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Escort
Twin-Cam, AVO's Ancestor
The
110bhp Lotus-powered Escort Twin Cam was conceived and developed
by Ford's Boreham based competitions department during 1967
and unleashed on an unsuspecting public during January 1968.
It went on to achieve many international race and rally
victories during its short production life. The car's first
international win was on the 1968 Circuit of Ireland Rally
when driven by a certain Roger Albert Clark.
The Twin Cam owed much of its ancestry to the Mk1 and Mk2
Lotus Cortinas, in that they all shared many common mechanical
components. Although its production might seem a logical
step to many of us now, the route to producing the Escort
Twin Cam was quite tortuous and would not have taken place
without the dedication of some key Ford staff.
Near
the end of 1966, some very early hand-built standard Escorts
were being track tested at Boreham. They were spotted by
Henry Taylor (Ford's Competitions Manager) and his Chief
Mechanic Bill Meade and it was rumoured that on seeing the
cars, Meade uttered the immortal words "Blimey, one of those
things would go like hell with a Twin Cam engine in it!"
Taylor enthusiastically agreed.
What happened next was essentially a race against time and
Ford's higher authority. Henry Taylor knew he wanted a car
that was faster and lighter than a Lotus Cortina but that
it would be a nightmare to follow all the company procedures
to introduce a performance Escort in the timeframes they
had available. So in early 1967, after some hasty planning,
Taylor and Ford's Public Relations Officer, Walter Hayes
managed to convince the Board of Directors that their concept
would work. The chiefs agreed that a few prototypes could
be built.
Enter
the next problem - all the tooling had already been frozen
for production of the new Escort, so a standard production
Escort shell was all the Twin Cam developers could use.
In actual fact, during a Spring weekend in 1967, the only
'vehicle' they could lay their hands on was a plastic mock-up
shell. Nevertheless, the candle was burnt at both ends to
try and cram in all the Lotus Cortina mechanicals. Yes,
you've guessed it - at first, the jigsaw wouldn't fit together!
A few of the problems encountered were as follows...
The
wide Lotus DOHC cylinder head with its twin sidedraught Weber
carburettors fouled the offside inner wing, so offset engine
mountings were used to push the nose of the engine towards
the nearside of the car. The rear carburettor also fouled
the brake master cylinder, so this was relocated inside the
front bulkhead along with the clutch master cylinder. There
was also insufficient space to locate both the battery and
the brake servo in the engine bay so the battery was relegated
to the nearside of the boot well (as per the Mk1 Lotus Cortina).
The remote brake servo was then mounted where any standard
Escort's battery would be. Moving the battery to the boot
meant that the spare wheel was bolted flat to the boot floor
instead of being housed in the standard Escort's upright position.
The
"2000E" gearbox and its bellhousing (borrowed from the Ford
Corsair) were made to fit by literally adjusting the transmission
tunnel with a few hefty blows from a lump hammer! The rear
axle from the Lotus Cortina was transplanted completely
including the latter's radius arms to allow positive axle
location. In short, by the end of that busy weekend, the
mechanics at Boreham had solved all the major problems.
Now their manager had to work on Ford's production staff
to convince them to build the Twin Cam alongside Halewood's
main Escort production line.
The
authorities at Halewood eventually agreed to produce Twin
Cam bodyshells (known as Type 49) at their factory. Essentially
the Type 49 shell was a strengthened and slightly modified
Escort GT (Type 48) shell. At a strategic point on the production
line, the modified Type 49 shells were whisked off to a
side workshop where dedicated staff turned them into Twin
Cams. The all-important Lotus engines were shipped in from
the Lotus plant at Hethel in Norfolk.
For the vast majority of its life, the Twin Cam was only
available in White. Also, to simplify production and to
keep costs down, Twin Cams were fitted with similar interiors
to the Escort GT. The early cars were also fitted with rectangular
headlamps as the product planners insisted on the Twin Cam
having commonality with other "top of the range" Escort
models - it didn't matter that all the rally drivers hated
them as their performance was pitiful when compared to the
cheaper Escorts' round units!
To
ensure that the Twin Cam was available to "works" and other
works-supported rally teams as soon as possible, the first
25 models were assembled at Boreham in early 1968. Mainstream
production then transferred to Halewood during Spring 1968,
with the car's official launch price being £1,162.78. The
Twin Cam's specification only altered in detail during its
short lifetime. Apart from the headlamp change, only minor
revisions took place to the interior trim, although a potential
owner could specify competitions-developed items at extra
cost.
Approximately 883 cars were built in total but no Escort
Twin Cam was ever built at AVO. However, as all subsequent
AVO Escorts used the Twin Cam as a basis, it now has a special
place in the AVO OC as a father figure. Production of the
Escort Twin Cam ceased in June 1971 as by this time, Ford
was already producing an exciting new Escort, the 16-valve
Cosworth BDA-powered RS1600.
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