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Ford RS & Rally Memorabilia The Mk3 Rally Escorts |
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XR3
RS1600i
RS S1Turbo West Cork 85 Circuit of Ireland 85 Welsh 85 Scottish 85 Ulster Rally 85 Rothmans Manx 85 RAC 85
European RS1600i's Rallye Principe de Asturias 83 Rallye Sanremo 83 Rallye Antibes 83 |
21st Rothmans Manx International 15/17 September 1983 - Douglas IOM - ECR34 Coeff2 120 Starters, 48 Finishers, 49 Special Stages
13 Malcolm Wilson / Phil Short, Gp A Ford Escort RS1600i, HPU 73Y 55 Louise Aitken / Ellen Morgan, Gp A Ford Escort RS1600i, HPU 74Y
Autosport Sept 22, '83 p12 FORD - After a season of on-event development, the MCD Services team arrived with two cars for Malcolm Wilson/ Phil Short, and Louise Aitken/ Ellen Morgan. Since the Ulster some further improvements have been made and Malcolm Wilson announced he was particularly happy with the car before the start.
A slight decrease in power (7bhp) had been more than compensated for by an improvement in the mid-range torque from the injected 1600 unit while further work on suspension pick up points (as introduced with the latest production shell) helped the suspension specification, allowing increased camber angles at the front. Both cars ran on standard steering racks.
Rallycourse 1983-84 p191 Everyone seemed to praise the handling of the four-wheel drive machinery but they were always looking for more power and its failure has to be put down to a lack of serious development.
It was just that problem which handicapped Ian Cathcart's Opel Manta GT/E, and turned 1983 into a complete disaster for the Ford Motor Company, who released the Group A Escort RS1600i on MCD Services.
The Widnes team, responsible for running Ford contractee Ari Vatanen in 1982, were this time given the task of fielding a two car team for Malcolm Wilson and Louise Aitken. Between them they managed just three finishes, the girl taking two and Wilson taking a single finish with seventh place in Wales. Assorted transmission problems accounted for seven retirements, and with a couple of engine failures from the 140 bhp unit, it was a year to forget.
Somehow, it never seemed as if the Boreham equipe', brutally severed from its own RS1700T project early in the year, really recovered to ensure full factory backing was given to the group A project.
Indeed while Malcolm Wilson ended the year stating that had found more discipline from the front-wheel drive campaign, he must have also found even greater self control. Others simply wondered if - bearing in mind the success of the conventional Toyota - a front-wheel drive machine would ever work, although to the credit of MCD they did close the gap as the season closed.
Autosport Sept 22, '83 p12 Malcolm Wilson started as he always does, full of determination with a smart handbrake to help the RS1600i round the first hairpin, and raising the crowd's appreciation, almost acting as a build up to the real crowd puller for the Isle of Man.
One thing the FISA seeding did achieve was to put Wilson under continual pressure from Fisher's Manta 400, always starting stages behind, and usually catching up fast on the longer tests.
A benefit of the overnight rest halt was that the competitors could restart in their order according to position, and that must have come as something of a relief to some, ... for Bertie Fisher who had trailed Wilson's little Escort all through Thursday before ending the afternoon in dramatic style by overtaking the Ford in mid-flight across the Abbeylands cross-roads!
It was now that the co-drivers started to come into their own, with those delayed at the accident refusing to take a time at the finish control, and Phil Short, waiting at the start line quite honorably suggested a swift re-route to the start of the next stage thus bringing the rally back on time.
Although communications were excellent, no-one would take the decision, everyone sat in a large queue, and the leading dozen or so cars drifted further ahead, being stopped eventually at St Johns.
In Group A, the leaders were hovering just outside the top 10, with Eklund still ahead followed by Lord then Midgley and Aitken involved in their own dice. The others had fallen by the wayside, with Wilson breaking a gearbox.
Eklund retook that valuable Group A lead and Midgley won his long struggle with Miss Aitken when the lady took to the shrubbery, at exactly the same spot which had seen team mate Wilson retire a day earlier.
Leading retirements Wilson (Ford Escort RS1600i), gearbox, 22 stages
Rallycourse 1983-84 SS22 Cancelled
Motoring News Thu June 2 '83 p9 FORD - With a chance that Louise could become second GpA driver if she beat Ian Hughes’ BMW, the team entered a car for Aitken and Ellen Morgan and another for Malcolm Wilson / Phil Short. The team ran well in the initial stages except for punctures. Tragedy however struck the team twice, firstly Malcolm retired with a broken diff and secondly Louise said goodbye to her chances of GpA honours with an off.
THURSDAY LEG Louise Aitken and Ellen Morgan too made a slow start, stuck with totally the wrong tyres...
FRIDAY LEG Some never made it to St.Johns including Malcolm Wilson’s GpA Escort RS1600i. It broke its transmission on St.Marks and parked up in a farmyard. It was later found to be a shaft in the differential and it would appear that with the original diff weakness cured, the problem has now spread a little further up the drive chain.
SATURDAY LEG Louise Aitken was set to take John Midgley in a last effort, but it came to nought on St.Marks, the GpA bogey stage. Just yards before the spot where her team-mate Malcolm Wilson retired the day before, her Escort hit a little bump bridge a shade out of line and with a wheel on the grass, her car ground to a halt, taking with it 20 feet of fencing.
Rally Sport Oct. '83 p35 13 Malcolm Wilson / Phil Short, Group A Ford Escort RS1600i (Ford Motor Company / MCD Services/ Shell Oils/ Lucas/ Pirelli). Two punctures SS2; then almost ran out of petrol with a fuel leak; finished first leg 21st, third in group. Stopped on SS22 with differential failure.
55 Louise Aitken / Ellen Morgan. Group A Ford Escort RS1600i (Ford Motor Company/ MCD Services/ Shell Oils / Lucas / Pirelli). Steady first leg sae her 24th overall, only sixth GpA. Pulled up to 14th , fourth GpA on leg two; changed gearbox as a precaution before going into parc ferme ;spun off on SS38 - pushed back by spectators, but front end damage made it impossible to continue.
Reference World Rallying 6 Autosport Sept 22, '83 p12 Rallycourse 1983-84 p191 Rally Sport Oct. '83 p35 Rothmans Manx Int. Programme 1983 Motoring News Thu June 2 '83 p9
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