1979 Australian Ford Escort compared to the UK Escort

Including Australian and UK Ford Escort RS2000
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[@twentyrothmans7308]

Pretty funny that they didn't know what "RS" means in Australian. Never saw too many old Escorts, I presume that tinworm got them.

[@gaufrid1956]

I never owned a Ford Escort in Australia, but I'm sure they would have been faster than the 1978 Toyota Corolla coupe that I owned at the time. It was a 1.2 litre four cylinder with a four speed manual transmission. It did have a pushbutton AM radio and cloth facings on the seats. It was also a pillarless hardtop, and had black side stripes to make it go faster...

[@malcolmscott4150]

Growing up in Geelong Vic whilst these Escorts were assembled in Sydney, many Ford execs wives had these as company cars changing them every 3-6 months. 2 litre GL automatic very popular along with sports pack, fashion pack but most revered was the Ghia. RS2000 came in 79 in 2 and 4 door form but were quite rare. Our engines with emission control meant 1.6 was 47kw and 2.0 was 70kw meant many people wanted the 2.0 as 1.6 was seen as quite slow at the time. 0-100 kms in 2.0 was around 11.5 secs again quick for time yet UK 1.6 wasn’t much slower. We also got to see some unique specs such as 2door RS2000 with automatic trans which at time brochure said wasn’t available. Any car with vinyl seats and no AC at time which was very common would be sticky but Escort 2.0 models did offer AC in GL and Ghia 2.0 models at extra cost of course.

[@clintonepps3666]

As a australiani found that the xd to el 98 falcon/fairmont were designed from the european grenada just look at the similar dash panels the only difference would be longer front end to take account for straight six and v8 option motor inlike the 4 cylinder and v6 the eruopean grenadas got even the australian cortinas were fitted with straight 6 motors so i guess the firewall and trans tunnel would be different from the english models

[@saxongreen78]

Vinyl was the most DURABLE material available to Australian motorists until the 1970s, and even at that time only the most expensive types of fabric could stand up to extreme UV, high mileage and exposure to dust. Due to its hardiness, in the 1950s/60s it actually sold at a PREMIUM over the leathers formerly used in Holdens, Fords and such! A compromise, but a good many people added lambskin or jacquard covers to avoid being SCORCHED then BROILED in their cars!

[@NiceCakeMix]

Really nice brochure choice, to be honest, i didn't think about the Escort being so different in Australia like this. I do like how the Australian one is different like the South African one. Those bucket seats do look good, i remember some people in the UK having them in their Mk2 Escorts back in the early 90s. The fact these start at a 1600 engine shows the difference in distance that Australia has compared to the UK. Here the 1100 being the entry engine just wouldn't work in Australia. I would love to take one there and see what people thought of it. I agree vinyl seats in Australia would be horrific during the summer. Great video.

[@rjbiker66]

"The 70 kW (93.8bhp) 2 litre powered the RS2000 to a top speed of 168km, with a 0-100 time of 11.5sec and the standing quarter mile in 17.9sec."

[@davidb1630]

I worked in an Auto Spare Parts shop from 1976 to 1994, in Sydney's northern suburbs that had accessories as well. Cloth to terry towelling or sheepskin on the skin backing or lambswool taken off the skin and sown into thick padded backing seat covers. These were a must for all cars because of the skin-burning vinyl seats. Also, the other must was a leather or lambswool steering wheel cover for the hard plastic steering wheels.

[@mattw8332]

I prefer the Australian spec Escorts to the British ones. A 2.0 GL or Ghia appeals to me. The alloy wheels on the Australian spec Ghia appear to be the same as those fitted to the UK spec Cortina '80 Ghias .

[@rjbiker66]

Looks like the Oz RS2000 is based on GL spec. The euro rs2000 seems to based on a low spec escort and then custom is based on Ghia

[@pauldoyle9638]

Good video m8. I inported a MK1 Lotus twin cam 4 years ago from Australia, well happy days, rot free. Paul

[@quarterlight]

Aw wonderful

[@stephenchigwidden7504]

There may have been another or perhaps later model because i remember the time grill on the RS2000 being colour coded with the body but its a long time ago someone help me.

[@phillipm1039]

Side note the 79 xd falcon did use granada headlights so yes it does look familiar.

[@robsx4280]

The Australian Ghia has the same alloys as my 1979 Cortina Ghia had 😊

[@adrianmclean9195]

Very good 😊

[@club1fan552]

Brilliant as always. One of the photos in the brochure was taken in Sydney University. The 2L (from the Cortina) GL 2 door gave the best bang for your buck out of any small car at the time and was stunning value for money but the quality control was not as good as a Mazda 323, Toyota Corolla or a Datsun Stanza...

[@quarterlight]

Thank you for pointing out the location very interesting to know that