There are now three ways to end up with a Mk1 Escort on your drive: buy a brand-new one from MST Cars or Boreham Motorworks, buy an original car, or build one yourself, either on a restored original or on a new bodyshell. This post sets out what each route is reported to cost, using only published figures with their dates. We haven’t added estimates of our own, because there’s no honest single number for a car built to your own spec.
The short version
- New-build: reported starting prices run from £79,500 + VAT for an MST Mk1 Sports to £354,000 in the UK for a Boreham Mk1 RS.
- Original: at one UK sale in March 2026, a well-presented Mexico sold for £43,875 and an RS2000 for £52,313. Single auction results aren’t a price guide, but they give a real, dated reference point.
- Build your own: MST’s online shop lists a brand-new, unpainted Mk1 bodyshell at £24,975 + VAT. Everything else (engine, gearbox, axle, suspension, paint, trim and labour) is on top, and specialist builders generally quote per project rather than publishing prices.
Buying new: MST and Boreham
Neither firm publishes prices on its own website, so the figures below come from the motoring press. Our MST vs Boreham comparison covers the engineering differences in detail.
| Car | Reported price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| MST Mk1 Sports | From £79,500 + VAT, “just over £95,000” | Auto Express, 23 March 2026 |
| MST Mk1 EVO | From £195,000 + VAT, about £234k | Auto Express, 7 July 2026 |
| Boreham Mk1 RS | From £295,000 before options and taxes, £354,000 in the UK | Autocar, 9 June 2026 |
MST’s prices depend heavily on specification. When evo drove the MST Mk1 demonstrator in March 2024, it quoted a basic price of £174,000 for that car, which had a 2.0-litre BDG engine, or £138,000 with the standard 2.5-litre Duratec. evo said the BDG alone was “quite a pricey option at £25k”. The cheaper Mk1 Sports reported in 2026 is a different, simpler model with a 2.0-litre twin cam of about 180bhp, so these figures shouldn’t be read as prices falling over time.
What the money buys is a car registered as new. MST takes each car through Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA), and evo reported in 2024 that each build took about six months, with a pair of metal workers spending four weeks on each shell. Boreham’s premium buys the Ford licence, a Ford-certified chassis number and a place in a 150-car run, with first handovers reported for early 2027. Read more in our MST Cars overview and Boreham Mk1 RS overview.
Buying an original
Original Mk1 prices vary enormously with model, history, originality and condition, so treat any single result with care. These are three real results from Iconic Auctioneers’ 2026 sales, as published on the auction house’s own lot pages:
| Car | Sale | Sold for |
|---|---|---|
| 1974 Escort Mk1 RS2000, Vista Orange, 66,170 miles, used mainly for shows, last MOT 2022 | NEC Birmingham, 21–22 March 2026 | £52,313 |
| 1974 Escort Mk1 Mexico, white with red stripes, 50,732 miles, described as restored to an exceptional standard | NEC Birmingham, 21–22 March 2026 | £43,875 |
| 1971 Escort RS Mexico, rebuilt to World Cup Rally specification, with endurance rally history | Stoneleigh Park, 21 February 2026 | £41,625 |
Two things stand out. First, the RS2000 was described as likely to need “light recommissioning” before regular road use, so the purchase price isn’t always the end of the spend. Second, the rally-prepared Mexico had been taken back to a bare shell twice, in 2003 and again from 2013, yet it sold for less than the show-condition road Mexico. Money spent on a build doesn’t always come back at sale time.
If you’re looking at originals, our guides to the RS2000 and the complete history of the Mk1 Ford Escort will help you work out what you’re looking at.
Building your own
The third route is to build a car, either by restoring and modifying an original or by starting from a new shell.
A new shell. MST’s parts business, Motorsport Tools, lists an all-new narrow-arched Mk1 bodyshell at £24,975 + VAT (£29,970 including VAT) on its online shop, checked on 28 October 2026. The listing says it’s hand built in the UK from new Magnum panels, comes with new doors, boot and bonnet, and is supplied unpainted in a “raw state” that will need a dry build and the usual body prep before paint. Bubble-arched, Group 1 and Group 4 specifications are listed as available to order.
A specialist build. Workshops such as Retropower, which built Gordon Murray’s Mk1, don’t publish a price list. Top Gear reported in 2021 that Retropower agrees a budget with each customer, but each project “is costed by the hour, so final bills can be somewhat variable”. Retropower hasn’t published what Murray’s car cost, and we haven’t found a reliable figure, so we won’t guess one. The 16 episodes of the build show how many hours of fabrication and engineering go into a one-off car like that.
Doing it yourself. A home build depends entirely on your skills, tools and spec, so there’s no fair figure to quote. The engine choice alone can move the total a long way: evo’s £25k figure for a BDG is a useful reminder of what a period-correct engine can cost compared with a crate Duratec.
Which route makes sense?
- Want a warranty and no project? A new-build gives you a registered, warrantied car, at a reported £79,500 + VAT upwards from MST, or far more for Boreham’s licensed car.
- Want an original with period history? Recent auction results show good road cars selling in the £40,000s and £50,000s, though condition and paperwork matter more than any average.
- Want it your way? Building lets you choose every part, but you’ll need a clear budget before you start. Specialists cost by the hour, and a new shell is only the starting point.
Related
- MST vs Boreham: two ways to buy a brand-new Mk1 Escort, compared
- MST Cars’ new-build Mk1 Escort: Mk1 Sports, Mk1 EVO and ordering
- Boreham Motorworks Ford Escort Mk1 RS explained
- Retropower × Gordon Murray Mk1: all episodes
Sources
Auction results, the Motorsport Tools listing and the Top Gear and evo articles were checked on 28 October 2026. The other press prices are as checked for our MST (20 October), Boreham (22 October) and comparison (26 October) posts.
- Iconic Auctioneers: 1974 Ford Escort Mk1 RS2000, lot 315, 1974 Ford Escort Mk1 Mexico, lot 311, 1971 Ford Escort RS Mexico ‘World Cup Rally’ specification, lot 662
- Motorsport Tools: All New MST Mk1 Bodyshell Narrow Arched Base Spec Shell
- Top Gear, Tom Ford, 9 April 2021: The brothers trim: a tour of Retropower
- evo, John Barker, 15 March 2024: MST Mk1 2024 review – £174,000 Ford Escort recreation driven
- Auto Express, Tom Jervis, 23 March 2026: Ford Escort MST Mk1 Sports brings the icon back to life
- Auto Express, Antony Ingram, 7 July 2026: New MST Mk1 Evo turns the original Ford Escort into a rally monster
- Autocar, Charlie Martin, 9 June 2026: Boreham reveals new Ford Escort RS for £300k – with 10,000rpm redline
- Autocar, Charlie Martin, 20 August 2026: 10,000rpm, £354k Ford Escort is a car ’nobody else could build’
mk1escort.org is an independent enthusiast site and isn’t connected with MST Cars, Motorsport Tools, Boreham Motorworks, Retropower, Iconic Auctioneers or Ford. Prices change and auction results reflect individual cars, so check current figures before you commit.