Ford Escort RS2000 - Reader Ride

By: Unique Cars magazine

Date: 01.01.2018

Matt Wildridge says this was his first car and he's kept the faith ever since

This was my first car – I’ve had it for 14 years. My parents gave it to me for Christmas. A friend had two RS2000s and a bucket load of spares, so we bought those and I still have the other car – it’s white.

I did my L-plates in this car. When I went to renew the registration, it had a little rust in the floor and they wouldn’t renew it. I was in year 10 at school, so I stripped it back and fixed it and painted it as I started an apprenticeship in panel and paint.

I drove it round for a few years, then it sat for seven, and I brought it out in January this year and put it on club plates.

The engine has had a little work: cams, valves and things with twin 40mm side-draft Webers. It woke it up a lot, but your modern two-litre will beat it, it’s just a cool cruiser and sounds good.

It’s running a standard four-speed transmission. I did have a Sierra five-speed in it, but we ended up putting it in a race car, and we’ve gone back to standard on this one. That’s all it needs.

Underneath it’s running coil-over front suspension plus disc brakes all round. The fronts are Jaguar and the rears are Commodore.

The family has always been involved in racing – I have a Mk2 race car as well. I’ve got two RS2000s, a Mk2 race car, two Mk1 Escort project cars, plus a couple of others. We’re always building cars for other people as well.

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