![]() ![]() It was a slight update on Ford’s CVH engine that dated back to the early ‘80s and came in sizes ranging from 1.1 liters to the last-generation Escort’s 2.0 liters. It had enough torque, but the power went flat shortly after 4,000 rpm. But I realize now that it wasn’t exactly a smooth-running motor. By the time I sold that car for some 3-figure sum, it had fairly bad blow-by. I also put 20w-50 Castrol Syntec oil in it, during an Illinois winter, because it was for race cars! And also because I was an idiot. I loved to rev the piss out of that sad 1.9-liter, and it survived all my abuse. That’s practically a 40 horsepower difference, or a 44% improvement, from a smaller engine. That SOHC motor made somewhere 88 horsepower, a far cry from the 127 horses you could get in the Mazda-sourced 1.8-liter in the GT. Mine had the 5-speed manual transmission and the standard-on-every-Escort-except-the-GT 1.9-liter engine. Of course, I installed a stereo and fitted the doors with Sony Xplod speakers because it was around the year 2000 and those were the coolest-looking speakers on the shelf at Circuit City.Īll Ponys (Ponies? How do you treat the plural of a proper noun where the regular-noun version is an irregular plural? Does that qualify as an irregular plural? My college girlfriend was an English major, but I studied journalism, so formal grammar is not my forte.) were 2-door hatchbacks. My first car was a 1991 Escort Pony - their highfalutin’ name for the stripped-out model - had the optional rear defrost, but no power steering, no a/c, not even an AM/FM stereo. ![]() (Via its platform-friend Mazda 323 GTX and GT-R, if you’re curious.) But I have a deep, personal connection to the stupid, smoothed-over-rectangle North American Ford Escort that is only related to anything with an actual sporting pedigree in the longest reach possible. Yeah, the European Escort was actually cool in all kinds of ways and had incredible race provenance. In this installment of Lamest Classics, I’ll be the first to say it: I love Ford Escorts. So far in this series, I’ve mocked several cars that people have relied on and loved in their lives, so now it’s time I turn the snark upon myself. ![]()
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