40 years Ford Escort MK III

From the well-behaved family carriage to the wild rally rider, from the honest everyday car to the successful world car, with this versatility, the escort made history like no other Ford in its first two generations. In England, the compact and technically conservative millionaire was therefore right from the start Cult, on the continent the escort only became a cracker in the third generation, introduced in 1980, who danced with the top-of-the-line VW Golf and had a technical connection to archrival Opel Kadett.

Forty years ago, Ford finally donated modern transverse engines, front-wheel drive and tailgate to its mass-produced model, those that had long been indispensable for success in the compact class. With this, the four-meter-short Escort MK III also made a career in the land of road cruisers and in Germany the compact accelerated the Cologne works to a market share of 40 percent at times. This Ford even gained a lead over the Golf: With 17,2 units worldwide in its first full year of sales, the Escort occupied pole position as the world's most-produced car, ahead of the VW Golf and Toyota Corolla. The bestseller also offered reason to be amazed as a popular celebrity vehicle. We don't just mean the Cabriolet BB “Boris Becker” with which the German tennis star sent the now long-serving third generation of escorts into their tenth and final model year in 820.00. The front pages of the tabloids filled the Ford mainly as a right-hand drive of royal provenance - as the favorite vehicle of Lady Diana Spencer.

Diana drove to the rendezvous with the British heir to the throne, Prince Charles, with an early Escort MK III, the princess parked in front of the Polo Clubs with an elegant Escort Cabriolet, the young mother drove her sons, the princes, with a personalized version of the furious racer Escort RS Turbo S1 William and Harry, through the streets of London and with an escort, eluded the eyes of overly curious observers or guards, according to media reports. Diana loved chic and fast cars, as the Audi Cabriolet and a Mercedes SL she used showed, but the Escort MK III played the main role for her. In fact, it may have helped that the escort as the best-selling car in Great Britain accompanied an entire generation through the driver's life, similar to the VW Golf in good old Germany. In addition, however, there were two very special escorts that became a distinguishing feature of the Princess of Wales: the RS Turbo mentioned in exclusive black paint instead of the otherwise obligatory "Diamond White" - and a classy escort Ghia, which was an engagement gift from Prince Charles to his Bride was.

This five-door hatchback later came to the used car market, where a Brit bought it for a few hundred pounds. To sell the Ford by auction the year after Diana's tragic death. A casino from Las Vegas now offered more than a million dollars - without winning the bid. The British seller insisted on a stylish presentation of the royal escort in the ambience of a museum.

Back to the origins of the otherwise thoroughly bourgeois escort MK III. As early as mid-1975, and thus immediately after the launch of the Escort MK II, the development of the Ford world car, provisionally called "Erica", began for the 1980s. The American Ford headquarters wanted to turn the compact completely and invested the record amount of the equivalent of 2,5 billion euros in the new one, which should also succeed in the United States. There, the first oil crisis had caused a brief downsizing trend. "Erica" ​​therefore not only received modern front-wheel drive including hatchback, but also an almost unrivaled large engine range, for Europe with performance values ​​between modest 37 kW / 50 hp and 97 kW / 132 hp, including the first small Ford diesel.

The almost confusingly diverse body portfolio consisting of three- and five-door hatchbacks with the largest luggage compartment, three- and five-door station wagon “Tournament”, the wing-reinforced top performers XR3, RS Turbo and RS 1600i (as the basis for Motorsport Group A) as well as one set standards Karmann produced Cabriolet as a pleasure donor. This cabriolet with a fixed roll bar was one of the first dream projects of the new European Ford design chief Patrick Le Quément in 1981. In contrast, there was the 1982 + 2-seater sports coupe Ford EXP in North America in 2, derived from the US escort. In fact, there were serious plans to produce this ultimately unsuccessful hatchback athlete as the successor to the Ford Capri in either Halewood in England or Saarlouis in Germany. Plans that failed due to the generally shrinking sports coupe market. Things went much better for the four-door Orion from 1983, because this escort in the form of a classic notchback sedan won quite a few conservative buyers who did not take part in the change from Ford Taunus / Cortina to the Sierra aerolimine at the time.

Orion's customers also included Princess Margaret, Queen Elisabeth II's younger sister. A quota of 10.000 Orion from Saarlouis was even supposed to be delivered to the GDR, a deal with which state leader Erich Honecker wanted to diversify the range of vehicles in the GDR, as with Mazda 323, Citroen BX or VW Golf. Ford did not forget the delivery service group either, because the surprisingly popular Transporter Express 35/55 with its pleasing combi-like box body functioned as a packhorse. South Africa also found some pick-ups on European right-hand drive markets.

With this variety, Ford found its way through the fiercely competitive compact class in the 1980s, in which all the Japanese and even the Swedes (Volvo 300/400) had a say in the matter. The fact that Ford (USA) made a handsome profit again after deep red numbers in 1983 was attributed not least to its best-selling model: the US version of the escort, which was otherwise largely developed in Germany. Despite these successes, there was not only reason for Ford to be happy, because the escort's extremely tough chassis tuning received fierce criticism in the specialist press and from many customers.

A thoroughly modified chassis was only available in early 1986 on the occasion of a facelift for the successful model. A completely new car would probably have been too expensive because Ford Europe had just lost again. After all, safety innovations such as the new ABS braking system in the compact class and the large plastic bumpers that were popular at the time kept the escort fresh until 1990 and even longer in the South American production facilities. The success of the third escort was shown most clearly by the successor introduced at the end of 1990, the sales figures of which initially fell short of hopes.