Man I had a smile on my face for a full 6 minutes and may have given the finger to those blokes as you passed them!! Love seeing these driven hard and passing Cars 20 odd yrs younger. Awesome mate.

video is excellent rhys. keen to get out for another day

excelent vid and some great pics, must have been a blast to be out there showing the kiddies what a real race car and driver can do lol
 

Some great pics and vids! Great to see this car been driven in anger! Love the wheels too.. 15" 5 spokes just make an escort look so tough!
 
The previous posts on the car being defected by local law enforcement for trim height made me enquire as to where this information is actually sourced from (what is the actual trim height of an escort?). Obviously if myself and others are restoring these cars, and having them engineered we would like to know all requirements by roads authorities.
 
So i wrote to NSW Roads & Maritime.. 
"Hi,

Im not sure if this is the correct department, but I'm after the RTA VSI department.

My question is: I've read reports of law enforcement officers issuing fines due to a registered cars "trim height", which is the distance from the centre wheel axle, to the highest point of the guard according to ADR's (anything over 50mm requiring engineer certificate - 150mm being the maximum from standard).

Where do they get this information from? And from what vehicle have they acquired this measurement?

And am I able to get the standard trim heights of the following:
- 1969-70 Mk1 Ford Escort 1600gt (lotus twincam) 1.6ltr
- 1976-80 Mk2 Ford Escort RS2000 2ltr

Regards,
Evan"
 

and received the following reply: 
"Evan,

 
This information is supplied by the vehicle manufacturer at the time of compliance to the Australian Federal Government, it is then detailed on what is know as an RVD sheet.
 
You can alter the suspension of a vehicle by up to 1/3rd of the manufacturers specified working travel, however you must maintain at least 100mm ground clearance.
 
Any lift modification can generally go up to 50mm, this includes any larger wheels & tyres, suspension modification and any body lift, these will be calculated as one, you cannot have three separate lifts of 50mm.
 
I'm not able to provide you with specific measurements for either of these vehicles, as they are too old and we have no information, you should contact Ford or get an old workshop manual.
 
Regards
 
Tech Enq"
 
So i looked up what the RVD is and it has a car list you can look up.. but still no word of trim heights anywhere (or the mk1 1600t for that matter). So if this is where Australian government and then also local law enforcement base their information from, I'm not sure where that officer got his info from still. I do have a few police contacts so might make a few enquiries.
 
http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/rvd-pre1999/index.htm
 

Minimum eyebrow heights, measured from centre of wheel vertically upwards to bottom of guard.
Mk1 F=287mm R=235mm
Mk2 F=305mm R=280mm

Cheers

Is this available online or somewhere for reference? 
And what models mk1/mk2 are they from? i.e. mk1 twincam will be different to a standard 1100 in both ride height and guard clearance (being different guards)

sure is here is a link to the pdf page 47 https://www.sa.gov.au/__d...ar-Track-list-2.15.pdf
It only specifies mk1 3/71 onwards, so that's all they will base the measurements from for any mk1.

Awesome. Exactly what I'm after. Im assuming its obviously the same for NSW.
If thats the case for Mk1.. actually benefits me a bit having twincam guards (mine is a 1970 shell).
And by using 195/50/15 wheels the radius is 288cm from centre. So in theory if i line the tyre to the guard at the front should be fine. The rear can even be tucked under a touch. So should end up sitting nicely. 
But its good to have every piece of info so i can get everything spot on, which ill include with my engineers report so I can't be caught out.