Steve Cropley

MY WEEK IN CARS

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MONDAY

Here's a motor we all should have bought: this 1976 Ford Escort RS 1800, priced at a bit over £3000 when new, has just sold at a Historics auction in Berkshire for £279,000.

Apparently this was Ford's second press car (the first was "crashed beyond redemption") and the price was driven to such heights by what witnesses describe as "a frenzied bidding tussle".

The car is a prime and unmolested example: twice restored, never raced or rallied, with its odometer showing 25,000 miles. However, such sales do set you to wondering which of today's cars will go on a run like that. My money (for obvious reasons) is on the Code Orange Ford Ranger Raptor, although I fear I won't be around for the half-century it has taken this Escort to make its owner's fortune.

Back in 1976, I drove an RS 1800 press car, possibly this very one, while on holiday in the UK from Australia. It was one half of a comparison being carried out by journalist friends against an Opel Kadett GTE, which, despite the Ford's better engine and far greater cachet, I slightly preferred. The price of such a Kadett today? South of £30,000, I'll bet.

TUESDAY