Ford Escort Mk1 RS Returns: 330 hp, 10,000 rpm and Half a Century Later

The Ford Escort Mk1 RS is back — not as yet another restomod, but as an official continuation of the classic. Boreham Motorworks showed the car at London Concours 2026, stressing that this is a brand-new Escort with continuation chassis numbers and a Ford Motor Company licence.

Every example gets an all-new steel bodyshell — no donor Escorts here. Torsional stiffness has been improved by 50% over the original car. Outwardly the two-door retains its familiar proportions (3,780 mm long, 1,703 mm wide and 1,335 mm tall), but almost everything underneath has been reworked. The wheelbase is 30 mm longer with a nod to the 1968 Alan Mann Racing Escort, the bonnet, boot lid and interior substrates are carbon fibre, the lights are LED, and the external metal panels are aluminium and stainless steel.

The headline engine is called Ten-K. No turbo, no electric assistance — just a purpose-built 2.1-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder. It has a 16-valve head, individual throttle bodies, a carbon airbox and the ability to spin all the way to 10,000 rpm. Output is 330 hp. At a kerb weight of 895 kg, this Escort promises to be far sharper than its retro silhouette suggests. For anyone who finds the Ten-K excessive, there is an alternative: a 1.8-litre Twin-Cam producing 185 hp and revving to 9,000 rpm.

The Ten-K is paired with a five-speed dog-leg manual gearbox. Drive goes to a rear axle with aluminium-and-titanium components and a self-locking differential. MacPherson struts handle the front, while the rear runs a six-link floating axle. The brakes are new too: 300 mm vented discs with four-pot calipers up front, and 260 mm solid discs with two-pot calipers at the back. The car rides on 15-inch wheels wrapped in Yokohama A052 rubber — 205/50 front, 225/50 rear. The cable-operated handbrake stays, as befits a car built for hand-on turn-in. No drive modes, no traction control, no digital assistants — exactly the formula today’s purists keep trying to get back to.

The cabin follows the same logic: minimal clutter, plenty of carbon, analogue gauges and extensive personalisation. Two Breitling rally chronographs sit on the centre console — a direct nod to the Escort’s motorsport heritage.

A total of 150 cars will be built, in right- or left-hand drive. UK pricing starts at £295,000, which works out at around $388,000 for US buyers. Warranty covers two years or 20,000 miles — roughly 32,000 km.

The most telling thing is that Boreham doesn’t want this Escort to end up as a museum piece. Yes, owners will treat it as a collectible, but the engineering tells a different story: it was designed to scream to 10,000 rpm, not to gather dust under a cover.