Carlos Sainz’s historic Ford Escort WRC expected to fetch £350,000 at auction

The 1997 Ford Escort WRC that drove Carlos Sainz Sr to second at the Monte Carlo Rally is going under the hammer at Silverstone by Iconic Auctioneers later this month.

The car, chassis #4, was driven by Sainz and Juha Kankkunen after being constructed in 1996 by Ford Motorsport at Boreham. In 1998 it underwent a number of changes as M-Sport gave it their latest chassis and rollcage specifications while keeping the original shell intact. Gordon Vincent of RV Fabrications, one of the people behind these changes, personally confirmed this to the auction company.

1997 saw the car driven by Sainz with co-driver Luis Moya at the Monte Carlo Rally. Finishing in second place, it was later driven by the likes of Kankkunen, Armin Schwarz and Jarmo Kytölehto where it scored a number of podium finishes throughout the season.

The Spaniard claimed M-Sport’s maiden WRC win at the Acropolis Rally Greece driving the sister car, P8 FMC, with Kankkunen finishing second 17 seconds behind. This came after Subaru’s Colin McRae suffered from a broken steering column while the then-world champion Tommi Mäkinen crashed. He would later finish third. 

Malcolm Wilson, team owner at the time, was overwhelmed by the success. 

1997 Ford Escort WRC driven by Carlos Sainz and Luis Moya goes up for auction

Photo by: Iconic Auctioneers

“I’m totally delighted for the team and everybody. When people know what effort had gone in to get this team this far, it is tremendous amount of satisfaction. There is a lot of emotion now," he said. 

From 1999, the Escort was campaigned by Ford Turkey before it was sold to David Robinson who raced it through to 2015 within the UK. The current owner has enjoyed the car just as much, enjoying the likes of Goodwood Festival of Speed and SpeedWeek where Stig Blomqvist sat behind the wheel. 

Yes - it hasn't exactly been babied. But the car received a like-for-like engine rebuild in 2020 which the auctioneer describes as "comprehensive and costly", and since then, has travelled very little. In fact, it has only seen two Goodwood appearances. Despite this, it's "ready for competition". 

It is eligible for historic rallying and even features its original factory Repsol livery. 

Expected to fetch up to £350,000, it will go up for auction at The Wing, Silverstone Circuit on Friday 22 August at 2pm BST.