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Ford Escort ZX2
1555 messages, Last post on Dec 19, 2012 at 2:18 PM
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What is this discussion about? Ford Escort, Coupe
#938 of 1555 Much to say... by photog0264
Jun 10, 2001 (10:30 pm)
floridian...I know of a Royal Marine who did exactly the same thing only he joined the US Marines. Last I had heard he was honourable discharged about 5 or 6 years ago, and was living somewhere south of your play ground; down near the Keys I think. I know when I was left the CIS, the first job offers I got when I came back to the states was from the US Army and a couple police departments. It seems some recruiting officer had gotten wind of my background. It really was rather flattering all the different inducements they where trying on me. Sponsorship (I grew in the states and didn't need it), waiving the $250 application fee for a green card, retention with transfer of rank, all sorts of stupid crap. The only thing is I left for a reason, and as is typical of my heritage and personality; I am stubborn as the proverbial bull dog which beyond physical resemblances Brits are of course noted for.
As for Suez, I will let the history books, or at least those that mention it deal with the facts (many of which are dead wrong by the way). I am in fact quite familiar with middle eastern affairs in away that few could ever imagine. Without going into detail I would strongly discourage anyone planing a visit to the Holy Land any time soon. There is excellent potencial for things to get many times hotter than they have ever been before.
Now to shift gears (no pun intended) away for Middle Eastern Geo Political Affairs. About a half hour after I posted the question about "cat-Back". The thought went through my mind "I wonder if he was talking about the converter?" Sometimes I am a little slow with these things.
Ralex, you are echoing similiar if slightly more techinical versions of my own thoughts regarding the S/R. The sound is quite a bit different and those tires grabbed hold of the road like nothing else. However for speed, and off the mark acceleration I couldn't feel much of difference. Granted I only test drove the red one at Tedd Britt twice, and at the time I was still in shell shock after the loss of my black ZX2. Funny thing is despite the colour I realy wish I had tried for that S/R now. Though I am sure I would have picked up a speeding ticket in the damned thing. Still... Perhaps in a couple years I will see if I can find one used somewhere.
The Super S/R for 2001.
I am stil trying to find information regarding that limited and select clientel version of the S/r that I was told of by a Ford Exec.. No one seems to know much of aything regarding it. A couple people within Ford have acknowledged that it exists, but they don't have any details. Even then I am not sure if they are being polite with me, or really have heard about it. I did have one strange E-mail from someone who one seemed to know a few of the details. That fellow though seemed to be more interested in the creature comforts, and talked mostly about the seats and some of the lesser interior details. With nary a word regarding the performance numbers. When I went to try and E-mail him back it was returned as a dead address. On the whimsical side there was also a well meaning kid who swore there was a ZX2 Convertable that routinely parked on his street. In the interests of being fair I offered to send him a camera to keep, and some film to take some photos for me. He never did give me his address despite several E-mails to him. My conclusion was that he was confusing the either a Cavalier convertable or a Sunfire. So in the end does the Super S/R 2001 ZX2 exist? I am starting to think it maybe like the legend of Big Foot. Odds are good there maybe something, but no one can seem to be able to offer any concrete proof.
Other European Fords...
I do remember the Ford Cortina and I also seem to remember some adverts for it when I was very young. Beyond the Escort though the car that stands out most in mind was Anglia. If you visit my web pages you can see a photo of one sent to me by brother. It's on the rivals page .
Speaking of which now that I have FrontPage back up. I will be taking down the that temporary gallery I established with the MG photos later this week. If you would like to visit it before it vanishes the address is http://www.photogsweb.com/MGGallery.htm. There is an antique car show this weekend, and I will probably shoot a roll or two of film at it. I am hoping to aquire enough quality images to set up a True Automotive gallery in the near future.
Whew this has been a posting hasn't it?
#939 of 1555 Body shop problems by ralex2
Jun 11, 2001 (6:48 am)
My appointment with the body shop was this morning. They were going to alter the inner lip on my rear fenders to give me adequate clearance for the 205x55 tires. Last week, when I made the appointment it was supposed to be a simple job. This morning the guy admitted they had no tool designed for the job, the paint might crack, and the outer skin might wrinkle. He said they would fix the paint if they cracked it, but that would be another 75 bucks or so. I got in the car and left. Needless to say I was disappointed.I was explaining the body shops reservations to my tire man and he told me to take a baseball bat and roll it between the tire and fender well until the lip bent into position. I have also seen this recommended on a few websites. Anybody heard of it? Any success stories? Any failure stories?
