BOSS BABY

ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S COOLEST SMALL FORDS IS NOW EVEN SWEETER THANKS TO A 1000HP METHANOL-SUCKING BLOWN SMALL-BLOCK

- IAIN KELLY

TWENTY years ago, Geoff Newton’s super-slammed Mk1 Escort graced the pages of Street Machine, sporting a turbo four-pot from a Sierra Cosworth between its chassis rails. But after seeing Mark Dall’Acqua’s DMT351 Mk2 (SM, Jan-Feb ’93), Geoff had always intended to jam a V8 into it at some point.

Two decades later, the time finally arrived. “This build evolved from my son Mitchell,” says Geoff. “When Mitchell was born he had an instant attraction to burnout cars, and he watched the burnout DVDs over and over. Then we started taking him to Summernats, and it was all about the big, blown cars like UNWANTED, UCSMOKE, INFERNO and STRUGLN. So I thought it would be a good idea to build a blown car.”

Geoff initially planned to use a triple-rotor 20B Wankel, but a forced stint off the road had him rethinking that idea. “High rpm and a short powerband was going to give me trouble I could do without,” he says.

With the turbo Cosworth running gear installed in his original – and super-desirable – Type 49 Lotus Twin-Cam Escort, Geoff started planning the new heart for IMB05S. “I headed over to the only guy I knew who could undertake the precarious job of installing a blown and injected small-block into the little Esky, and that, of course, is the legend Paul Sant of ProFlo,” says Geoff. “My one condition on the build was that we do not cut any of the car; it was to remain the same. Paul never shies away from a challenge, so he said: ‘Easy.’”