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Teamslot Group 5 Zakspeed Escort Mk2
#1

   

A long time coming, but Teamslot's Zakspeed Escort Mk2 project is just about to be unleashed on the slot car world - and beyond this sumptuous trio, there are some intriguing surprises in store. Rumour has it that Steve from Staffs Slot Cars UK will be wandering round the UK Slot Car Festival today showing these pre-production samples to everyone and anyone. They're Group 5 Zakspeed Escorts, so I'm sure he'll have a busy day.

   

The first car is the UK-Exclusive SRE21 Rothmans Zakspeed Escort. In real life, this is a replica - and most of the Zakspeed Escorts around these days are replicas - but has quite a following at car shows and has the honour of being recreated by fans for the Assetto Corsa racing simulation game. The car has a Honda S2000 engine - which is moderately sacrilegious, but apparently sounds awesome. Staffs announced this model a very long time ago, it was delayed, then Covid arrived, Teamslot's 2021 plans disappeared in to a premises move... but now it's imminent. And it does look great...

   

So what about the Zakspeed Escort story? Founded by Erich Zakowski in 1968 and run by his son Peter out of their base near the Nürburgring, Zakspeed became the official Ford team in the DRM. Having won three DRM titles - one with a Capri and two with Mk1 Escorts - Zakspeed built six two-litre versions of the new Mk2 Escort RS1800 to race in the 1975 DRM - then a Group 2 series. Hans Heyer took the title with the Group 2 Escort in both '75 and '76. When the series was opened up to Group 5 in 1977, Zakspeed developed two Group 5 cars from the Group 2 Escorts - subsequently building three entirely new cars with a lighter space-frame chassis. Genuine Zakspeed Escorts were always an extremely rare breed.

   

The Hans Heyer Mampe-sponsored car is most certainly the best known of the Group 5 Escorts - in part because the livery was carried over to the awesome Group 5 Capri, which appeared mid-season in 1978. The 1977 Mampe Ford Zakspeed Escorts were run for Hans Heyer and Armin Hahne, initially proving heavy and not match for the Schnitzer-run BMWs. The space-frame chassis changed things - Heyer winning the Mainz-Finthen race on the new car's debut. By the end of 1977, Hahne also had the new lighter car and Zakspeed ran a third Toshiba-sponsored car for Thomas Betzler. They also experimented with a long-tail body. Heyer finished a creditable fourth in the championship.

   

The Teamslot model is of the Escort Armin Hahne raced at the Norisring in September 1978. The two Escorts were regularly on the podium during '78 - mostly Heyer, with Hahne reeling off a string of fourth places. Hahne took the Escort to runner-up spot at the Norisring, just in front of Heyer - who was by this time racing the blisteringly fast, but extremely fragile Capri. With two second places to his name, Hahne finished ninth in the points table - Heyer claimed the Capri's first victory at the final round to finish seventh.

   

With the Mampe Ford Zakspeed cars both Capris for 1979, a Group 5 Zakspeed Escort was run with D&W sponsorship. Walter Nussbaumer raced the car at the season-opener 'Bergischer Löwe' race at Zolder, then Hans Soldeck made an impression driving the car at Diepholz, Zolder and Hockenheim - and Willi Bergmeister took over at the Nürburgring when Soldeck moved up to a Capri.

   

The Zakspeed Escorts - both the remaining Group 2 and the Group 5 examples - continued to race in private hands. Only two genuine Group 5 cars are known to have survived - one of the converted Group 2 cars in New Zealand and a space-frame car in Germany. Of course there are many convincing replicas, including this South African car, which ran at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2018...



There's also an homage to the Mampe Ford Zakspeed cars that raced in the UK Modified Ford Series, pictured here in the paddock at Brands Hatch earlier this year...

   

There are more Group 5 Escort liveries that can be created - and I understand that Teamslot have some interesting options with the mouldings and detailing parts to create other RS1800-based cars. However, we have these fabulous racers to look forward to very soon. And it looks like they will be a lot of fun on track with the 30k TS13 motor in an anglewinder pod...

   

The cars are available to pre-order at Pendle Slot Racing and Weevils Slot Cars now.
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#2

They look good, any info on the dimensions, I'm especially interested in the wheelbase. The sideways version was 80mm, which seemed a bit out of scale.
[+] 1 member Likes tatter06's post
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#3

If they go as good as they look...............then you see the last photo and eyeball the 30k motor, skinny tyres, plastic pinion and think 'oh dear!'

20k FK180 and tall gearing would be much more pleasant to drive.

Life is like a box of Slot cars... Cool Drinkingcheers
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#4

I've got the Rothmans on pre-order - can't wait to finally get it one day...!
[+] 2 members Like DPJ's post
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