The best solution would be to use a Ford S/R rim, but it scares me to think what Ford would charge for one of those butt ugly swiss cheese wheels. Finding a wrecked S/R would probably be extremely difficult. I guess I should have kept the swirlies ..... ughhhhh.
#940 of 1555 where I've been by rickgonz
Jun 11, 2001 (7:02 am)
sorry to be off topic here, but since old fogeys tend to reminisce...photog:
Yup, first Toyota I saw was something horrible called the Toyopet which was superseded a couple years later by the Crown, their first 'real' car.
Then came their Coronas which were pretty indestructible, as were their Land Cruisers (at the time, cheap imitations of Land Rovers).
I was born in Manila, Phil. and lived there till 84 (visited Cagayan de Oro just once) when I started moving around. First to Saudi Arabia, then Germany and then Hong Kong.
Ended up in Virginia USA in 92.
Have also travelled for work or pleasure to Japan, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, etc. I've seen a lot of cars weird and wonderful in my travels.
One of them was a Maserati Quattroporte that my coworker in Riyadh bought off a Saudi prince for a song (about $2000) cause it was pinging badly and blowing black smoke out the exhaust.
Turned out to be one bad piston. He fixed it, even had it sent back to Italy for repairs and it worked fine afterwards.
That's also where I first saw a Mercedes 1000 which I think was a local model only. It had a 12 cyl engine like a 600, but also had gold ornaments and gold plating everywhere, real wood of course, had a TV inside and I think a refrigerator.
There was something called a Pontiac Firefly which I had not seen anywhere else. Turned out to be a Suzuki inside which had been badge engineered.
At the time, there were no Fords in Saudi Arabia. They were banned, since Ford did business with Israel. Things are not so strict anymore now, and I think Fords now exist in Riyadh.
Your MG gallery is cool, and has some real good looking cars there.
If you have the time and inclination, there's a used car dealer on Route 50 West that specializes in British cars.
He's got a lot of Jags, MGs and Triumphs on his lot. I don't know if any of them run, as many of them look pretty battered.
I think he also has a small shop that sells Jaffa cakes, shortcake cookies, etc to homesick Brits.
From Rt. 7 or from Dulles Toll Rd, go rt. 28 south, then take rt. 50 west. It will be on your left after the So. Riding entrance.
#941 of 1555 Unlike the "yeti" a ZX2 convertable (s) does exhist----- by floridian
Jun 11, 2001 (8:03 am)
Photog: yes, they DO exhist !! A custom convertable mfg. in High Springs, Florida (of all places) does convertable conversions. They will turn anything into a convert for a price. They have done a lot of engineering for Toyota over the years. I think their last project was for the Pesaeo or the last series of the Celica. They usually do vehicles like Eldorados & Lincoln MK VIII's etc. I think their name is Convertable Concepts. American Sunroof out in California does a lot of this too. Very nifty the pix I saw of one
a local Ford dealer in Lake City, Fl. afew years ago. They did a lot of Mustangs back before the "new" style Mustangs were available from Ford. Floridian
#942 of 1555 Perils of a failing DSL connection.. by photog0264
Jun 12, 2001 (10:36 pm)
Perils of using a failing DSL connection. I have tried to post several times over the past 2 nights. However when I get connected "poof" I can't do anything. At any rate here we try again...Rick...
I know the place on 50... To be honest I was trying to remember where it was. You are quite right about an MG grave yard. If memory serves me there was quite a few older Mgs over there. In truth it is not very far from as live within sight of Dulles Towncenter. By the way what colour is your ZX2?
Hmmm...
Now there would be an interesting kit car to get my hands. Grab an old MG cheap, and blow out my limited entertainment funds restoring it. Of course it wouldn't be a very practical to do, given that I live in an apartment building and don't even have a garage. However perhaps in the not too distant future if I could scrap together enough cash for a small house with a garage... Maybe a nice green Triumph convertable. IT would certainly be an eye catcher. There again at the moment I can barely afford my current hobbies and despite everyones words of advise against. I am still hanging on to the fantasy of getting a second car. Somehow I think a Classic sports car would not be very practical.
Floridian...
I have heard of Creative mods where they turn normal cars in to convertables. THere are in fact several ZX2 in this area that I have seen with modified sunroofs. On my first ZX2 I spent quite a bit of time moaning over how it didn't have one. I even went so far as to contact several companies regarding sunroofs. Several offered up some interesting different variations on the normal roof. Most notable where several designs that where both slimmer and larger.
