Happy New Year to all the Passion Ford enthusiasts. It was great talking to many of you at the shows we attended with the Hart Escort in 2025.
2026 should be a busy year, once again the Escort will be exhibited and a few selected events the car will compete. She showed some good lap times on testing at Silverstone National. The morning sessions turned up plenty of small Gremlins that were eventually sorted out, mainly in the suspension settings and tyre choices.
By the late morning our lap times improved from a 106s lap down to a 101.56s lap. The Escort pulled well and was very quick through the corners, with a slight tendency to do the typical Escort tail dance through Stowe. I got braver in the afternoon sessions by following some very quick Radicals and by the fifth lap got down to a respectable 58.92s lap. Slight adjustments to tyres and fuel octane, the Escort went out again and mixed it with the fast Radicals and Modsports V8 Morgans. I managed to pass all the Morgans and most of the Radicals, all except one who was putting in 54s to 55s laps. I got down to a 57.34s lap.
Considering the old girl hadnt been run in anger since 1979 and never after it's full re-commissioning, she did all right and would quite easy to

The ex Geoff Wood LT40 Hart F2 Escort Super Saloon.
race for an hour or two. And I lost over a kilo in weight due to not being young anymore.