Retroford Magazine presents the 4th Show Car of the 1300E Owners Club at NEC2024

The first four-door Ford Escort arrived in 1969, joining the estate and van in offering more practicality to the small car buyer. The four-door was available initially in De Luxe, Super and GT trim levels then from April 1974 an E specification was offered.

Once again, Fords marketing machine leapt into overdrive promoting the 'more-doors' Escort with the help of a story involving Grandma, a front door and a trip to Torquay. Intrigued and puzzled yet?

It was a story about the Robinson family and no it was nothing to do with the Dustin Hoffman Film “The Graduate” that was released in 1967 but you do wonder if it was in the minds of the marketing team.

The whole story was based around a record-breaking attempt for the family to go from London to Torquay and back in 24hrs. Why Torquay you may ask, who knows? They set off at 7am complete with picnic, beach gear and of course mackintoshes after all it is Britain. They story talks about how the family found it easy to get into the car with the extra doors, how lively the engine was with good acceleration and then commenting on how the race and rally winning record of the Escort would give them more time on the beach. What a story – its more like a sketch from the comedy series “Who’s line is it anyway” where each comedian adds their own bit of the story.

After cruising along quickly they had to turn back as grandma had forgot to close the front door of all things. Mr. Robinson had some extreme patience and even though the record was slipping away all he could think about was cut flowers, free range eggs and ice cream – road rage 1960’s style!

There was a silver lining in this tale of epic journeys says Ford “Mr. Robinson didn’t have to get out of his seat to let grandma out, he could count his blessings all four of them”.

Mr. Robinson would have made the journey easily today as it would be an 10hr round trip, so with a 24hr target he had plenty of time. However, it was 1969 and the M4 and M5 weren’t built yet. You can bet though, if he had been driving a 1300E 4 door the journey would have been in Fords finest Escort allowing travelling to be in luxury, style and a little sporty but perhaps grandma wouldn’t have approved of the last bit!

Did this off-the-wall advertisement help sell the 4-door? It’s difficult to tell. They did make around 4000 4 door 1300E’s which is a very small number if you consider that around 2 million Mk1 Escorts were made. Additionally, Ford built a prototype Mk1 Mexico in a 4-door saloon too which has recently resurfaced and been sold. Today 4 door cars are not as sort after as 2 door Mk1’s.

The 1300E Owners Clubs’ 4th display car is Gareth’s, GYD924N. Of the 4000 built very few remain today and this now rare 4-door example was built, registered, and delivered to its first owner in the last production month of December 1974. It was first delivered to Ford Regional hub dealership, White Brothers of Taunton in Somerset. It was registered on 11th December 1974 making it one of the later Mk1 Escorts manufactured. It was registered very quickly and by that time not many purple velvet cars were produced. It was sold new to Mr. F Chilcott, a salesman from nearby Nether Stowey, he kept the car until May 1977, when he sold it to Mr. J Court in nearby Minehead.  Mr. Court kept it for a year before selling it back to The Premier Garage (Alcombe) in May 1978.

The Premier garage was owned and run by proprietors Mr & Mrs Wickes, who kept the car in the name of the garage and used it as their private vehicle until their retirement in 2001, when it was then re-registered to them, in their private name. They kept the car and it moved with them to Hereford during their retirement, using it as their main family car in the early years, but kept as a second car in later years.

Gareth was very lucky to be able to purchase the car in 2015, having covered only 2,200 miles between 1995 and 2015, and continually maintained and MOT’d. Gareth carried out a bare metal respray to original Purple Velvet and has tried to balance preservation with keeping it roadworthy. The interior of the car remains largely as purchased and mechanically, he’s only done the usual servicing and replacement of worn parts.

Retroford Magazine knows the car will surprise people on stand 8-070 as it’s a 4-door!