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The Escort Mexico bought high performance hooliganism to a generation of petrolheads - long before the Cosworth became the icon of the PlayStation generation.

 

It offered rear wheel drive thrills and a bona fide rally heritage too. Stuart Milne says it was the greatest of all the early Escorts.

 

When Ford demolished the opposition in the 1970 London to Mexico rally with first, third, fifth and eight placed finishes, it didn't mess about hiring celebs to appear in expensive adverts.

 

It simply made a lasting tribute to the four cars which finished the gruelling 17,000 mile road race. It did the honest thing and built a road-going version people could actually afford.

 

And I'm not talking about a mega bucks machine for the well healed performance junky to look at and only take out when it wasn't raining.

 

The Escort Mexico was an affordable road going rocket for the masses.

 

Costing just £1,150 the Mex flew out of showrooms as fast as Ford could knock 'em out.

 

The Mexico wasn't the most powerful car on the block. Its 1.6-litre, four-cylinder engine went without fuel injection, turbocharging or clever computer wizardry – it was 37 years ago, remember.

 

In fact, it produced less than 100bhp and only 92lb/ft of pulling muscle. But it weighed about as much as a medium-sized sombrero, so performance was pretty good, even by today's standards.

 

Should the driver manage to make a clean launch from the lights without smoking up the rear wheels, it would reach 60mph in around eight seconds, and carry on to the dark side of 100mph.

 

But fast old Fords practically created the now-commonplace tuning market, and there were all manner of cheap, go-faster bits available off the shelf to bolt on.

 

Fiddling around with the carburettors was one of the first stops on the road to emulating London-Mexico rally winner Hannu Mikkola.

 

Hot cams, sports exhausts and new cylinder heads were all popular modifications for the boy and girl racers of the day.

 

So with extra performance potential ready to be released with a simple toolkit in a garage, it's no surprise many weekend racers chose to pilot them; turning the Escort into the world's most successful rally car.

 

The real fun to be had with a Mexico was exploiting its tail-out antics. Watch footage of any old Escort rallying – it's not difficult; they're still being raced today – and you'll find the driver powersliding their way round tight bends in spectacular style.

 

Naturally this kind of spirited driving means Mexicos are a rare sight today. Most of them have oversteered into a ditch, and rotted in a scrapyard, but get a straight one; and you'll get a genuine rally star.

 

If you fancy one, then good luck. Owners don't often part with them – with good reason – so when they do, you can expect to part with at least £10,000.

 

That's ten times what they cost in 1970.

 

 

L.A.T.W.O.T Video of the Week

 

Six minutes and nineteen seconds of sheer Mk1 Escort lunacy. It's mostly sideways with some real heroics behind the wheel.

 

 

 

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