1st gen Escort GTs?

We talk a lot about the 90s models... What about the early GTs?

IIRC, same engine as the other pedestian Escorts. I had an LN7 with the same engine. Very gutless, no HP. The handling was decent tho...........

nah im pretty sure the regular escort had a 1.9 engine and the gt had the 1.8 dual overhead cam

fiesta54 wrote: nah im pretty sure the regular escort had a 1.9 engine and the gt had the 1.8 dual overhead cam

That's second gen.

There isn't a ton of use for the 1st gen. They all had uninspiring motors, and poor suspension.

The GTs look cool, though, and that's about it.

My first car was an '89 Escort GT back in '98.

A blind intersection with lots of tall grass = me getting Tboned a couple months after starting to drive. Really too bad, wasn't a bad car.

1st gen Escorts: keeping aluminum welders and machine shops blissfully busy in their day (cracking cylinder heads).

They had a 1.9 HO in the later 1st gen GTs (87-90). They had around 110-115 HP as I recall...whereas the 'regular' 1.9s were under 100.

I ALMOST bought a GT back in '89. I wanted a Ford (I was still loyal to the "Big 3") and the local dealer had 2 red GTS. One was in the showroom, VERY dirty interior, and one was "in the back" and looked like it came of the assembly line that week. When I tried to get into the driver's seat the lever for the tilt wheel jabbed the inside of my right knee. The saleman assured me they could cut off some of the stalk to make it less bothersome. I tried, but did not buy a Ranger....buying a Civic, instead.

1st gen. Escorts did indeed have the H O 1.9 liter that for some reason Ford never put into the bigger/heavier Tempo/Topaz.

The TemOpaz has teh pushrod 2.3--it was one of the more craptacular engines in one of Fords more craptacular cars.

Yeah, the facelift 85-90 GT got a "high output" 110hp 1.9. The earlier pre-facelift were available with a turbocharged 1.6 motor making 120hp, but i think they're fairly rare.

STS_ZX2 wrote: The TemOpaz has teh pushrod 2.3--it was one of the more craptacular engines in one of Fords more craptacular cars.

Im pretty sure that tempo 2.3 is based off the ancient small block straight six ford used in everything from the sixties to the eighties. Meaning that is shared nothing with the popular turbocharged 2.3 in the fox bodies.

This seems like another car that only sold because it was a "domestic" and there are people that like supporting a home team, basically. I mean, how could you pick an Escort GT over a Prelude of the same era?

Don't forget the EXP though, that sure was the shiznit...

I had an '87 Escort EXP Sport Coupe for years. It was my second car, and the one that I put the most miles on (to this day, even). It had 80s hotness styling and a fairly fun ~115HP 1.9 SOHC matched to a decent shifting 5 spd trans. It got retardedly good fuel economy for what it was, and I realllllly enjoyed driving it. In the time that I had it, the only failures were the original clutch and the head gasket (and cracked head). Even the head gasket wasn't that big of a deal to fix. A rebuilt head was $200 from eBay. All of the parts for the car were really cheap, and still are today. Last time I checked, you could still buy Eibach springs and Addco sway bars. I always thought that a bigger rear sway would have been a big improvement.

There are a few people who still own, drive, modify and love these cars. FordEXP.com is their hangout. Its an older (and seemingly more intelligent) demographic than you'll find on most of the Escort forums.

I'd definitely buy another one (or buy back my original) if it came along at the right time.

I had two 1st gen. GT's. An '86 which was junk. The '90 was a nice car. They had a little more power than the std Escort. There were some suspension tweaks . I ran the '90 at a track day at Lime Rock with a local BMW chapter. Some of the BMW's had a hard time passing me if at all.

Keep in mind, the 1st gen Escorts were essentially Euro Escorts, which is why they had 4x108mm wheels and the Ford CVH 1.6-1.9 engines.

There is some info available for the CVH engines online as they had a strong following overseas for a while, especially the turbo models. Later model 2.0 CVH motors will swap in and they have dual-path intakes and the earlier 1.9 HO motors had a factory header. Supposed to be a decent parts bin upgrade.

They had no easy adjustment for the Camber built-in. You could buy adjustable upper strut mounts to compensate for "crash damage" but I didn't get that far before we ditched the car (it was starting to overheat so I was looking at major work ahead for it) Some time spent with an air grinder could probably result in slotted strut mounts on the cheap.

4x108mm is pretty dang close to 4x4.25". I had test fit as set of Mustang 7" wide 4-bolts on our Escort and they sit pretty well flush with the fender wells. With a set of 195 or 205/50's they would probably work pretty well and look damned slick.

I'm pretty sure a Zetec will bolt up to a CVH's transmission. There is even a ZVH head swap they do over in europe to get the zetec's block and the CVH's head to get larger displacement and to keep the stock intake and exhaust.

I saw an early EXP two days ago. I doubt if I see one per year.

I had a girlfriend who had a 1G-GT. I was convinced the GT stood for "Gutless Turd." Good looking car. I actually think they look better than the 2g. But dear god, I've ridden bicycles with more torque.

My first college roommate had a then-new '87 Escort GT. Honestly, it beat the heck out of my Chuck Taylors.

petegossett wrote: Don't forget the EXP though, that sure was the shiznit...

Or its cousin, the LN7.

My dad had a black '82 or '83 GT with orange stripes that he bought brand new. It looked really cool, but it was a complete POS. It broke down on his way home from the dealership! It broke down a lot more after that too, and I leared a lot of "driving words", or commonly known as swear/curse words, from him when it did.

I was hoping this was about MK1 Escorts.... Bummer.

(the live axle kind)

alfadriver wrote: I was hoping this was about MK1 Escorts.... Bummer. (the live axle kind)

Agreed. Enough talk about the horrid CVH craptastic Escort (that ko'd the Mk1 Fiesta on our shores, for which I am eternally angry). Mk1 Escort goodness as you requested:

My first two cars were escorts. The first one was a baby blue 82 (or 81? - it's hard to tell when your state doesn't have titles.) It was a tremendous piece of crap, but I would seriously consider buying another really early one as a nostalgia-mobile if I ever saw one. I had a hell of a lot of fun slinging it around the New Hampshire back roads in high school.