1976 FORD ESCORT RS 2000 GR.1

With this particular car, now fully restored, Juha Kankkunen participated in his first World Championship rally, the 1979 1000 Lakes Rally Finland.

The car was restored by its original builder, Jukka 'Seppä' Leinonen.

The car's livery matches exactly the one used by Juha Kankkunen & Timo Hantunen in the 1979 1000 Lakes Rally.

The car belongs to a private individual's collection.

THE PROJECT

The most challenging aspect of this project was finding sufficient initial information to accurately reproduce the decals and stickers. There were very few pictures of the car, making the research work time-consuming.

Fortunately, there were some pictures taken by the car's builder before the rally. Based on these photos, it was relatively easy to recreate the car's intricate striping.

Interestingly, the original door numbers used on the car in 1979 were found on the garage wall of Juha Kankkunen's head mechanic from that year's 1000 Lakes Rally.

These numbers had been on the garage wall for over 40 years. They were measured and photographed without being removed from the wall to avoid damage.

The end result is a perfect match of the original - every small detail has been meticulously replicated.