ACE OF DIAMONDS

When it comes to building project cars, mission creep is often inevitable. What begins as an intention to tidy up a few bits, improve the spec and create something pleasing can often be beset by side-tracks and incremental build-ups; ‘If I’m doing this then I might as well do that too,’ and so forth. But the car you see here isn’t simply a Mk1 Escort build that’s got out of control: it’s the realisation of a long-held ambition — a dream, really — for Dave Gadd, who spent his formative years tearing about in rear-drive Escorts.

“Back when I was 18 I had a Mk1 RS1600, and then a couple of Mk2s,” he recalls. “Of course in those days I could never afford to build something like this…”

Fast-forward a couple of decades or so, and we find Dave eddying in the turbulence of the magnificence of his very own