Ford Escort - and how to prepare it for the final "Beijing-Paris" adventure
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Summary
The Beijing-Paris Rally is considered one of the most demanding events of its kind. Only with the right preparation do you have a chance of arriving at the finish in one piece. This article looks at vehicle preparation using the example of a Ford Escort Mk II.
This article contains the following chapters
- The right preparation is half the rally
- Completely rebuilt
- Improvisation still necessary
- Finished at the last minute
- Team approach
- Lessons learned from the past
- Goal: Arrive accident-free
Estimated reading time: 5min
Preview (beginning of the article)
Yes, they still exist, the adventures in our well-planned, well-structured world, outside of the usual civilization, but with a touch of the uncertain, heroic and also unsafe. If you want to get off the sofa and have a little more excitement, you can, for example, drive the rally from Beijing to Paris, which is tough on both man and machine! But: The whole thing has to be planned and prepared with the utmost precision! "In comparison, a Mille Miglia is a coffee run," says Swiss motoring expert Mario Illien, who will be driving Beijing-Paris for the third time this May. He drove a Citroen Traction Avant 11B (4-cylinder) for the first two editions, "but now we need something faster for the current long-distance race," he smiles. For his participation in 2024, he opted for a tried-and-tested rally car that caused a sensation in the 1960s and 1970s with Hannu Mikkola, Timo Mäkinen and Björn Waldegaard: a Ford Escort Mark II with a Cosworth-BDG engine with aluminum block.
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