Followers of saloon car racing in the mid-1980s will certainly remember the distinctively presented 'Group A' Datapost RS1600i Escorts prepared by Richard Longman Racing for himself and Alan Curnow.

Whether it was the fact that the staid old Post Office had decided to go racing, or the fact that the cars were very competitive, or simply that they were painted Post Office Red and looked great is not clear, but they are well remembered and have been the subject of diecast scale models from half a dozen different companies.

The Datapost-liveried Escort on offer here is not one of those early Richard Longman cars but was built to a high standard in the early 2000s from a rust-free shell to RS1600i specification and raced successfully in CTCRC with numerous class wins.

It subsequently spent ten years in a heated garage before our vendors instructed classic Ford Escort RS1600i specialists, Lavant Garage in Chichester, to recondition the car and fully prepare it to return to the circuits....