Ford’s Escort Cosworth is an icon of 1990s performance rallying, and remains a big player in European hillclimb and time attack racing. There’s just something about that Cosworth YB engine that takes way more boost than Ford ever pumped into it when it was new. With a seriously built 2.3-liter stroker carrying an HKS 84-mm turbocharger, hillclimber Yves Hängärtner claims his Escort is pushing 600 horsepower to the ground. Yeah, that ought to be enough for a wild ride. It seems obvious from the ride-along segment of the video that there isn’t much Escort left in this thing, as the interior is full roll-cage-and-carbon-fiber race car and the transmission is a trick sequential gearbanger.
Hängärtner (what a great name!) recently took the ‘Scort to Switzerland’s Slalom Ambrì event, which looks like a really fast and slightly sketchy autocross on a series of airport runways with gorgeous Swiss vistas. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never participated in an autocross with such beautiful natural surroundings. Imagine the serenity of communing with nature in the shade of mountains older than society, and then breaking the silence with a fire-spitting Ford exhaust!
I’m a fire starter
An autocross might not seem all that exciting at first glance, but this course is just totally bonkers and the Escort gets all the way up to 6th gear on the long straights. I’ve been to a few trackdays with straights that aren’t this long. Just trust me, you’re going to want to crank up the volume and sit back to watch this Cozzie rip around this long and winding course. It’s more like a tarmac rally stage or WRC special stage than an autocross, despite what it looks like. I would absolutely love to rip around this course in one of my own cars, but probably none of them would be near as quick as this monster. Incredible stuff.