FORDS IN MOTORSPORT ALAN MANN MK1 ESCORT
In the realm of old racing cars, provenance is everything. There's so much detail and nuance that can evaporate across the ages. Look at the rally Escorts of the 1970s – they weren't built and maintained with an eye on future values or fastidious bookkeeping, they were built to win rallies; as parts were swapped and upgraded, so we see a Trigger's broom effect (or, to be more charitable, let's call it Theseus's ship) whereby little original remains, and we end up in a situation where several cars all have equal claim to the same iconic registration number.
When it comes to the armada of Escorts built by Alan Mann Racing (AMR) in the late-1960s, there are three in existence today with unimpeachable provenance. Others have serious question marks above them, but three are known to be legit: there's XOO 349F, which is lovingly ensconced in the warm embrace of AMR. XOO 344F is being enjoyed in a private collection over in New Zealand. And then there's the car we have here, XOO 346F. Fresh from a painstaking and fastidious eleven-year rebuild, it's emerged blinking into the light as a bona fide Alan Mann
