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American Reacts to British Rallying for the First Time
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- Published on Nov 12, 2025
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• British Rallying Highl...
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Those are Ford Escorts Mark 2 - they came to market in the late 70's, the older Mark 1 is also popular (Mark = Generation)
I thought they were Escorts.
I owned a mark 1 and a mark 2 back in the day, great cars.
@Stevesixty7in the 90s I had a Mk1 Mexico,loved the looks,unfortunately it loved to rust and I didn't have the money to fix her,shame 😢
Majority of the clips shown was on Epynt military ranges in mid Wales with surrounding forests of Crychan and Halfway also shown
Yes. Mark 2 Ford Escorts. There are also a couple of Mark 1's in the video - the one where the driver waved at the track marshal he almost hit and one with door/competitor number 111. Very popular cars in the day, cheap with the option of using components from more powerful Ford's... and most importantly at the time, rear wheel drive.
Drive in Wales and Scotland and you'll quickly understand why the British make some of the best rally drivers in the world.
Also Finland
Indeed... It wont be long before one passes you like he's Mid-Stage on a beautiful scenic road! 🤣🤣🤣
I don't know if you have seen it, but if not, it is an absolute must for you to watch the golden age of GROUP B rallying (and why it was banned).
THIS IS A FANTASTIC CHANNEL MY FRIEND, YOU SHOULD BE PROUD. 🇬🇧🇺🇲
I think he's seen it, it's usually the first thing people watch regarding rally.
i miss the group B days, but totally understand why it was ended =/
Aww man I remember watching that with my Dad and then they banned the Audi Quattro for a while great memories Thank You 😊
@voodooacidman i was l7cky to go amd watch a stage . The nlise through the woods was mental
Group B is pure insanity.
The look on your face during that was a joy to watch! More like this pleeese!
Mk2 escort. That’s still a very competitive car and very successful. Look up Baby Blue, Frank Kelly rallying in Ireland. The car runs on a 2.5 millington engine around 375 bhp. He drives the wheels off it.
That Andy Burton Peugeot 306 was absolutely incredible, such a shame regulations stopped them from using it for longer!
And let's not forget his Alfa-Ferrari. Andy is a farmer and built both cars basically in his barn!
Do miss watching him at Rally's, a must watch for Rally fans!!
ruclips.net/video/8QZNMfDUtQ0/video.htmlsi=fMa9-NZu2QfH4UkM
Rally Drivers are literally our best drivers period! I grew up driving a section of the ''Great Orme'' stage of the Cambrian rally every night!
If your in the UK... Llandudno, at night, one way tramac road around the cliffs of the Orme (hill/mountain) it's an epic 5 minute stretch of road!
I agree with this and i am an F1 fan, i still think rally drivers are the best in the world.
ruclips.net/video/ZlkLsyE1oQY/video.htmlsi=ei7F7UHS2KlFh6_A
Why so lazy we are when amazing things all over here - US think 500 Miles So what - we fuckin lazy!
The Ford Escorts basically 1970s cars. I have been marshalling on car rallies since the 80s, and these cars have always been popular. Note the rally cars can do 0 to 60 in about 5 or 6 seconds, and have top speeds about 120 in slippy forest stages. I have personally been, on a corporate day, driven through at over 100 mph at times.
Love some winter UK country driving, I have lots of forest roads on the way to work, I don't go mad, but you can take it at legal pace.
Mark 2 Ford Escort and the rounder model with the pinched grill surround on the front is a mark 1 escort (FAST FURIOUS 6)
The first Ford Focus is basically a Mark 7 Escort as it took over after the Mark 6 (RS Cosworth)
13:37 that is a MK2 Escort. The KING of rallying
Best drivers in the world!
Whats really impressive is those old ford escorts from the 1970's are still holding their own! - the car you asked about is a MK2 Ford Escort again from the 1970's but there was a MK1 that spun out a few mins earlier the more curvy body shaped one.
Theyre really not. Theyre not even close to 'competitive' at international level.
The Blue Ford (@ 13.10) is a 1974-80 Mk 2 Ford Escort this and the earlier white Mk1 Escort @ 11.11) were rear wheel (drive and dominated Rallies until the advent of the 4WD Audi Quattro around 1980.
