It gets to the point of having no other options these days, i built it to use it, i break it when i use it. so i need to build it stronger.
 
think that is the only photos i have of the fans sorry, havent made it onto the car much.

Quality ... 

Great read!

Well long time
 
Herd that things around here were coming to an end soon so I thought I should probably catch everyone up the last 5 years
 
Drove the car a few times, car shows, road trips ect
 
Started a new job in the performance car industry, daily drive was written off while parked out the front of the workshop so the escort became the daily drive again for 6 weeks before I was able to sort a new car.
 
Melted the clutch out of the thing being stuck in peak hour traffic 2 hours a day.
Priced a rebuild kit for the clutch, not available. New 2.2k clutch required. No Thanks
 

 
Proceeded to pull the box out and decided to put an auto in it.
Picked up a dummy box and began chopping, pulled all the wiring out of the car to upgrade the PDM.

Fitting up drop box and shifter, trying to keep at all under the factory console.
 

Fast forward 3 years....
 
New job in a new career, married and baby boy. Car still waiting for the gearbox/convertor to be sorted
 
January 2025, Decided that id been without the car long enough and wanted to get it to SFS. So the last minute 2 week power build was on. Machine the flywheel to get some more preload into it. Rewire the car back to the configuration needed for the manual.
 
 
Made the show
 
First time the young fella had seen it looking shiney
 
Parked the car back up and drove it to a few random car shows when time allowed
 
 
 
 
 

 Which leads me to the culmination of the car
Decided that I should join a few mates for a track day at Sandown on the Kings B'Day long weekend. 
Spent my spare time leading up to it changing all the fluids to ensure a trouble free day.
 
Got up morning of the event.... Rain
 
Decided that it would all be ok, so jumped in the car and drove the hour to the race track. Met up with the boys and prepped myself and the car for the day, Plenty of RainX was applied.
 
 
 

First session rained, took it easy but had an excursion off track. Decided to park it up
Skipped the second session as it was still raining
 
Sometime before the third session the rain had stopped and the track was drying out. Figured id head out to get my monies worth for the day, and boy did I.
A few laps in I was starting to get more confident in the car, braking later and getting on the throttle more. The wheel spin at 150+ was plenty nerve inducing up both the tracks straights and still didn't find myself using more then 50% throttle. 
Got up behind a few mates and passed one up the back straight, slowly caught up to the next coming up to the front straight and planned my way away him. Being the good bloke he is, Exiting the last turn he went shallow to allow me to make my way around. I went wide and unknowingly crossed the painted lines for the pit entry, which as it turns out were still very wet and very slippery. and sadly that was all it took....
 

 
 
And well yeah, that's where we are now. Damage looks better in photos then it really is, both rails in the back are tweaked, obvious cross member/suspension/steering damage in the front. Front inner strut tower paint is all cracked which I presume means something has moved there too. But engine still runs, logs all looked good pre/post wall so thats a win I guess.
 
Now where did I leave that grinder

Wow.

Blast from the past!

Are you planning to repair it or, from memory, you had another shell?.?

What are your plans?

Shaun.

Your car still looks impressive, well before the touch up at least.
 
It was one of the first non-RS 4 doors that proved to me how good a 4 door could look.
 
I hope you can revive it, or reshell it at least, for your next generation to experience.

Beauty of a car, massive ouch on the wall tap though. Must have been a pretty decent whack to tweak both rails. Good luck on the repairs!

Yeah it was a pretty decent hit, from the data logs I've pulled I was doing about 110-120 before it spun, the 180 before the wall washed off some speed but would have still been a 70-80km impact.
The LH rail is tweaked I can only assume is because of the panhard rod, as its twisted as well.
 
To be honest I've not really done much else into working out what's next. I've got another shell, but this car obviously holds considerable sentimental value, which makes building a new car a bit harder. Also the sheer amount of work and money and time that a new car would take also is a difficult one to justify. But I am also a realist and know when things are easier to start over then to repair.  Time will tell. 
 
It been a bit of a trip down memory lane being back here, I got some cold beverages and sat down the other night and went back the almost 40 page 19 year journey of this car here. Funny how a few photos can spark alot of great memories from over the years.