Feast Your Eyes On This Near-Immaculate MkI Ford AVO Escort RS2000

Someone order us some cushions, because we need something to hide our trouser excitement. This beautifully-detailed and just a little bit special Ford Escort has come up for sale on eBay.

It’s not just any old Escort, either. It’s a MkI AVO RS2000, of which only 3759 were built. Much, much fewer than that are still intact and operational. Built at Ford’s dedicated Advanced Vehicle Operations facility in Aveley, Essex, this one has been confirmed as genuine and has plenty of paperwork to prove it.

It’s had its fair share of keepers, with seven on its books including the current seller, but only 22,263 miles have passed beneath its wheels since new, and it’s in concours condition.

Everything is original or exactly as per the original spec. The engine bay looks immaculate around the 100bhp 2.0-litre Ford Pinto motor with its downdraught Weber carburettor, which gave the car its 108mph top speed and 0-60mph sprint time of a snappy (for 1974) 9.0 seconds.

The short-throw four-speed gearbox must be a joy to use, and we can’t help thinking that it needs to be driven, but after 43 years of being kept so nice, would you want to risk damaging it?

Check out the full picture set at the sellers’ Flickr account.