Ford officially retired from rallying in 1979 but returned a few years later after developing 4wD for their rally cars.
Was it Shanker who got the Ford RS500 winning in rally Cross ?
😎👍🇬🇧
@Trash-pand5r
Ari Vatanen beat Stig Blomqvist in 1987 with the RWD Texaco Sierra Cosworth
An Escort mk2 in the hands of a skilled practitioner is all business at the front, party at the back. My first car (used) back in the ‘80’s, I will always have an undying love for them.
at 8:56 - Road sign - "Caution Lambs on road" made me laugh 🤣
There's a lot held in Wales (hence a lot of gobsmackingly beautiful scenery), some on temporarily closed public roads. My family home was a few miles from the Epynt course. You could hear thrashing engines all up and down the valley.😊
Learnt to drive in a Mk1 Ford Escort (not the rally one obviously 😅). Want to see a masterclass in Rallying? Colin McCrae not a bad place to start
Colin McCrae was average at best. Richard Burns was just as talented but gets little recognition considering he won a World Championship. He also wasn't responsible for killing 3 innocent people while showing off in a helicopter he wasn't qualified to fly!
I absolutely love the old mk1 and mk2 Ford escort.. They look and sound fantastic 👌🇬🇧😘✌️
look the Capri ;)
or a Opel Manta A series !?
My first car after passing my test at 17 was a Ford Escort Mrk 1 which was a heap of junk at that time but was mine and I loved driving the thing. Seeing the Mrk2 Escort's getting thrown around the gravel and dirt was a gem for me. Thank you 😄
What you ought to watch are the World Rally Races (WRC) and see some of the best drivers in the world-period. (Tommy Makinen, Juha Kankkunen, Colin McRae, Thierry Neuville,
Elfyn Evans, Sebastein Ogier, Kalle Rovanpera, Ott Tanak and of course Sebastian Loeb)
One of the very best, was a Frenchman called Sebastian Loeb,
who I think won the world championship 9 times and also laid the record for Pikes Peak. Fantastic drivers, better than Formula 1 and Nascar. On snow/ice/mud/gravel/tarmac/water and sometimes grass! nothing phases them. The notes you refer to are the navigator, who writes down in code all the corners and bends/hills and dips even down to the degrees of the corners etc and shouts them out to the driver, who does not know the circuit. Thats what makes the driver even more amazing.
Classic Ford Escort MKII, they dominated rallying in the 70s. They have a very distinctive sound from their Cosworth BDA twin cam engine.
It's cool how sometimes they will drop the nearside front wheel into a ditch and give it a boot full of throttle to get it round the corner as fast as possible. I went to loads of club level rallies back in the day.. Im a bit too old for spending long hours in grizdale forest in January now. 😣
Mine was Clocaenog or devils elbow in the seventies, much like yourself I'm far too old to spend all night standing in a freezing peeing down forest in the middle of January anymore. but oh the memories of my feckless youth when we considered ourselves indestructable.
Lombard time keeper here, good times took my 2.8 Granada Ghia through the forest collecting up the flags at the end of day, my sisters RS2000 Mk2 rally prepared car I spent most of my time fixing because it was frequently stolen. Stig Blomqvist 99 Turbo Comi took off so quickly he sent a slate through my mates tailgate and into the door, later Stig hit a tree delaying him four seconds. Tiff would stop for a chat whilst his Navigator got his pant in a twist on timing. And the Lancia Stratos team played silly buggers. Good days.
The red car you "really liked the sound of" around 8 mins was Andy Burton in his Peugeot Cosworth. There's a few vids about him and it if you search his name
The blue car you asked about is a Ford Escort Mk 2, the engine was a Cosworth.
Ford originally designed the Escort to be a family car and released the Mk1 version in 1968, Ford started making tuned up versions for racing and rallying in 1968 with a Lotus engine.
From 1970 Ford fitted Cosworth BDA 16 valve engine and the RS name was born.
