Gartrac produced studenten escort Lausanne the first acquaintance having David Sutton who had been the latest director out of Clark & Simpson have been Ford dealers during the Sloane Rectangular, London area. The vehicles was indeed mainly important no roll cages, yet not Gartrac given uprated suspension and you can powering knowledge section on event.
Right before the beginning of the newest rally Dave Bignold was expected from the Ford to search to Clark & Simpson and you may complement butt amaze absorber turrets on Rauno Aaltonen’s Ford Escort 1850 GT. The installation are finished quickly more a week-end and you may Aaltonen’s vehicles is happy to compete on the rally.
About very early seventies, Gartrac modified Escort Mk1 bodyshells for Clark & Simpson within the London
New London – Mexico Globe Cup rally become at Wembley Stadium for the London area to your April nineteenth 1970 covering approximately sixteen,000 kilometers owing to European countries and you will South usa and finishing within the Mexico City on 27th 1970. The event is actually most winning to possess Ford which have Hannu Mikola and Gunnar Palm winning new rally and Rauno Aaltonen and Henry Liddon doing 3rd.
Gartrac went on development pieces to your Escort Mk1 rally trucks. In early 1970s some other well-known winnings try Hannnu Mikkola and you will Gunnar Palm’s 1972 Safari Rally earn regarding the Escort RS 1600. The pair perform need a young lead that they never forgotten and turned the original non-African team to profit the Eastern African Safari Rally.
70s – New Work Escort Mk2
These variations was mainly installing wonder absorber turrets, steel bubble arches and reworking axle’s. Gartrac perform modify 2-3 bodyshells per week for a lot of decades.
Gartrac is expanding into the reputation plus the sheer amount of works implied that they needed to move from its quick working area in Farnham, Surrey. They rapidly found a separate larger workshop inside Godalming, Surrey, providing them to deal with a great deal more teams, and thus its production grew dramatically.
Ford had only presented the new Escort Mk2 and realized Gartrac’s fast increases. Ford was looking for a fabrication team that could generate Escort Mk2 bodyshells and bits because of their really works rally team.
It desired the fresh Mk2 bodyshells become the same having a kit off pieces one to suitable all the vehicles; this is not true toward Mk1. Per drivers’ auto mechanic might have her notion of an educated answer to build a car or truck, meaning zero two trucks will be the same. It caused dilemmas when servicing the vehicles towards the incidents, since parts didn’t fit widely.
The brand new works Escort Mk1 bodyshells had been fabricated of the Gomm Metal Advancements. These shells have been gasoline welded or nickel bronzed which place higher temperatures and you may worry to your procedure, and therefore led to deformation and you will energy dilemmas. Ford wished the newest Escort Mk2 to-be welded making use of the the latest mig welding processes. Gartrac was actually using mig welders for a while hence aided safer an initial buy for 5 bodyshells becoming lead on the appropriate requirements.
Gartrac properly finished the order and you will Ford is actually thus proud of the standard of the fresh craftsmanship they instantaneously developed Gartrac so you can solely create Escort Mk2 bodyshells toward performs cluster.
Ford and additionally commissioned Gartrac to help make pieces which could standardise the mechanic’s build processes. They fabricated a giant number of pieces instance axle’s, distance rods, pedalboxes, power tanks and you will oils tanks and suspension system section.
Gartrac got a no cost leadership at that time provide suggestions on how Ford makes the cars finest in addition they used its recommendations some easily while the cars was basically getting smaller, stronger and a lot more reliable.
The models had been switching for hours. Gartrac tends to make modifications to the axle to alter traction, Ford would up coming update pictures to incorporate the alterations. They would up coming make other distinctions to possess Tarmac and Tree software. A similar processes was utilized to grow other parts like the fresh system crossmembers, sump shield kits, pedalboxes and you can suspension bits.