Motoring memories rekindled as RS1800 returns to Donegal

By Brian McDaid

IF you flick through the entry list for the ‘Donegal’ in two weeks’ time you will still see one car that outnumbers any other.
Forty-five years after it went out of production it will be the Mk2 Ford Escort that will be still bouncing its glorious voice through the natural amphitheatre that is the hillside of Knockalla in June.
These are our old 45’s. These are our old vinyls that sound like no other.

Who could forget the sound of a Mk 2 Ford Escort in the hands of future world rally champion ‘Flying Finn” Ari Vatanen who won the Donegal in ‘78 – the first to do so in a Ford Escort Mk 2. Brian Nelson followed in ‘79 , John Lyons won in ‘81 and ‘82 and our own Vincent Bonnar with Seamus McGettigan were the first all Donegal crew to win their home event in 1983.
The car that made all this possible was the humble Mk 2 Ford Escort, a family car that Ford turned into a world rally winner, by producing the RS1800.

Seamus McGettigan and James Cullen, past winners of the Donegal Rally, pictured with Steven Sheridan and Peter Christie with the only RS1800 registered in Donegal which made it back home at the weekend for a very nostalgic journey.

Ford made a road-going version from which history was created and that road-going version, the only one of its kind ever registered in Donegal, was back home last weekend.
I think Seamus McGettigan’s enthusiasm summed it up best on Monday morning when, with a spring back in his step, he arrived at Tobin’s to chat about those great days when he navigated the rally version of this car to victory on the 1983 Donegal.

Paddy Loughlan, Paul McGettigan, Micheal Crampsie and Kevin Bradley.

James Cullen was there too – another Donegal winner that competed in an RS back in the day. And down in Cresslough later on Monday, I watched Vincent Bonnar standing back as he watched Willie Sheridan’s old car arrive home.
Peter Christie, the present day owner from the UK, told the ‘Donegal News’ on his arrival into Letterkenny: “I’m not really the owner, I’m only the custodian of this car on its journey”.
It was so nice to see such a good crowd gathered around this very special piece of motoring history which still sits on its original steel wheels.

RS1800’s from all over the UK made their way to Donegal with Willie Sheridan’s old RS1800, the only car of its kind to be registered in Co. Donegal.

Noel Mc Ginley was also there in Cresslough, along with Willie Sheridan, to tell the story of the long wait for the car to arrive in Donegal for the first time to Friels of Cresslough.
Denis Ferry and Steven Sheridan were two local men that spent the last three years working towards this day to see this famous car return to the hills of Donegal on the Bank Holiday Monday in June.
And for that day we were all caught in the moment back to our childhood, listening to the sound of the 50 year old Ford BDA engine breathing gently through a set of twin 45 Weber carburettors.

For the full feature article and more pics, see yesterday’s edition of the Donegal News.