Specs You've Never Heard Of Before.

[Rusty_Rocket]

I love those Zero Credibility Vauxhall 'speshal idisions'. A neighbour had an Irmscher grill put on his coupe. So what? Who are Irmscher? Who are MSD? What does 888 mean? Is Peter Vardy a racing driver? Why did he pick such a lame chassis to put his name to?

 

Naff cars. Naff name.

 

Errr, excuse me Mr Ford man, but I think the FoMoCo beats the Griffin hands down with zero cred 'speshal idisions' as you put it.

May I remind you of the tragic 1995 Escort Mexico, a car so shit they couldn't even be bothered to put alloys on it. What a missed opportunity. Then we have countless other junk like the Fiesta 'Flame', Frascati, Flight yada yada, all of which meant absolutely nothing and were merely an extra (cheap) sticker on the boot lid. All lame cars, with a last-ditch attempt at flogging a few more units to unsuspecting punters. It didn't matter though, they would have rusted away after a few years anyway.

Utter rubbish that only served to dilute the brand- something that Ford continue to do to this day.

 

Fwiw, I think the Astra 888 looks absolutely fantastic.

[sierraman]

Hang on... wasn't the Escort Mexico an attempt to capitalise on something that had a great name in the past. Yes the mk5 Escort Mexico was a bit flacid but it was trying to capitalise on the success of the Mk1/2 Mexico. What were Vauxhall hoping to capitalise upon with the Peter Vardy Corsa. Peter who?

[Jim Bergerac]

Others were Rover 25/45 Olympic and Olympic S. Mk3 Ford Mondeo "Mistral" and the Vauxhall dealer by dad bought his mk3 Astra from in 2000 had a mk3 N reg Gold on the forecourt and the card in the window with details on said it was a "Rolling Stone"

 

From what I recall, the Olympic Edition was to do with the either the 2000 Olympics or the 2002 Commonwealth Games (it was one of the two). A special* edition with exactly the same spec was available at other points as the Impression/Impression S and Spirit/Spirit S. Basically, you got nicer alloys and, on the 45 Saloons, full cow on the seats.

 

Mondeo Mistral was a base spec with alloys offered at a lower price, IIRC, Ford did that a lot on the MK3 Mondeo (see also Graphite, Edge and Silver editions).

[sierraman]

All of them an LX. The Mondeo Edge looked decent though. Absolute Povo spec in all of them though.

[Jim Bergerac]

Hang on... wasn't the Escort Mexico an attempt to capitalise on something that had a great name in the past. Yes the mk5 Escort Mexico was a bit flacid but it was trying to capitalise on the success of the Mk1/2 Mexico. What were Vauxhall hoping to capitalise upon with the Peter Vardy Corsa. Peter who?

 

The Peter Vardy thing was a dealer special from the Peter Vardy dealer group, nowt to do with Vauxhall themselves, though as Hendry said above they basically copied the idea later on for the Limited Edition being driven by a ned near you.

[adw1977]

I remember these Antibes special editions of Vauxhalls when they were new in 1986:

 

[adw1977]

August 1980, the new front wheel drive Escort is only a couple of months away, so Ford came up with the "Goldcrest" to help flog the last of the Mark 2s. 

Also Fiesta Firefly with lovely* red painted steel wheels.

 

[HMC]

Varifocals? New one on me.

[adw1977]

Fiesta dash - a very 80s special tie-in with a clothing brand:

 

[adw1977]

July 1984 and Ford become obsessed with LASERS!

Capri Laser became a permanent trim level until the end of production, but Sierra Laser came and went quickly:

 

A few months later, it was the Escort's turn for the Laser treatment:

(IIRC the only Mk3 Escort to have a body colour grille)

[adw1977]

The lasers must have done well, because in 1985 we got Escort Laser II:

 

Then in 1986 it was the turn of Sierra Laser II:

[RoadworkUK]

I had no idea there had been a Fiesta Dash, but I'm well aware of the rather impotent Escort Dash cabrio.

 

I have the brochure for it, but, like, it's all the way upstairs.

[sierraman]

Car Mechanics did a tuning project on a a Mk3 Laser back in the early 1990's. Did a good job in the end with it, didn't go in for all this bodykit shit, kept the steelies looked a real sleeper.

[adw1977]

In 1981, if you found the Chevette E too extravagant, you could go even more basic with the black bumpered Chevette ES:

 

[adw1977]

Granada Chasseur estate from 1980 in Roman Bronze and Tuscan Beige:

 

[adw1977]

That very autoshite combination of brown and beige also featured on the 1979 Fiesta Sandpiper:

 

 

Two years later you could celebrate the 2,000,000th Fiesta with the Bravo special edition:

 

 

[Hendry]

Hang on... wasn't the Escort Mexico an attempt to capitalise on something that had a great name in the past. Yes the mk5 Escort Mexico was a bit flacid but it was trying to capitalise on the success of the Mk1/2 Mexico. What were Vauxhall hoping to capitalise upon with the Peter Vardy Corsa. Peter who?

