New MST Mk1 Evo turns the original Ford Escort into a rally monster
Latest evolution of MST’s built-from-scratch reimagined Ford Escort is aimed at tarmac rallying
MST has expanded its portfolio of reimagined Mk1 Ford Escorts with the new Mk1 EVO, designed with tarmac rallying and track performance in mind.
Previous cars built by the Welsh firm have had more of a focus on mixed-surface or road driving, riding on the diddy 13-inch wheels and taller tyres characteristic of the original rally cars of the late sixties and seventies. But even at glance, it’s clear the Mk1 EVO is a lot more serious.
As the name suggests, it’s an evolution of MST’s existing work and would look right at home on a modern asphalt rally stage, squaring up to WRC cars. At the EVO’s core is a 2.5-litre, 350bhp Millington four-cylinder engine bolted to a six-speed paddle-shift sequential gearbox – though for customers seeking even more performance, 2.7 and 2.8-litre engines are also available.
The suspension is new for the Mk1 EVO, with a fully independent rear set-up, similar to a design that MST developed with Colin McRae for the late rallying legend’s own Mk2 rally car. This is paired with adjustable WRC-spec Reiger dampers, and 18x8-inch alloy wheels wrapped in Michelin tarmac rally tyres (for road use, a set of 17-inch wheels and Michelin Pilots go in their place). Brakes are by AP Racing, so the car should stop as quickly as it goes.
Naturally, each lucky owner (and there are a lot of them, given that order books are full well into 2027) can have the car tailored to their personal specification. So if someone wants the full works rally car effect, then that’s on the table, but so is a nicely trimmed ‘touring’ spec with leather and Alcantara on various surfaces. You can presumably have more or less whatever you like when it comes to paintwork colours, too.
As a reminder, this is no original Ford Escort that’s needed dozens of hours of patching up before MST can even start with its modifications – MST makes these cars from scratch, because it’s able to build Mk1 (and Mk2) Escort shells in-house and register them as a brand-new car.
That goes some way to explaining the base price of £195,000 plus VAT, or about £234k total before you start customising things. But next to some of the other resto-mods on the market, the Mk1 EVO actually looks like a bit of a bargain.
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