I have often wondered how interesting it would be if Ford had a retro arm to the business producing a limited run each year of Ford classics or icons. These could be built with the the iconic looks and interior of each model but with the modern gear. Or maybe if cost efficient produce the cars as they were, obviously emission tests and Ncap safety would dictate some things.    Personally, I would love to see Ford offer a certain limited number of XR cars from the 1980s and and the mk3 Capri, especially the Brooklands.  

    So, two questions to put out there.   1- Would this lessen the legendary status of the cars from the past ?

                                                                 2- Which classic Ford would you like to see rebooted or reproduced ?

Jaguar did something like this with a limited run of E-types, 6 of them built with fresh chassis numbers etc. And something is in progress with the RS200 and mk1 Escorts I believe 

https://borehammotorworks.com/ford-escort-boreham-motorworks/

Not sure if these would be road legal or track only? Perhaps going track only gives more flexibility regarding the cars meeting legal requirements.

But with all of these projects the cars cost an absolute fortune and I’d wonder how much profit they actually make out of it all.

          The last Fiesta may have been a good base for an 80s Escort reboot to keep the cost down.  Thanks for the link, keep tabs on that one.

You can do continuations, where applicable, if there was supposed to be a set number of VINs but they weren't all built.

You cannot reintroduce a vehicle that has been discontinued due to homologation rules.

A Mk1 Escort or Fiesta or Capri would never be able to look like they did once you get them to meet crash and pedestrian impact regulations, for example.

You could probably get away with continuations on RS3100, RS1800 (Escort), RS200 and Tickford Capri as they never met projected production numbers, but I don't know what the VIN allocations were so could be wrong.

Maybe a new company with the rights to rebuild and re-badge. I remember Daewoo in the 1990s reproducing a re-badged mk2 Astra. Another consideration would be insurance. A reborn Xr3i would probably top group 30 for the badge alone.

MST seem to have managed by going through Individual Vehicle Approval with their Mk 1 and 2 Escort replicas which are registered as new.

Not cheap mind, but none of these things are.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/mst/mk2

I’d expect when Daewoo took over Astra production they had access to the tooling etc or the majority of it. Can’t see any of that existing now for the classic 80’s or 90’s Ford models. May be possible to get some of the main body panels but nowhere near enough to build models from scratch. 
 

Guess an alternative being to rebuild existing vehicles to a newer spec etc but again cost will be very significant. As a comparison look at the price that David Brown Automotive are charging for their remastered Mini’s - little or no change from £100,000. For a Mini 🙀

The Chinese market is flooded with recent European lookalikes but obviously mass produced. This makes it cost effective for the mainstream.  I guess the smaller independent UK firms go for the hand built way.  I should imagine if Ford offered an 80s/90s classic from new it"d probably be electric. Electric Sierra Cosworth?  No!

16 hours ago, troy45 said:

I’d expect when Daewoo took over Astra production they had access to the tooling etc or the majority of it.

Yes, the Mk 2 Astra/Kadett E was not long out of production when Daewoo introduced the Nexia. They had a partnership arrangement with GM before GM eventually took over the car division completely, Daewoos then being rebranded as Chevrolets in most markets.

I recall some years back there was quite a lot of discussion on Vauxhall forums about using more  recent Nexias as a way of re-shelling rusted out Mk 2 Astra GTEs. Don't know if anyone actually did it, though.

On 7/19/2024 at 9:02 AM, DaveT70 said:

A Mk1 Escort or Fiesta or Capri would never be able to look like they did once you get them to meet crash and pedestrian impact regulations

Yet a ugly three wheeler Morgan has basically stayed the same from 2011 until 2021, Morgan now make the ''Super 3'' both of them have bare steel suspension link arms & steering rack blatantly stuck proudly out & obvious, then there's the glass headlamps, what protection would a pedestrian get if the suspension smashed into their legs..... I'd like to see any of them perform crash test etc ! If a Morgan can basically look like the original three wheeler, then Ford could easily do replica Escorts/Fiestas/Capris... Just my thoughts 🤡

15 hours ago, MCF said:

Electric Sierra Cosworth?  No!

Heck! 🤣 

There's this company who I do believe does a TV series, some cars 'maybe' but definitely a very big NO on something like a 911 or Testarossa, rip the heart out of a classic and it's nolonger that car, just an object that many will laugh at 😂 😂 He had one inquiry and wanted a lekky conversion but where the engine used to be, he wanted the top of the original engine fitting on top of the lekky motor, trying to keep it's look, yeah right 🤭 🙄

https://www.electricclassiccars.co.uk/blogs/conversions?page=1

On 7/20/2024 at 1:27 PM, Ian Lanc said:

Yet a ugly three wheeler Morgan has basically stayed the same from 2011 until 2021, Morgan now make the ''Super 3'' both of them have bare steel suspension link arms & steering rack blatantly stuck proudly out & obvious, then there's the glass headlamps, what protection would a pedestrian get if the suspension smashed into their legs..... I'd like to see any of them perform crash test etc ! If a Morgan can basically look like the original three wheeler, then Ford could easily do replica Escorts/Fiestas/Capris... Just my thoughts 🤡

If you remain in continuous production you get exemptions, that's how the original Defender managed to stay on so long.

If you stop, you have to re-homoligate, which means meeting standards

MST's are not sold as Escorts or Fords, but as a specialist car, almost a "built" kit-car so, as volumes are so low, they get dispensation

    If reboots appear to be too expensive has anybody got a paint colour they would like to see reintroduced ?         I think the best red was Rosso Red. My old Fiesta 1.4 S looked great in Tasman Blue. More recently, Copper as seen on Fiesta B/Os was underused by Ford.  Paint colour today is far too limited. 

Peppermint Sea green. The new Crapi would look like the champ is really back in that colour

   If we're talking Capri colours mk1 in Daytona yellow with black vinyl roof. Looked great on mk1 escorts, too.