[Closed] Ford Escort Vid Gordon Murray commissioned Resto/Mod

Thanks, have added that to my playlist for later.

Cool. Added to watch later. I hope it gets used and not just stored (may mention is video[s])

Had one as a 19 year old rep for Findus Frozen Food ..41 years ago ..loved it at the time !
Haven't watched the video yet ..

Enjoyed that, will need to keep an eye out for episode 4.

Love it in some ways a dream job those guys have. That this is for GM is just awesome. No pressure. 😆

I have so many "lottery win" projects I could get them to do and a good restomod escort is on my wish list. Can't wait to see this finished.

Bookmarked.

Duratec? pah, needs a nice little Millington engine surely!

What, you know better than Murray? 🙂

Fantastic. And I'll take the W108 with the Corvette engine too (although in a different colour).

There were so many nice cars in that garage! that Stratos..mmmmm, and the Jag, and the Chevette and and and 😳

Thanks for that OP, hopefully these episodes will fit nicely in between Project Binky episodes to cut down on the waiting time for each.

As a lad a remember MK1's going through Dalby, Hannu Mikkola at his best !
Can't beat a Mk1 or Mk2 on full chat with a BDA in it, never owned a mk1 but was very fortunate to have a Mk2 mexico and a RS2000, would dearly love to own the mexico again FHD 595S, diamond white 5 1/2 RS alloys totally un modified.

Thanks OP. What a great find. I love stuff like this. Looking forward to further episodes. Only downside is waiting for more...it’s frustrating enough waitIng for more Binky!

Really good - thanks, I enjoyed that.

Can't wait for Episode 4!
Really good [s]watch[/s] Listen (cos I'm at work obvs!)

pondo
What, you know better than Murray?

I know a pukka Millington is better than a duratec, even one that's been breathed upon by Cosworth.

Thanks for that, made really good viewing. A friend and I have a body/restoring shop and currently have one of those Pagoda mercs in for a complete rebuild. The rear wings are £8k a piece!

I'd love to know how much he paid for the Mk1 though, they're mental money..

@pondo - Murray always knows best!

I know a pukka Millington is better than a duratec, even one that's been breathed upon by Cosworth.

Isn't a Millington Diamond a redesigned Cosworth YB/BDA engine?

Maybe overly simplistic, but I'm sure Cosworth could produce a better engine than one based on a design they came up with at the end of the 60s? They're sort of good at that sort of thing.

I know a pukka Millington is better than a duratec, even one that's been breathed upon by Cosworth.

Murray - Member
@pondo - Murray always knows best!

Nothing wrong with a duratec, nice light efficient modern engine, should make minimum 200bhp standard on throttle bodies with exhaust and if it goes bang, £500 gets you another one, that’s what I am putting in my mk2 escort money pit.

Thanks OP. What a great find. I love stuff like this. Looking forward to further episodes. Only downside is waiting for more...it’s frustrating enough waitIng for more Binky!

Glad I'm not the only project Binky fan 😀

great find, enjoyed those! thanks for the heads up.

Really enjoyed those episodes. Can't wait to see the finished car.

Millington engines, i thought Mary Millington died a few years ago she was a luvvie actress can anyone else remember her ?

I had a '74 Sebring Red Mk1 Mexico, thats where my handle on here come from

Millingtons are highly strung race engines, modern duratec can be tuned to 300bhp naturally asperated (though close to race spec) amazed no one said BDA..

Have started the series twice and not made it through an episone yet, constantly panning camera and more waffle than a hope promo.

Just been chatting to a bloke darn the pub I have vaguely known for a couple of years. Turns out he hasn't always been an antiques valuer . He started as a metallurgist and at one point worked for a military vehicle operation at Chobham but he had his most fun working with Ford in the 70s at Advanced Vehicle Operations in Essex. He had loads of great stories. I used to work for British Non Ferous Metals so everyone else was a bit bored as we got a bit technical but sod that, he was fascinating. Until chatting to him I didn't realise my Escort Mexico wasn't fully seam welded but actually was the normal spot welded shell that was delivered to them and then brazed.

