A labour of love built twice over, this tuned S2 Escort RS Turbo survived theft and thrash to come back even harder.
Chris Rose gazes at his bright white tuned S2 Escort RS Turbo and says proudly, “You know, this car really is a part of the family.”
Having owned the S2 Escort for 16 years and coming from a proud line of Ford Dagenham workers, it’s not surprising that coachbuilder Chris has a strong emotional attachment to the Blue Oval.
“I was born and bred in Dagenham. My grandad worked there for 45 years, and my uncle too,” he says.
Chris’s first car was a Ford Orion, followed by an Escort cabriolet, but of course it wasn’t long before he developed an obsession to own the ultimate Mk4 Escort: the RS Turbo.
Chris explains, “I love the shape, the lines, I just think they’re a great little car. I bought this in 2008 for £1800, which is mad to think now, and it already had a 1.9-litre CVH plus stacks of history.”
The 1.9 American tall-block was a bit of a legend back then, and Chris added a fifth fuel injector, which helped it to make 260bhp and 300lb.ft. “It ran 14 seconds flat at Santa Pod, which was a quick car for the day,” he adds.
Indeed, Chris simply loved terrorising drag strips and cruises in what was a very typical RS Turbo for the era, complete with chromed engine bay, blue Samco hoses, Momo steering wheel, clear rear lights and 17in Khan five-spoke alloy wheels.
But after four years of enjoyment – including the winter months – the car was becoming tired, and rot started forming around its A-pillars, sills, bulkhead, roof, rear panel and floor pans.
Chris says, “I knew I had to take it off the road, but my next trip to Santa Pod accelerated that timeline dramatically.”
He lined up on the strip as usual, did his best emergency start and, instead of putting in a hero run, proceeded to melt number three piston. Thoroughly pissed off, he drove the poor thing all the way back home to Essex running on three cylinders.
Chris originally thought about rebuilding the CVH but he was beginning to see quite a few articles about ZVHs and every so often, full Zetec 16-valve conversions.
“I decided that a Zetec 16-valve with aftermarket management would be much better than a CVH or ZVH running unreliable MFi, so I started researching the conversion on Passionford.com and kept my eyes peeled for a donor engine,” remembers Chris. In fact, what came up was a fully-built 2.0-litre Zetec turbo based on a Black Top version from a Mk2 Mondeo, complete with forged rods and pistons and a ported cylinder head.
To squeeze a Zetec into an Escort takes a little bit of custom fabrication, including modifying the original engine mounts, making new gearbox mounts and trimming back the passenger-side inner chassis leg to accommodate the wider engine block. He also had to use an S1 RS Turbo anti-roll bar to clear the MTX-75 gearbox and fit a bias pedal box because the exhaust downpipe wouldn’t clear the OEM servo.
Chris then enlisted Crazy Cage Fabrications to make a custom inlet manifold, and Flowtech to modify an American exhaust manifold originally meant for a Focus turbo.
He explains, “We tried something different with the exhaust, positioning it above the gearbox and away from the radiator and intercooler, which makes more sense to keep the inlet air and water temps cool.”
Hanging off it is a Garrett GT2876R turbo, and coupled with an Omex ECU, he was really looking forward to a much more modern, tractable and reliable powerplant.
Stolen, recovered, and rebuilt
Unfortunately, and after years of hard graft, the tuned S2 Escort RS Turbo was stolen by joyriders the day before it was due to be mapped.
“As well as building the engine, I’d spent years making the bodywork mint,” says Chris. “It was freshly painted and I’d even stone-chipped the underneath and had all of the mechanical components powder-coated.”
Heart-breaking, and when the car was discovered two weeks later in a scrapyard, he felt sick to his stomach.
“Every panel was battered. And because the ECU was still only running a base map at the time, they’d completely melted the engine,” explains Chris.
At this point, many of us would have called it a day. But as Chris said earlier, he sees this car as part of the family, and the tragedy simply spurred him on to greater things.
Chris says, “I sorted all the recovery costs, administration and so on without the involvement of the insurance company or anyone else. I wasn’t going to put it on a Q-plate; that just wasn’t going to happen.”
With the car back home, Chris spent two years saving some cash and energy before bravely starting a full restoration of the Escort… Again. CTM Engineering rebuilt the engine, and between his own fair hands and those of friends, the bodywork and paint was redone in the same Frozen White as before.
“I’m not a fan of Diamond White. Frozen White is so much fresher and it contrasts really strongly against the carbon fibre.”
