{"product_id":"ford-england-escort-mkii-night-version-n-20-rally-rac-1977-kyosti-hamalainen-howard-scott-white-orange","title":"Ford Escort Mk II No. 20 Hämäläinen Scott RAC Rally 1977 Night Version Trofeu 1:43","description":"\u003cblockquote class=\"vr-tldr\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eTrofeu's 1:43 scale model car captures Hämäläinen and Scott's No. 20 Ford Escort Mk II as it ran on the forest night stages of the 1977 RAC Rally, complete with auxiliary spot lights and white-orange livery.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Ford Escort Mk II holds a central place in World Rally Championship history. Produced between 1975 and 1980, it dominated late-1970s forest rallying, and the 1977 RAC Rally — a WRC round held on British forest stages in November of that year — stands as one of its highest-profile outings. Roger Clark and Stuart Melia won the event outright in an Escort Mk II, underlining just how thoroughly the model owned that season's British round.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2 id=\"the-real-car\"\u003eFord Escort Mk II in Group 4 Rally Trim\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBuilt from the AVO\/RS competition shell, the Mk II rally car was stripped to a tubular steel roll cage, fitted with lightweight bodywork, and powered by a Ford BDA or BDG four-cylinder engine tuned to Group 4 regulations. The production shell was compact and responsive on loose surfaces — precisely why it remained the car of choice for both works teams and privateers throughout the late 1970s WRC calendar.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2 id=\"hamalainen-rac-1977\"\u003eCar No. 20: Finnish Privateer Culture on British Stages\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKyösti Hämäläinen was a Finnish international competitor who campaigned Ford Escort Mk II machinery consistently during the 1970s and 1980s. On the 1977 RAC Rally he was navigated by Howard Scott, running car No. 20 in a white base livery with orange detailing — a colour scheme typical of the privateer and semi-works entries that characterised the event. The RAC Rally was run predominantly through dense forestry at night, which required crews to fit extensive arrays of auxiliary spot and driving lights on front bumpers and roof bars. This \"night version\" configuration is a technically specific and visually distinctive feature of the era, and it is precisely how Trofeu has rendered No. 20.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2 id=\"trofeu-143-model\"\u003eTrofeu and the \u003cspan class=\"vr-scale\"\u003e1:43\u003c\/span\u003e Die-Cast\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTrofeu is a Portuguese specialist manufacturer with a long focus on rally car models at \u003cspan class=\"vr-scale\"\u003e1:43\u003c\/span\u003e, and their RR UK series catalogues entries from the RAC Rally and Rally of Great Britain. Their approach consistently covers privateer and minor-works cars that larger die-cast houses leave undocumented. The model is cast in die-cast metal and replicates the night-stage auxiliary lighting layout, white and orange livery, and race number No. 20 — making it one of very few commercial representations of Hämäläinen's 1977 RAC entry at any scale.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TROFEU","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":60339384418688,"sku":"TRFRRUK116","price":107.9,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0922\/8828\/7104\/files\/vroomi-trfrruk116-front34-v2_944282cf-e5f7-469d-8e0f-95197de3a436.jpg?v=1794154975","url":"https:\/\/vroomimodels.com\/products\/ford-england-escort-mkii-night-version-n-20-rally-rac-1977-kyosti-hamalainen-howard-scott-white-orange","provider":"Vroomi","version":"1.0","type":"link"}