I enjoyed the programmes - yes a bit more actual content would be good, but let’s face it - it’s free niche content.

I would like to have seen someone me things conceived differently - not sure what issues anyone can have with a normal backseat?

74 Sebring Red Mk1 Mexico

Had?  Had?  Please tell me you didn’t get rid of it through choice!

Edit. Oops. Not addressed to me.

Just watched them, it’s an interesting concept for sure.

However, I’m more interested in the GT Junior ... I’d like to,see that project.

Did you ever see the mk2 that DJM built for Colin McRae, basically an updated grp4 car to grpA standards.  If only Boreham was still in operation today.......

Will watch this tomorrow night with my Friday vino, thanks.

More Binky uploaded today.

Episode 4 is up.

cheers!

Thanks for the heads up!

Handy link to episode 4

Enjoyed that, it's going to take ages but at least 'we're' moving forward now and not repairing rot (well mostly).

I do wish the suspension guy learned to listen though, it was driving me nuts (it's a real bugbear of mine) it seems when he's nervous he can't stop talking.

Fairly clam (and very interesting on his own) - mentioned that he doesn't know nearly as much about it as Murray, holds off on the decision until Murray has seen AND THEN TALKS ALL OVER HIM WHILST HE TRIES TO EXPLAIN IT TO HIM 3 TIMES!!!

If I was in his shoes, I'd shut the **** up until spoken to, takes notes and say thank you at the end ha ha.

@P-Jay - I agree, there's a time to talk and a time to listen. Being nervous doesn't help though.

Looking forward to the next update

It will be interesting to see if this ends up on a "Q" plate.  I bet you £100 it doesn't and is kept on it's original age related plate, despite the Law being very clear (cut the shell sheet metal in any way, and it's IVA time......)

'Like' Thanks for the pointer 👍

Hmmmmm...

What about the GT Junior?

bikebouy

Member
Hmmmmm…

What about the GT Junior?

You might like this then;

@maxtorque

I think you can apply for a age-related reg when rebuilding classics cars over 25 years ago, even if you use more than one car to make it. It’s got to be reflective of the marque, but I reckon they’d qualify.

Thanks for the Vid, takes me back to my own 16GT Junior I had many years ago..

I am still pining for it to this day..

Another...

sums it up nicely!

Another interesting episode - suspension bloke was very annoying in the can't stop talking when he should be listening stakes. I can't believe that Murray is letting him experiment on this build without seemingly having any experience of designing suspension. I'd want a bit more convincing it was all going to point in the right direction and not fall apart but maybe there's a bit of an unseen helping hand on that front from GMD?

As for Alfas Have a look at THIS vid *

* contains Chris Harris

 I can’t believe that Murray is letting him experiment on this build without seemingly having any experience of designing suspension.

Ah, he knows his stuff, he's just a bit nervous. It's not like designing a production car were you can use your experience and computer models (as shown in Ep1 or 2) to design a prototype and then test it for 2 years. He's got to design and build it and then see how it performs in the real world. The question over the brace is as much a decision of preference as much of whether it'll work or not - stiffness v weight, like every performance car ever built.

I'm sure he's been kept up to speed with it, and if they were doing something he didn't agree on, they'd been told, he used to work for Ron Dennis, I'm sure he could bend a couple of lads who seem in awe of him to his way of thinking.

Episode 5 is now available. Probably a my favourite so far! So much Cosworth!

Episode 5 linky

Thanks for the update.

Nice !!

I wonder how much it will cost at the end? £250k? £300k

Nice !!

I wonder how much it will cost at the end? £250k? £300k

I dread to think, but you're probably not far off. There's got to be 2000 hours of labour in it alone.

Episode 6 now up.

Episode 7 now up,

It's almost getting to the point of it no longer being a Mk1 Escort, more a car that looks like one!!

Still great to watch though and I'd love to have a go in it.

Just love this kind of stuff - it's totally bonkers to devote so much time of so many highly skilled people to this kind of thing but I guess if you have the money!!! Whilst I'd hate working on tatty cars for a living doing that would be epic.

