This book describes the birth, development, and rallying career of the original Ford Escort, one of Europe's Landmark Rally Cars in the early 1970s, providing a compact and authoritative history of where, how and why it became so important to the sport.

Graham Robson possesses a world-wide reputation as a motoring historian, and has been close to the sport of rallying for many years. Not only as a competitor, team manager, organiser, reporter, commentator and observer, but above all as an enthusiastic historian, in more than forty years he has never lost touch with the sport. His experience of rallying is worldwide. Not only has he competed in many British and European events, but reported on marathons in South America, and acted as a travelling controller in the legendary London-Mexico World Cup rally. As a recognised authority on many aspects of classic cars and motoring of that period, he is the most prolific of all authors, with more than 120 published books to his credit. Over the years he has owned, driven, described and competed in many of the cars featured in this Landmark Rally Cars series, and his insight into their merits is unmatched.