The top boys go to the Millington Diamond 2.5 versions of the BDA these days, I dont know if you know this useless nugget or not but when Ford moved on from Lotus 1.6 chain driven twin cams to their own 1.6 then 1.8 engine co developed with Cosworth this new engines camshafts were toothed belt driven and its Ford descriptor was BELT DRIVEN TYPE A =bda.
@usernamesreprise4068 the Millington Diamond is based on the YB engine from the Sierra Cosworth rather than the BDA.
Although these V6 turbos sounded great, nothing can beat the class Bs, which raced between 1982-1986. Their power-to-weight ratios are still unmatched to this day. They were super-light in weight and often exceeded 500 hp.
On another note, I was privileged to get to ride as a passenger in a 555 Subaru Impreza driven by Richard Burns for a demonstration lap during the 1995 Hong Kong - Beijing Rally, as I worked on a promo video for the 555 State Express Team. Even though it was only a short, figure of eight dirt track, my heart was in my mouth the entire time and was glad to get out of the vehicle in one piece.
"Suberu"? 😂
@afrog2666
How intelligent of you to pick holes in such a minor mistake.
@ Obviously I meant Subaru. Grow up.
Top 2 best sounding cars, imo, lancia stratos and the impreza, damn sexy:)
@donallmccrudden4812 Scooby flat 4 and the Delta, HF _Itegrale_ !
The model of that car is a ford escort mk .
There were also a couple of MK I's in there too, the others were MK II's and all of them between 45 and 55 years old too! The thing about these cars was the solid rear axle, rear wheel drive and leaf sprung which is great for bouncing around and doing those swift hard turns without reducing speed too much as it was easy to 'drift' the backend and having a solid axle the whole rear end would bounce off the road easier too.
These cars often won the whole rally outright.
My first car was a 1972 MK I Ford Escort and you really could throw them about the road, not so good when it went into a spin on the snow and ice when you weren't expecting it to though 😁😲
@13:32 Ford Escort RS2000 (late 1970's into 1980's) although traditionally the RS200 had a different front grille and headlamps.
the next time you come to europe, plan to go to a rally race near you and watch it live, it will be an unforgettable experience for you, even if it's only a national rally championship race, but you can find a european championship race or a world championship race
Better still... find a school in the UK and drive one of these cars yourself 😊
18:08 ''For he's a scooby lover''🎶 Bro your looking at that Impreza like James Camron looks at Pigs! 😂😂
Can someone make sure that Impreza is safe please, bro is giving off pred vibes! 🤣🤣🤣
Joel, the Yellow and Black car at 7:30 Is driving on New Brighton Promenade, just across The River Mersey from where you were at Liverpool waterfront when you came to visit us 👍👍
I’ve marshalled at the promenade stages many times over the years. I was at the very last rally.
@marksmith762 Nice one mate. I bet it was good watching them Tear along the Prom road. It's a nice driving stretch under normal conditions 👌
Those little 70's Escorts were something else 🔥
As soon as you heard it you knew what it was
For those that stood in the forest or on a moor for hours with their dad as a child, after an early morning start and a long walk to find his favourite place to spectate, the sound of the countryside with other fans quietly chatting and then the distant sound of a car approaching is something magical. EVERY one who has done that will be able to identify cars and even drivers from the sound. The marshal whistles and at night, the lights piecing the darkness are all part of it.
It's hard to convey just how much it gets under your skin, even if you are not one of the die-hard regulars that follow rally events around the world.
I remember when i was still at school in Liverpool the cars on the RAC Rally would drive past our school in ths afternoon on their way to the next stage, very cool
Hello Joel. When younger I would have loved this. I used to drive out into some wild spot in my Toyota Rav4 and test drove a Subaru Impreza but for insurance reasons got a Ford Puma 1.7 instead, then a Focus.
You should take a look at the rallying and cars from the group B era 😮. Well worth a watch. See how close the spectators got. The cars you were asking about were mk2 escorts which were and still are popular as they’re rear wheel drive
Usually
Yorkshire
Wales
Ireland for a good portion of the forest, countryside rallying. Lovely yellow 6R4 as I’m typing this
You left out kielder forrest.
They didn't call it killer kielder for nothing.
