Ford Escort
Thomas SCHÖFER / Nicolas SCHÖFER (D/D)

Category	SLOWLY
Year	1977
Group	4

 

 

Yesterday : Jean-Pierre NICOLAS / Vincent LAVERNE - Tour de Corse 1977

The 1977 WRC season was dominated by a battle of the giants between Ford and Fiat. While Ford won the Safari, Acropolis and 1000 Lakes rallies, Fiat was successful in Portugal, New Zealand and Canada. Thus the championship had to be decided on the last three rounds: Sanremo, Tour de Corse and RAC. Since Ford had a limited budget, they only entered two works Escorts (painted in white and blue) for the tarmac events in southern Europe. Fiat, on the other hand, did not only bring a fleet of works 131 Abarths but also had Lancia Stratoses and 131 Abarths entered by Ford France. The idea was to have as many cars as possible to steal championship points from Ford – and it worked. Fiat won both tarmac events and clinched the title despite Ford winning the RAC Rally.

Thomas Schöfer first got to see the Slowly Sideways group on the Hunsrück Rally of 1993. Back then, he had this Ford Escort parked in his garage for three years and did not really know what to do with it. Fortunately the “Hunsrück 93 experience” changed this for Schöfer. He immediately began to restore the car and already drove it in 1994. A few years later, Schöfer painted his Mk2 Escort in the 1977 works colours white and blue. And he even owns a historic Ford Transit which is painted in the same livery.