Ford Escort Alan Mann 68 Edition

This fastidious, Ford-sanctioned recreation of the car that won the 1968 British Saloon Car Championship is as thrilling to drive as it is to look at

- HENRY CATCHPOLE

THERE WAS A STORY AT SCHOOL THAT someone had once snuck into the deputy headmaster's office while he was at lunch and rearranged his furniture. Just enough to be unsettling. Didn't pinch anything, just moved a table a few inches here, angled a lamp a few degrees higher there, switched some books around on the shelves.

I imagine the expression the DH must have worn on re-entering his study after masticating a baked potato and some jam roly-poly was probably quite similar to the one on my face after getting into the Alan Mann 68 Edition for the first time. I'm fairly familiar with Escorts (yes, I still own my Mk2, and no, it's sadly not in danger of seeing a rally stage any time soon) but while much of the interior of this one is instantly, pleasingly recognisable, the seating position is somehow all wrong. Or rather it's all right. Usually you either sit a touch too high and close but with a good grasp of the wheel, your feet well-placed on the pedals, or you sit nice and low but with the wheel at a slightly odd angle. I've never found it quite perfect, until now.

In this very special Mk1 Escort, the steering rack has been moved four inches forward and the steering column travels between clutch and brake pedals before passing through the engine cross-member. Combined with possibly the most deeply dished three-spoke steering wheel I have ever seen and a nice, low bucket, you have a sports rather than saloon car seating position. Legs stretched out and arms bent, just so. It sets the tone and tells an immediate tale of just how different this Escort is.