Border counties rally , National breakdown rally , Lombard rac rally .
Subaru use the box engine which has a very low centre of gravity improving handling and preventing body roll.
The Ford Escort has rear wheel drive via a prop shaft and differential so can perform incredible cornering.
Best car sport ever
That car is a mk2 escort, probably running a N/A 2.6 Millington diamond series engine 😍👌
First car was John Stones WRC Skoda. Used to run it with some friends of mine.
Had many of these mark 2 escorts when I was in my teens . They were about £200 for a battered one lol.
Worth more than gold now
Mk1 and mk11 escorts are legendary from way back, but you notice how they are still very much appreciated and popular 60 and 50 years later? Those models of ford escorts just go exactly where you point them, so a beautiful beginner car but also such nostalgia car.
Hi Joel i have watched you videos from when you first started, on one you said drivers on British road are like professional drivers, i live in Wales where ssome of the major rallys are held but on the Welsh roads , rallying comes naturally as 5pm on a Friday its like a rally trying to get home, ha ha, Your friend Pete.
4:53 That’s a Skoda Fabia. Simpsons is a Skoda dealer franchise in the UK.
Skoda have a very long rallying history in the UK with wins in their class again and again through the 80s RAC Rallys, despite then being rather old fashioned rear-engined communist-era cars from eastern Europe. Nowadays part of the VW group and very much state-of-the-art cars, made and sold around the World (not the US), and highly regarded by many.
Simpsons is Skoda dealership in Colne East Lancashire.
As already mentioned, the car at 7:38 is competing on the 2011 Promenade Stages at New Brighton. I went to watch that year. Started out wet, windy and cold in the morning, by the afternoon it was very warm and sunny. I remember 2 cars colliding as they both went for split at the stage end, and there was a minor argument between the drivers.
The answer to your question is a Ford Escort. Personally one of my favourites, they sound fantastic and being rear wheel drive they spend a lot of time going sideways. Try watching some group B footage, those cars were monsters!
You should do rally crashes
All of those rally cars are road legal. They have to be, because often they have to drive on the roads to get from one rally stage to the next.
Indeed - Bedfordshire police once ‘nicked’ a driver between stages because he was trying to get to a workshop on only 3 wheels having lost one on a stage.
The intro just reminds me of just smelling nature an petrol together what a feeling! Us Irish have many great rally drivers is well an many a fan of rallying would stand in a ditch to hear that engine echo through the trees unreal ❤
Ford escort MK2 probably the most successful rally car ever, production run from 1975-1980 it is light weight and rear wheel drive. Parts and engines are readily available, most 4 clylinder engines will fit as long as you can match it to rear wheel drive gear box.
I got taken out for a spin in one of the Mid engined V8 Mini metros, that was the most hideously fast beasts of a car I have ever been in.
I have no idea how the driver was able to hear his Navigator as the noise was deafening.
My spine hurt after as the Suspension was rock hard.
Its the navigators i have the most admiration for.
Yeah, that blue Ford is an Escort Mk2. One of the biggest selling family cars of the late 1970s.
Look up the irish national rally championship through out the years, especially the 80s and you'll be amazed even more .
Check out some "Rally Raid" races (like Dakar)! Sometimes they don't even have roads, just open terrain madness for weeks. There's everything from bikes to trucks and the crashes are spectacular.
You ask any amateur/semi pro rally driver what car they love the most in rally.....its the mk1 or the mk2 escort.....as for the fans its akways the mk1 or especially the mk2 escort....standing in the woods and all you hear is that induction bark for miles and miles.....nothing like it 😂
Those Millington Escorts are kicking out insane BHP levels easily on par with high performance V8's without the weight penalty !
@0utcastAussie around 375 bhp if tuned properly
The string of words from the co driver is ‘pace notes’ often they will walk the course before the day of the rally and mostly its distance to the next instruction then the instruction. For example 200 left 90 could be 200m (or more likely back then yards?) left turn 90 degrees. They also use slight, hard, tightens and severe to describe the corners
That sideways manoeuvre into corners is called the Scandinavian Flick.
Get yourself along to some of the rally America events. It's like a well organised club event, but on a national level.
