The Dark Wob

Sad pair of pics those last two....What's that - 10 years between thriving businesses and start of the rot? That's just the cars.....

Did the roof tend to fly off at high speed ?

A bit of a stretch that advert copy too.....The Le Mans Spits were of course 1200s - the only thing "Le Mans-bred" really was indeed that roof!

Didn't stop the letters coming, though....

"Dear Ford

That new 2000E is crap. Not a patch on the 1600E. And if you ever build a FWD Escort don't even think about a 1600E saloon version...."

mercrocker wrote: ↑Sat May 28, 2022 1:16 pm Didn't stop the letters coming, though....

"Dear Ford

That new 2000E is crap. Not a patch on the 1600E. And if you ever build a FWD Escort don't even think about a 1600E saloon version...."

My first car was a Mk2 Cortina, I desperately wanted it to be an ‘e’ I stuck wood grain Fablon on the door tops, Rover P6 seats and a nasty aftermarket centre console ( Karobes?) But it was still an old fashioned car, no HRW, inertia seatbelts, outside mirrors , hazard flashers etc etc. Now that would be the appeal, in 1982 it was shit, I moved on to a Mk4 Executive and loved having some mod-cons. A couple of years later after more Zodiacs, a Capri GXL, Audi 100, Renault 16 and a lot of homemade 2.0 Escorts, I ended up with a 2000E in that same orange except mine had a Webasto fold back sunroof, the plan was to use the engine in an Escort, but I jacked my job in and buggered off back to Wales and at just the wrong time met the woman who would become my wife, she worked and lived in Central London.
That 2000E did thousands of miles up and down the M4 , usually at 100moh , comfortably with modern accoutrements, including reclining seats... I kept it for almost a year and when I’d stopped being a hippy and moved back to civilisation I stupidly swapped it for a Renault 17 Gordini that lasted a few months before I scrapped it.
My point is that even the best 1600E in the World wouldn’t have been as nice as that £300 2000E for what I needed it for .
Agree on the Orion though, a hideously cynical use of a classic badge, I actually had a company 1.6i Ghia Orion company car in 1990 and even then I never wanted one- the wheels looked shit and the leather looked like plastic.

They converted them at Tickford , just round the corner from me and there were a lot of them sitting in a compound for a year or more, pretty sure you could get a Sierra GLSi for the same money.

Aye, they were well up to the job as An Car, that's for sure. In my first job there was a 2000E estate on the fleet but sadly I wasn't allowed to drive it as I was still 17 and uninsured on the company policy. That was a nice looking car and a typical Ford shrewd marketing move....