Tolman’s latest engineering project has seen it bring an old Ford Escort XR3 back to life, and it’s even better than new!
Over the years, Tolman has established itself as an engineering powerhouse, taking on projects ranging from Lotus Sunbeam restomods to the running and maintenance of contemporary GT3 and GT4 racing machinery. Their most recent project, however, has been about reviving an old cult classic.
In the grand scheme of retro Fast Fords, it’s fair to say that the XR3 was – albeit very popular – not the most prized model variant around. As a result, although 11,000 rolled off Ford’s Halewood production line, it’s estimated that only 200 or so remain today. But, as they’re not quite as sought-after as other Fast Fords, pristine examples are actually quite rare. Certainly by Tolman’s standards, at least.
And, had it not been for Tolman’s willingness to take on a challenge, it’s highly likely that this XR3 would’ve been lost to time as well. When this matching numbers car was first presented to the engineering team, it was in a real sorry state. Another restorer had left the poor client’s project in disarray. There was no account of what work had been done, nor which parts were missing. As a result, Tolman conducted an audit of more than 1000 supplied parts, even down to bags of unlabeled bolts. Once that was done, and a new tracking system was set up, Tolman could embark on an 18-month journey to bring a bare shell back to its former glory.
Meticulous restoration
Actually, this Ford Escort XR3 is better than it even was in its heyday. During the process, Tolman took a meticulous approach to its metalworking, and has managed to achieved flusher shut lines and panel gaps than what would ever have been possible when the car was first built.
As you can imagine, sourcing every missing part was a sizeable task in itself. The team scoured everywhere, from eBay to collectors’ lofts, for the parts they required. But even then, some components remained elusive. In those instances, Tolman designed fresh replacements and had them fabricated locally.
There’s an almost obsessive level of attention to detail that’s gone into this, so much so, that Tolman has gone out of their way to subtly improve several areas of the car that many people would simply gloss over. For instance, the brake lines and exhaust are now made from higher-grade materials like stainless steel, while the the dashboard cluster needles have been airbrushed to bring back their vivid color. Tolman has even restored the interior decals, which will be made available to purchase online, should budding restorers face similarly difficult and obscure tasks.
“We truly enjoy finding ways to improve modern classics through our Tolman Edition programme,” said founder Chris Tolman. “We have to be more innovative, drawing on different networks and ways to find the harder to find parts and reproducing or restoring the ones you simply can’t buy. But it’s really satisfying to restore a car to factory specification, hunting down the near-impossible-to find parts and ensuring it looks like we remember them.”
The owner now intends to take the Sunburst Red Escort to a number of car events and concours in 2024, so keep an eye out for it!