Thiunk you enjoyed that Joel!😆😆
I think one of the locations is the promenade at New Brighton across the Mersey from Liverpool (7.32 & 16.20 ) Wales is a popular location for rallying and the North East around Keilder Forest.
Ohh yes some more please!
Yes you are correct it is New Brighton. They used that section for a stage of the RAC Rally once.
I noticed that too, I've been to that one a couple of times (from Southport).
@rocket404 AHH thanks, thought it was with the Seaforth cranes in the background 👍👍
Yeah the escort mark 1&2's are also only rear wheel drive which makes it even more impressive how well they handle
You should check Group B rallying from the early eighties. Audi Sport Quartto S1, Lancia 037's and Lancia Delta Integral, Peugeot 205T16 Ford RS200 etc etc. The Audi in its final form produced around 620hp, The Lancia Delta around 450hp and was super charged and turbo charged. The Peugeot 205 around 450hp. These were monsters.
Lancia held on to their place even when everyone went 4x4, and they didn't. Walter Raul I think.
God you've got to love the mk2 Escorts. Has one back in the day.
Thats the car you asked about. Rally legend of a car. Same with all Ford UK rally cars. RS Escort Cosworth, Sierra Cosworth.
The ford you asked about is Ford Escort Mk2 on V reg number plate, meaning it was registered between 1979 and 1980
Lots of them still to be seen in the Republic of Ireland, where a rally championship is run on ordinary roads which are closed to the public for the event.
A fantastic variety of venues. One was promenade stages at New Brighton on the Wirral. That no longer runs since the council put a stop to it. I was at the last rally.
its the legendary rally car ford escort no other rear wheal drive only rally car can touch they were always on the winning teams i think it is the most wins of all the manufactures of the 1960.-1970.s and 1980.s rally car ever i could be wrong they have such a great sound you can always know a escort is about to rip right past you
ItsJps, hey man! Long time no C. Good to see you again, you're more than welcome to come back over to the 🇬🇧 again.
rally drivers the most talented drivers on the planet, its as simple as that
Thanks for your great video!
When you asked what kind of old Ford you see so often. It's a Ford Escort MK2 RS1800 with rear wheel drive only. The construction period was from 1974 to 1980. You could also briefly see its predecessor, the Escort MK1 RS ("dogbone" because of the shape of the radiator grille).
I own both RS models and they are still brutal and fun today!
Thanks!
cheeRS
Klaus from Düsseldorf
The best Rear wheel Drive Rally cars were the MK2 Ford Escort and the Group B Opel Manta 400, they are legendary cars, drive safe.
There’s more escorts around now than there were back in the day. You can buy a brand new mk1 or 2 rally prepared car straight out of the box. I’m a rally marshal in the uk and see this every other weekend during the season on forest stages, closed roads and single venue race circuits. One of my best friends is a race engine tuner so I get to see a lot of the cars he tunes. It adds another level to rallies.
There used to be a rally of Great Britain, and there would be stages typically held in Scotland, the Lakes, Wales , a lot being set in `forestry' areas, but some on public roads which were closed for the day. I remember rallies back in the 1960`s when the little Mini-Coopers were very popular, and the drivers who did well were often from Finland or Sweden. The GB rally one year finished in Margham Park, south Wales, my daughter was at University nearby and had a Norwegian boyfriend who knew the driver who won.
every nordic citizen is a rally driver, of course he knew the winner 🤣
@lauraburnett9320 the Roger Albert Clark rally runs every two years and uses a lot of the stages that the RAC rally used. There’s rallies all over the uk in forests and closed roads and single venues at race circuits.
You'll find the rally environment totally different to all but hill climbing. No other form of motorsport will have spectators pushing, lifting and pulling cars out of ditches, even drivers and navs out of wrecks. Fans will even have straps at the ready. Just about everyone is approachable as well.
I would suggest looking up hillclimbing and historic rallying too. Don't forget the in-car vids. They'll confirm that drivers are mental. Navs are even more because they sit in there without controls...
