MST's Latest Not-A-Ford-Escort Is A 350bhp Rally Maniac

We’ve long been enormous fans of what MST Cars gets up to in the quiet corner of North Wales it calls home. It’s been making a name for itself for a few years with its range of brand new, built-from-the-ground-up machines which, for legal reasons, are absolutely not Mk1 and Mk2 Ford Escorts.

Its latest creation might just be the most drool-worthy yet. It’s the MST Mk2 Rally Car, although despite that name, it looks like it’ll be just as happy on the road. As with everything MST builds, it’s a totally new creation, the chassis and body both fabricated at the company’s Welsh base.

Here, clearly inspired by the tail-waggling Group 4 rally cars of the 1970s, MST has packed it full of some of the finest motorsport-grade parts available. The centrepiece is the engine, a 2.7-litre naturally aspirated dry-sumped four-cylinder from Millington, an outfit with plenty of expertise in building astonishing four-pots. This one, based on Cosworth’s YB engine (itself derived from an old Ford block), churns out 350bhp.

That’s all sent to the back wheels through a six-speed sequential gearbox from Tractive, complete with a WRC-style single paddleshifter – bang it towards you for upshifts, and away from you for down, doing your best Kalle Rovanperä impression along the way. There’s also a mechanical limited-slip diff back there to make the most lurid of skids possible.

Suspension-wise, you get a set of Reiger coilovers with four-way adjustable dampers and finely adjustable geometry. The brakes come from AP Racing, and get four-piston callipers on every corner.

Inside, there's a billet aluminium gearknob and a motorsport-style bias pedal box. Should you actually want to rally it, there’s a full FIA-grade roll cage and Motamec race seats with six-point harnesses, although it’s not all about being racey – electric power steering and an adjustable steering column are both nods to practicality.

We’re mentally assigning one of these a space in our fantasy garage, but if you’re hoping to add it to your real one, you’ll need to write a cheque for a minimum of £135,000, plus VAT. Once you’ve done that, you can expect to get your finished car in around 18 months.

Sounds like there’s plenty more to come from MST, too. It’s confirmed it’s working on a run of ‘toned down’ versions of both its Mk1 and Mk2, inspired by the Mexico versions of a certain small family car from the ’60s and ’70s with a blue, oval-shaped badge. We can’t wait to see them in all their hopefully stripey glory.