Ah yes, the carbon fibre. By the second rebuild phase, Chris had become fascinated by the racy weave, and he put in a call to Phil from Carbon Delight, which started a serious habit. As well as the obvious bits such as the carbon roof, bonnet and tailgate, the car is packed full of really trick carbon pieces that you might just miss at first glance – just look at that gorgeous carbon ‘90-spec spoiler.
Chris continues, “It’s not finished there, either. I want Phil to do the Morette twin headlights in carbon. He’s not keen because they’re so intricate, but I’ll keep badgering him for sure.”
Needless to say, Chris was aiming for a full competition look and feel with the build this time around, and complementing the carbon is a set of grey Compomotive wheels in an often-overlooked 16in diameter.
He says, “I’m not a fan of S2s on 17s. In my opinion they should have come out of the factory with 16s. They drive much nicer than 17s too.”
Lexan windows with sliders complete the race-car looks on the outside while also saving some weight, but Chris admits that in hindsight he should have kept the electric windows: “Going to the summer shows I was like a Christmas turkey at gas mark six. Not fun at all but all part of the exhilarating experience, I guess.”
Sitting in the Corbeau buckets, strapped in by four-point harnesses and staring at a host of gauges in the flocked dashboard, you can imagine how exciting it is to turn the key and hear the Zetec burble to life.
Chris says, “It scares the crap out of me. It made just under 350bhp at 0.9bar of boost, and we’ve got more to go, but even at this level it just keeps pulling.”
How fast it will go is anyone’s guess, but the gearbox was sourced from a famous white S2 RS Turbo, which many years ago set a top speed record somewhere in the 160s, and it was running a CVH with a fair bit less power.
Chris explains, “It’s geared for 189mph, but I’m not going to go too crazy in it. After all of the drama I’ve been through with it, I just want to enjoy the car and drive it to car shows with my son.”
After two rebuilds, one theft, £32,000 of cash and 11 years of grafting, we really don’t blame Chris for not taking it on track or doing anything silly with it.
You may have seen this tuned S2 Escort RS Turbo at TRAX, but in 2023, be sure to attend the Ford shows and shake this guy’s hand. He didn’t let adversity beat him, and the RS world is a much better place with this stunning example in it.
Feature from Fast Ford magazine. Words: Ben Birch. Photos: Jason Dodd.
Tech Spec: Tuned S2 Escort RS Turbo
Engine:
1988cc Zetec 16-valve Black Top engine, Eagle forged conrods, JE forged pistons, 8.9:1 compression ratio, Cometic head gasket and ancillary gaskets, ported and polished head, Kent Cams uprated valve springs, custom Zetec Silver Top cam cover with breather outlets, Airtec intercooler and radiator, battery relocated to boot, crackle-black cam cover, Green On Engineering custom breather tank and header tank, Torques UK Aeroquip oil and fuel lines, Magnex exhaust system, Omex 600 management, Garrett GT2876R turbo with Zircotec-coated exhaust housing, carbon fibre turbo blanket, Tial 38mm external wastegate with screamer pipe, HKS dump valve, custom exhaust manifold, Crazy Cage Fabrications custom inlet manifold and billet fuel rail, Bosch 530cc injectors, tucked engine bay wiring
Power:
350bhp
Transmission:
Mk5 Escort RS2000 MTX-75 gearbox with long fifth gear, Quaife ATB differential, custom-made driveshafts, Sachs uprated Mk1 Focus RS clutch, modified RS2000 gear linkage to suit RS Turbo floorpan
Suspension:
S1 RS Turbo front anti-roll bar, Gaz Gold coilovers, Superpro poly bushes all round, front strut brace
Brakes:
Front: AP Racing six-piston callipers with 330mm discs; rear: RWD Sierra Cosworth callipers and discs; Compbrake floor-mounted bias pedal box, Goodridge braided brake lines
Wheels & Tyres:
7x16in ET35 Compomotive TH2 alloys with 205/40R16 Uniroyal Rainsport tyres
Exterior:
Carbon Delight carbon roof, bonnet, scuttle panel, tailgate with 90-spec rear spoiler, mirror base plates, rear number plate cover and wheelarch stone guards, smoothed front slam panel, modified ’90-spec front bumper with ’89-spec lower bib, de-locked doors
Interior:
Corbeau front seats on RS Turbo runners, LUKE harnesses, rear seats removed and replaced with false floor, bolt-in rear roll cage, flocked dash and door cards, Lexan windows, Ford Racing boost, oil pressure and volt gauges, AEM fuel ratio meter, Blitz boost controller, OMP steering wheel
