lights, Heuer timing clocks and so on, it could be made ready for competition by fitting modern belts, seats and fire extinguishers. The car comes with RAC / MSA log book, Historic log book, FIA Homologation papers and extensive period photographs, magazine articles and a copy of the film that made the car a star.