Our position on these new-old cars is straightforward: they must be spectacular for us to award any column inches at all. Hardly a week goes by without news of another continuation, evocation, replica or homage – ‘restomods’ doesn’t really cover it but it’s the best we’ve got – landing in our inbox, and if we took the time to drive and write about all of them, we’d get nothing else done. So only the best appear.
By my count we’ve driven just four in the last 18 months. This is now the fifth. So why has Boreham Motorworks’ Alan Mann 68 Edition made the grade when so many others have not? There are plenty of reasons we’ll come to in time, but I think this one says it all: this racing Mk1 Ford Escort continuation has the blessing of the Ford family – and I do mean Henry’s descendants – as well as Ford CEO Jim Farley. It even has a Ford chassis number.
But do I really believe, as I was told last week, that Farley’s eyes mist up whenever conversation turns to Alan Mann’s cars? I do, in part because it wasn’t some silver-tongued PR who told me that but the project’s straight talking chief engineer, and also because Farley races a GT40 at Goodwood and Spa…
