► ‘Contiumod’ Ford Escort RS revealed
► Up to 296bhp, 10,000rpm – at a price
► Love it or loath it? Let us know…
So, this is the Boreham Motorworks Ford Escort Mk1 RS. Announced just prior to the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed, in simple terms it’s a continuation model that follows 50 years after the last Mk1 Escort RS2000 and is built with the full blessing and approval of Ford.
It looks… disarmingly undramatic. Especially for something that has a basic price of £295,000 and – as it turns out – quite the potential for customers to spend more. Boreham Motorworks has also chosen, probably quite deliberately provocatively, to trademark the terms ‘Continumod’ and ‘Peak Analogue’ to describe what it’s up to here.
In a world increasingly stuffed with rich reimaginings of evocative classics, all of this has the potential to rather get on one’s goat. For want of a better term. Especially as the Mk1 Escort was originally much more of a car of the people than, say, the Porsche 911. Given just 150 will be built and you’ll clearly need to be exceptionally well-walleted to take the plunge, the whole thing seems a little too much like elitist onanism for some tastes.
And yet… there is some interesting engineering involved. And what would appear to be some fairly intensive costs to the creation process. So let’s proceed with an open mind, shall we?
Ok, first things first: what’s this Continumod ™ business?
Unlike conventional restomods – which take a classic car and update it – the Boreham Motorworks Escort does not require a donor vehicle. Instead it carries on where the original RS models’ chassis numbers left off, and is built from the ground up using totally new components. Including the bodyshell.
But even the shell isn’t an off-the-shelf item (there are places in China knocking these out now; you can buy them on Alibaba). Boreham has instead used laser scanning and the original blueprints to fully reengineer it in CAD.
This has enabled the creation of new jigs and assembly fixtures that will – we’re told – allow manufacturing to the same standard of flush fitment and panel gap tolerances as a truly modern car built by an OEM. You’re probably already starting to see how the Mk1 Continumod could work out so expensive…
As part of this process, and in combination with the desired performance outcomes, the body structure has been enhanced to improve torsional rigidity, handling dynamics, performance and usability. Changes include additional bracing, wider inner arches and vertically position rear dampers.
The body structure is all steel, but the bonnet and bootlid are carbonfibre, as are ‘all the internal substrates’. Other lightweight features include the rear axle (more on this in a moment) and the optional (so there’s a price increase already) magnesium wheels.
Target weight is just 800kg. Now we’re really getting interested.
What’s the power and performance of the Boreham Motorworks Mk1 Escort RS?
Your entry-level £295k gets you an ‘iconic’ Ford Twin Cam engine. Bored-out to 1845cc and updated fuel injection it may be, but that still feels like a lot of money for four cylinders and just 183bhp.
Just to really mess with our heads, it comes with a four-speed manual gearbox – albeit a straight cut ‘Ford bullet’ syncromesh item that already has our hands tingling in anticipation. There is another option, though.
At as yet unspecified extra cost, you can have your Boreham Mk1 with a brand-new – but also Ford-derived – 2.1-litre four-banger that revs to 10,000rpm. Described as ‘road-optimised’ but ‘motorsport-derived’, this chain-driven double overhead cam affair is constructed from billet and cast components and weighs less than 85kg.
Forged steel conrods, billet crankshaft, motorsport wiring, coil-on plug ignition and advanced fuel injection come together to achieve 296bhp – which then breathes through a titanium exhaust.
It promises to sound extraordinary, as well as be very fast. Even if Boreham Motorworks rather fluffs its ‘Peak Analogue (TM)’ schtick by relying on electronic throttle control, that was probably inevitable with a modern power unit.
This engine gets an extra gear, too, with a five-speed dogleg manual transmission promising ‘perfect weight and throw’, although also a slightly unusual shift pattern to dazzle and/or confuse.
There are no performance figures as yet, but it’s going to feel – and be – pretty quick. In a much more visceral fashion than modern machinery, no doubt.
What about the chassis?
Up front you get MacPherson struts with ‘geometry that has been optimised within the existing hardpoint envelope’. We’re told it will be responsive and grippy.
At the back, as well as vertical coil-over dampers there’s an all-new ‘fully floating axle’ made from aluminium and titanium. Described as ‘offering predictable handling and a direct connection to the Escort’s motorsport heritage’ and aided by an ATB limited-slip differential, this should certainly give the Boreham Mk1 a distinct feel.
The whole thing has been ‘engineered for exceptional control under power’, with the balance to breakaway and slide with predictable satisfaction. Which is good news, since there’s no power steering, no traction control, no brake servo, and – most controversially – no ABS.
Modest 15×7-inch wheels at the front are paired with 15×8-inch wheels at the rear. Braking also seems minimal for a car with nearly 300bhp: 260mm vented discs and four-piston calipers at the front and 264mm solid discs with two-piston calipers at the rear. But remember it only weighs 800kg.
A roll cage with removeable door bars completes the chassis package.
What’s the interior like?
A pretty straight-looking update at first glance, the interior nonetheless features modern four-vent air-conditioning, heated windows and what appears to be a single-DIN CarPlay capable headunit.
A beautiful set of analogue dials sit behind a classic deep dish steering wheel, while the lightweight ethos is reflected in the fabric door pulls and the option of a carbonfibre helmet transport system for the rear. You get three-point inertia-reel seatbelts as standard with four-point harness available at extra cost.
What else do we need to know?
Well, there’s a two-year, 20,000-mile warranty – which doesn’t seem that generous, given the cost. And we should get first sight of the finished article in ‘summer’ 2025. We’d guess that means at the next Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Going to be a divisive car, this one, we feel. On the one hand, good on Boreham Motorworks for offering such a thorough-seeming job. But the gentrification of the Ford Escort seems a little sad (yes, we know how much an original RS now costs, let alone anything with competition pedigree) and we do wonder what sort of market there is for something so raw and so expensive. Niche is the word, is the word…