However I think this kid who talked about the convertable ZX2 was almost certainly confusing the ZX2 with another similiar OTHER sports coupe. Like I said I even offered to send him a camera if would only shoot some pictures of it for me. Sort of ashame though because though I am not a convertable fan, the ZX2 would look pretty cool as a roadster. There again I think Ford already has a roadster don't they? I believe it's called the Miata.
Which reminds me wasn't the old Escort GT available as two seater?
The mystery car to me though is the ultra limited Super ZX2 S/R 2001. The one that was mentioned to me by a Ford Exec. at an airshow last year. On the two or three occasions I questioned Ford about it they have politely confirmed for me that such a car does exist, only they have not had any details regarding it immediatly available. To date the only independant information I have about it came from a phantom E-mail with a dead address. So again the question raises it's head, does it exist?
#943 of 1555 Wow I made it!!! by photog0264
Jun 12, 2001 (10:38 pm)
Sorry I was in utter amazement that my posting went through...While we are on the subject of older cars.. Does anybody know of any books covering the history and lineage of Fords?
Also does anybody have any refs to the Concept car that became the ZX2?
#944 of 1555 Ford "EXP", two seater by floridian
Jun 13, 2001 (1:56 am)
photog: yes, you are correct. The first Escort line-up did include a two seater (Mercury had a version also)These are fairly rare and seldom seen. These were the "hot ticket" at the time for conversion to a neat little convertable,kind of like a "do it yourself Mercury Capri". I used to see a lot of these running around Boca Raton, Fl. It seemed that all the rich college kids had one of those. I suspect some local "converter" was sawing tops off these cars and thus a convert. I looked one close up and it was a very professional job, nice folding top hardware etc. The more I think about it a ZX2 convertable would be as cute as heck. Floridian
#945 of 1555 restoring cars? by rickgonz
Jun 13, 2001 (6:31 am)
I would not personally want to restore one of those older sports cars. If it doesn't run, I'm leery of it. Also I am a bit more practical now, wanting heat and A/C in a car.Older cars will need some body repair work to replace rusted sheet metal parts. Those replacement parts are available and made by specialist companies. Then the seats, top, suspension. And the engine will definitely require some work.
A friend of mine from NJ had a Triumph sitting in his garage for 5 years. I think he finally sold it off 'as is' after much nagging from his wife. He had put in a lot of money in to the engine, had not gotten around to body repair and paint yet.
Although not in the same category, I had an old Renault 4L back in Manila which I intended to restore, but alas a couple of thousand dollars later had it towed away as I could no longer afford to keep sinking money into it.
Probably better value as an everyday driver would be the Mercury Capri convertible. It would be cheap to drive and maintain. However, wouldn't expect it to be any kind of performance car as it was tested against the Miata by the car mags. It lost on all counts: acceleration, slalom, comfort, etc.
It doesn't share much with the ZX2 beyond the chassis, but they're both based on the Mazda 323 platform.
Oh yeah, my car's dark blue but nothing else to distinguish it. Can't remember exactly what Ford calls that color. I haven't modified the car at all, not even the wheels/tires. But I've seen lots of ZX2s around Loudoun, most of them driven by 30-something women.
#946 of 1555 ZX2 market by ralex2
Jun 13, 2001 (12:09 pm)
I know Ford aimed the Z at college age females, but I see mostly thirty something women driving them. I suspect most are second cars and the wife gets it. There are a few college males driving lightly modified Zs, but not many.. According to the local Ford dealers, they are all automatics. The dealers just don't want a 5 speed on the lot - hard enough to sell with an automatic. How old are the Gen X folks now? That's what the "X" in ZX2 supposedly stands for. I have forgotten who is included in Generation X, probably because I'm mch closer to Generation B. Floridian may be an A. : )#947 of 1555 Better late than never posting by photog0264
Jun 16, 2001 (7:01 pm)
Oh the joys of a failing DSL provider... Occasional drops in service, the hell of trying to get my E-mails, lost pages. Could life get any better?At any pardon my little bit of venting...
I agree Rick the Fantasy of restoring an old car versus the Reality are two quite different things. As your friend and others have indirectly remarked here it takes quite a bit of dedication and commitment. Without question far more than I am likely to have.
I suspect a more practical idea would be buy Camaro as my general sports car, grab up a high milieage used mini freighter, for the occasional Pc monitor. Then follow Ralex's example and start turning my ZX2 into an s/r. Now does that make sense? Damn I think I just spent about $40 Grand!!! I think I need to rethink this or get a $20 per hour raise. But then I could probably afford that two bedroom one den Townhouse.
ah the insanity of it all!!!
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