Lancer evo was always my favourite any of them
Old skool escort man so dope ❤
Ford Escort MK2 if I'm not wrong is a 1.6L engine with 160/180HP on rear wheels, now those are on classic rally same as the Mini Cooper, Lancia Stratos, etc
That Peugeot is Andy Burtons space frame car. It got banned in the end. It had a V6 Dino engine. Absolutely nuts. I saw it a few times in the forests before it got banned. He also built an Alfa Ferrari rally car from scratch.
Check out the Snowman Rally in North Scotland... have been to spectate a few times and it's a proper buzz!
2:20 i was thinking something like that, it put me into dream state, but i did dream that i would not want to be a bear in those woods hearing that thing getting closer, that is a roar they aint going to mess with, then i remembered we dont have bears in the UK.
My first & second cars were mark 2 Ford Escorts. Obviously they were the road versions, but the handling was second to none at that time. They still race them in certain categories even now.
They are called Pace Notes.
If you like the rallying, you should check out the one they do (I think) it's in Finland and the whole thing is on ice and snow with spiked tyres... it's incredible!
Amazing the Escort Mk2 has been out of production since 1980 and it is still such a staple of the rallying scene. Try finding a 2-door one today so many were converted into rally cars and trashed.
Group B rallying from the 80s are the ones to search for. The most powerful cars like the fabulous Audi Quattro's. The sound from their 5 cylinder turbo engines was superb!
Some great sounding cars from that era but the cars you knew for a fact were coming several corners before were the Quattro and the 6R4, made the hair on the back of your neck stand up!
I LOVE rallies! I haven't been to one for 20+ years. It's such an amazing atmosphere. One of the best things is the smell of the cars. The Ford Escorts are my favourite. Nobody who knows me now would believe it! Got caught in an illegal one once when driving Welsh country roads at night. Saw the headlights ahead and thought "huh, that looks like a rally car". It was and driving straight towards me. Had to get off the road pretty quick!
Sure beats racing round an oval track!🇬🇧
It does, but as a spectator sport barbecues good weather, seeing the whole track all the time, screaming v8s and possible fights and many crashes is still probably a fantastic day out, and what the sport lacks in an interesting circuit makes upnfor it in a lot of ways. As an impressive motorsport though rally is almost unbeatable.
Probably the most popular rally cars in Europe used to be the Subaru Impreza, the Audi Quattro, and the short-lived VW Polo, each with their specialty rally format. Today, however, Toyota has steadily become dominant. EA sports is now the most popular sector of the sport, and Toyota, Hyundai, and to some extent Ford lead in these models.
You'd enjoy the Audi Lancia movie. True story
There's a mark 1 Ford Escort at 17:17 (white with red stripe) it had a different shaped front grill to the Mark 2.
13:35 Ford Escort, I think that's the early 80s model MK2. That's probably the RS1800 variant.
The blue car is a mk2 ford escort, they were generally 1600 or 2000 rs's the mexico versions like the red and black one had flared arches and wider spec tyres 25cm typically.
4:53 it's an S2000 Skoda Fabia, 2 litre NA four cylinder and all wheel drive! They're so cool, it's a shame the S2000 class doesn't exist anymore
Look for Circuit of Ireland with Opel Mantas in the 80s, its amazing
Also worthwhile watching the BMW E30 M3's too, howling at 8000+ rpm with their carbon airboxes resonating throughout the trees. Awesome
5:10 You should watch some of the Group B stuff from the 80s. I think one of the vids is called "When Rallying got too fast".
It's basically what you're saying there. It was stopped because too many crashes, causing too many deaths. Both drivers and spectators.
Mk1 Mexico, Mk2 RS2000, Mk3 RS Turbo Mk4 RS 200. These are the UK blue collar Ford Escort collectables of yesteryear.
Take a look at some of the classic rallies from the 50/60's the ones held over in Italy and France... Pat Moss In an Austin heally 3000 she was Sterling Mosses younger sister!!!! Awesome driving!!! Rally is the best form of motor sport!!! Keep up the good work!
@13:34 it's a MK2 Escort, one of the most legendary rally cars ever to exist... Despite being over 50yrs old, it's still competitive today... @17:20 is a Mk1 Escort
Oh the juicy sound of those BDA twin cam engines!