Thursday May 17

Ed Hall’s Ford Escort Mk2 Trials Car

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Four-door trial wonder.

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Trialing is great fun – foot to the floor, Crossflow howling up the impossibly steep, muddy tracks of the West Country. Trouble is it’s been years since PPC’s Ed Hall has been able to take part in the sport because the six month ’tidy-up’ he planned for his trials Escort turned into a mammoth six-year rebuild. The problem was, as is the way for Mk2s that you pay £110 for, that there was quite a lot of rust. Any more trialing and it would have snapped in two.

On and off Ed has been working on it. The A-posts and the bulkhead needed a lot of welding, the chassis legs a little, the driver’s side floor had to be replaced, as did the front panel, slam panel and both front wings.

While he was at it Ed strengthened the inner wings and the suspension mounting points then welded in a six-point cage. Now the Escort has had a couple of coats of yellow it’s looking quite tidy again.
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Since he stripped it to a bare shell it made sense to see what he could do to make the car more competitive and reliable. The suspension was already raised a few inches but now the front anti-roll bar has been replaced with compression struts and longer springs and adjustable dampers have been fitted – it’s got more ground clearance than a Range Rover. The 1300 was far too underpowered so Ed’s built a torquey (theoretically, anyway) 1700cc, bolted that to a stronger RS2000 four-speed and... that’s about as far as he’s got.

Ed’s Escort is one of those projects that plods away with the owner thinking he’s getting no where, then unexpectedly realises one day that it’s nearly finished.

Ed sold this car to fund his purchase of a 1969 Chrysler 300 from the States.

Practical Performance Car (PPC) is a monthly magazine aimed at real car enthusiasts interested in affordable performance tuning. At PPC we pride ourselves in providing the most entertaining, informative and inspiring features for petrolheads everywhere. Each month we feature an eclectic mix of affordable performance cars, great driving adventures and world-class technical features for the DiY tuner. Our editorial team is headed up by well known Will Holman who has a deserved reputation for 'stick a V8 under the bonnet' attitude to life. His editorial team is stacked with experience including Dave Walker (speciality engine management), of the sadly missed Cars and Car Conversions (CCC) magazine, David Vizard, the legendary engine tuning guru, and Kevin Leaper - ex technical editor of Practical Classics.

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Examples of magazine features: brakes uprating, suspension improvements, engine transplants, buyers guides, ECU management, kit car builds, car event coverage (including PPC's own show, PPC in the Park) and much more. Examples of some of the staff's cars: 27 litre Rover SD1, 5 litre Capri, track day Rolls Royce, MK1 Transit and more.