The Peter Vardy edition Corsa was a dealer special edition, not a proper Vauxhall model, they were still registered as Club models on the V5. Which has always had me wondering about the insurance, someone buys one of these dealer specials with bodykit and alloys, phones insurance company to swap insurance, insurer says is it a standard non modified car, punter says yes because as far as they know it's a standard factory spec car, which leads to issues when it gets crashed and the insurer refuses to repair stuff not part of standard spec, or worse the policy gets invalidated and cancelled because it's been voided.

[sierraman]

The Escort Cosmopolitan springs to mind. Or the Eclipse. I can remember when I passed my test really wanting a 1.4 Eclipse, they looked the dogs bollocks in that light metallic blue and the fairly accurate faux alloy wheel hubcaps. Back in the day of course...

[Sir Snipes]

The Peter Vardy edition Corsa was a dealer special edition, not a proper Vauxhall model, they were still registered as Club models on the V5. Which has always had me wondering about the insurance, someone buys one of these dealer specials with bodykit and alloys, phones insurance company to swap insurance, insurer says is it a standard non modified car, punter says yes because as far as they know it's a standard factory spec car, which leads to issues when it gets crashed and the insurer refuses to repair stuff not part of standard spec, or worse the policy gets invalidated and cancelled because it's been voided.

Dealer fit parts weren't a problem when I worked in insurance. They didn't like retrofitted parts, even if it were the exact same parts.

[Hendry]

All of them an LX. The Mondeo Edge looked decent though. Absolute Povo spec in all of them though.

The Mondeo Edge was better equipped than the LX was it not? I remember dealing with a few of them when working at Arnie Clarks and they were closer to Zetec spec minus rear electric windows were they not? The ones I saw were all colour coded, front fogs, these lovely 18" split rim type alloys and auto dim interior mirror, auto lights and rain sensor wipers that you didn't get on the LX, not exactly poverty spec.

 

I've only recently heard of the Mistral and had heard of the Graphite before but had no idea what spec in it was like.

[sierraman]

Split rim alloys but no cruise, which the LX had. As you say, funny spec but again on the face of it a gorgeous looking car.

[Dead_E23]

That very autoshite combination of brown and beige also featured on the 1979 Fiesta Sandpiper:

 

I had one in the brown and beige colour scheme when I was a student.   

 

As it was such a desirable motor and I was going to be parking it in a frightful area I fitted it with a Sparkrite AT120 alarm, with a flashing red LED and a bulky infra red remote control keyfob.  I even fitted a second horn high up on the bulkhead so the hardened villains I fondly imagined were going to steal a coffee and cream shopping car couldn't reach under the valance and pull the wire off.

[UltraWomble]

We had a Fiasco Azura

Basically a badge and a digital clock rather than analogue one

[UltraWomble]

We aspired to a Mistral with its rear wiper...

[UltraWomble]

[UltraWomble]

[UltraWomble]

[Station]

Please tell me the Fiesta Quartz just had a digital clock as the extra option?

 

I had the ultimate in shite badge trim - Fiesta mk3 Popular. It had nothing. Nothing!

[Pillock]

Fiesta dash - a very 80s special tie-in with a clothing brand:

 

dash.jpg

 

There was also an Escort Dash which was a mk5 Convertible, with the smooth* and powerful* 1.4CVH up front. Blue over Silver bodywork, manual hood, electric windows, wheeltrims.

 

My ma once took a phone call quite late at night from Ford - we'd done some sort of fun day / treasure hunt at a local park which was sponsored by Dash. She'd won a prize draw for an Escort! Thankfully it was the straightforward competition, because if you won one via the treasure hunt you had to go on a Crystal Maze style gameshow to win....

 

Anyway, K86CAR was sent up to our local dealer, Evans Halshaw. She had her mugshot in the paper, got crippled on the insurance, it lasted until the first few days of June after being delivered in February and she sold it pre-summer for maximum profit. I remember her saying it was crap up hills, even worse than the 1.4 Mk4 LX she'd had because of course the cabrio has girders underneath to cope with the lack of roof.

 

[Eddie Honda]

Fiesta Festival?

 

Granddad Honda had a CVT version in the same colour:

 

Chopped it in after a mere two years (his normal cycle being 6 years) and got a Rover 216GSi instead.