Gordon Murray - also responsible for the T.25 and now the electric T.27 electric city car....

Ive been watching this too, how much do you think the bill will be?

Never mind the car, how much time and cost for the video production ?

Episode 8 now available

At times in the recent video Mr Murray doesn't look that happy with it...

I do like things like this but...

The guy is not the most natural* on camera, so it’s grating a bit now - especially since there’s a lot of screen time and elapsed time going past for the job to be done...

*Totally understandable to be fair - it’s not his profession.  Plus, I’d be worse!!!

Few awkward silences and a nervous supplier having spent a load of time on something. Nice work

At times in the recent video Mr Murray doesn’t look that happy with it…

I don't think he has happy face.  Bit like me, I manage to look miserable even when I am really enjoying myself.

It's sort of interesting, but 20 mins of dry sump fabrication and zinc corrosion protection tests the patience somewhat, 50p if you can through this with either fast forwarding or shouting at him to please sound remotely engaging

You owe me 50p!!

Love builds like this, even the 'boring' bits.  As for Murray looking unhappy, that's just him taking it all in to memory and visualising it in his mind.  I guarantee if he found anything he didn't like he would tell them.

Aaaaaand still no paint. 23 minutes I'll not get back.

Interested to hear them mentioning Murray's lack of interest in the last visit. He looked positively unhappy about the whole thing at certain points.

I'd like the next episode to be the end, they are ripping the arse out of it now.

It’s all a bit too drawn out.  Could have been an interesting 60 minute film with some good editing.

Could have been an interesting 60 minute film with some good editing.

Once complete they could always make a 60 minute edit for those with shorter attention spans (although 60 minutes may be too long for me).

I think you need the full length there as well just so you can see the detail, i.e. the work/thought that went into just the dry sump

I enjoy the detail, so 10 minutes on the dry sump tank was fine for me.

Great story, probably worth an hour special on Discovery or similar, but its so badly shot and put together that I got bored within a few minutes and turned off.

I enjoy the detail, so 10 minutes on the dry sump tank was fine for me.

+1. I'm stunned by the uber geekery.

For the whingers, it is a 'free' programme. It's also an advert for their company. There are other things you can go watch.

I watched the first couple, but got bored with the geekery 🤮

If they do a final programme where Gordon drives off into the distance, then yeah I’ll watch that one.

I am amazed by the engineering capability, the design ethos and the detail... it’s just tooo bloooody loooooonnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggggg.

Love their attention to detail on things like brake line routing and setting up the clip positions and holes before even spraying the thing to ensure it's as rot proof as possible.  They can definitely do my Wolseley when my numbers come up. I might have a replica of this thing as well as I reckon it will be something very special.

Looking forward to seeing it finished and hope they'll do some kind of road test with it once it's had a shake down and a little development.

I have previously never got the fascination with you tube, I now fully understand it, I can't get enough of this series.

It would be truly ace if they done a 5 hour episode of the cost breakdown after they finish it, I'm guessing £120k+ but I bet the cost will never be revealed.

Can't wait for the next one.

Episode10.

Spoiler alert  - There's 22 minutes of discussing sanding the bodywork and no big reveal at the end.

Quite like the Orange Stratos though.

Christ, is this thing finished yet😄🤣🤣😳🤷‍♂️

Having restored cars from a bare shell I’m perfectly happy with 22 minutes of explaining sanding and prep work as the average joe on the street has absolutely no idea just how much work goes into achieving a flawless finish, like they say on the program - final paint is easy.  A mate has a lotus cortina body shell up our workshop that he has been restoring for the past 2 years, it should be ready for paint by the end of this year (hopefully).

Yep, people just don't realise how much work goes into a really good paint finish.  The vast majority of the general public think that factory paint is a high quality finish, it isn't compared to what can be done on builds like this.  A good restoration takes a long, long time and adding all the complexity that this build has is another level on top too.

At least it's progressing faster than Project Binky...