The first hot front-drive Escorts are now sought-after classic buys
WORDS MALCOLM MCKAY PHOTOGRAPHY JAMES MANN
For the Mk3 Escort, styled by Uwe Bahnsen, Ford went front-wheel drive with what would soon be its biggest-selling model, along with a brand-new overhead-cam engine that had cost £500m to develop. It was crucial to the company’s success, and it worked. But what to do about the high-performance flagship? Motorsport honours were not the immediate focus, but the market demanded a sporting model, with a new name to avoid comparison with rear-drive RS Escorts. The designation came from USA, where it had featured on the Mercury Cougar XR-7; the first XR in Europe was the XR3, pitched as a volume-selling sporty variant rather than a limited-run homologation special. That role went to the RS 1600i in 1981, and later the RS Turbo.
The XR3 faced strong opposition in the front-drive hot-hatch market, including Volkswagen’s well-established Golf GTI. Ford started by simply bolting a twin-choke Weber on to the all-new, hemi-head CVH engine: its 96bhp was enough to be fun, but left the car trailing in the GTI’s wake – though only a fraction behind on top speed due to superior aerodynamics. The XR3’s ride and its handling on the limit couldn’t match the composure of the GTI either, but that didn’t stop sales of the stylish and keenly priced XR3 from booming – anything at £5k with a spoiler on the back was a sure-fire winner. Motor wrote: “The Escort… is more attractively finished and looks terrific – few mass-production cars have ever attracted as much favourable interest from passers-by as our XR3 test car.”
It wasn’t long before Ford’s Specialist Vehicle Engineering (SVE) department grabbed the initiative to boost power and improve the ride and handling, creating the XR3i in ’82 to briefly jump ahead of the Golf in top speed, while coming closer to matching its composure.
The Cabriolet was added in 1986 and featured full XR3 spec, including its firm suspension, illustrating Ford’s confidence in Karmann’s strengthening of the shell to allow roof removal without flexing – though some scuttle shake was inevitable on rougher roads. The Cabriolet was expensive but well built, and is a bargain today compared to the more sought-after hatch.
The XR3 was the best-selling hot hatch in the UK market for most of its life. Rust, neglect and abuse have been its biggest enemies: rot-free, unspoilt originals are
