It's still not so unusual to find some old cars being daily-driven in 3rd-world countries, such as Brazil. The MK3 Escort, specifically, was introduced there in '83, a 3-year delay in relation to its European counterpart, only in hatchback and cabriolet bodystyles, and was fitted with Renault Ventoux engines instead of Ford's own CVH, with a 4-speed manual transmission for the 1.3L and a 5-speed for the 1.6L, and both engines were available either as gasoline-powered or in a dedicated-ethanol version. The 4-door hatchback is the most rare bodystyle for the MK3 in Brazil, and was more targetted to export markets, not just regional markets in Latin America. Surprisingly, the Brazilian MK3 Escort was also available in Norway and Denmark, but not in the French Ultramarine Department (French Guyana) which shares a border with Brazil.
An uncle of mine once bought one of those Brazilian Escorts with the 1.3 engine and 4 speed. It was not a bad car at its time, but it crashed on a tree some years ago and had to be written off.
ReplyDeleteIt looks nice, too bad in America we got an uglier front clip for the Escort.
ReplyDeleteCHT was never a Ventoux engine. It was based on the Sierra.
ReplyDeleteI used to get quite confused with the naming of older Renault engines, plus they usually share bellhousing patterns between different generations of engines and transmissions.
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