Estimate: £40,000 - £50,000
Registration Number: FV0 683J
Chassis Number: BFATLL38497
The Mark I Ford Escort was introduced in the United Kingdom at the end of 1967, making its show debut at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1968. Replacing the successful long running Anglia, the car was presented in continental Europe as a product of Ford's European operation. Escort production commenced at Halewood in England during the closing months of 1967, and for left hand drive markets during the autumn/fall of 1968 at the Ford plant in Genk.
The Escort was a commercial success in many parts of western Europe, but nowhere more so than in the UK, where it was the national best seller of the 1960s. BMC's Austin/Morris 1100 was beginning to show its age while Ford's own Cortina had grown, both in dimension and in price, beyond the market niche at which it had originally been pitched. In June 1974, less than six years after the car's UK introduction, Ford announced the completion of the two millio