There are cars that enter your consciousness and just refuse to bugger off. The Mark 2 Escort RS2000 was just such a thing in my world.

In fact, I can recall an advert for the Esky on the back cover of Wheels magazine when I was about 14 or 15. The ad featured an orange RS2000 with the tag line “Street Legal”. Man, I was a shot dog right there. Episodes of Minder and The Professionals didn’t help one bit.

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For me, the little Esky in its RS form represents all those pimply desires, those raging-hormone urges and I can almost taste 1980 (I can certainly smell it) when I jump in and turn the key on that little Pinto four-banger that has, under my stewardship, seen a few tweaks.

It now has a lot more compression, a stupid-big camshaft and a rorty zorst. The single carb remains and the suspension is most of the way to the deck with just a set of Minilite copies in the period-correct 13 x 6.0-inch size. Oh yeah, there’s a Sierra five-speed, too, to give it some legs on transport stages.

The other gripe is that lunkheaded, cart-sprung rear-end which has all the compliance of a jailhouse riot.

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Rally King To be honest, I don’t drive the thing flat out and I’ve never been tempted to hillclimb it or whatever. That said, it has done the Geelong Sprints a few years back, so it’s not exactly a stranger to the big numbers on the tacho.

Owner Q&A Bought for: $13,000 (I think) Mods/Fix ($): Too much Best bit: Back-to-basics fun Used for: A reality check Plans: Giving it the berries every now and then and pretending I’m Bodie from CI5, and never sell it to Robbo

Is there a car you should never have sold? Nope, just a bunch I should never have bought.Any plans for the Escort? Fill tank. Thrash. Repeat

Worst bit about owning the car? I liked it better when it was worth a lot less.