Ford Escort Mk II - Ari Vatanen - Manx International Rally 1982

For many, this is The Mk II Escort. (Or the Rothmans ones, gotta make those soon too)

Definitely one of the most beautiful Mk2 Escorts in the existence of Mk2 Escorts. The real life counterpart with the undeniably beautiful wide arches being swung around UK's tarmac roads in true Vatanen fashion is some of the best things to witness in rallying and that's why I wanted to make this skin for RBR, despite our Escort's 3d model not being 1:1 match to the 1982 one that Vatanen drove.

In the 1982 Manx International Rally Ari begun strong. Stage win on the rally opener and a tight battle with another fine fast Finn Henri Toivonen for the lead of the rally. Toivonen then started to disappear into the distance a bit leaving Ari battling with Terry Kaby first and then Jimmy McRae for the second place in the rally. Then on SS11 Glascoe 2 Ari started driving again on the level he's most famous for and did four fastest stage times in a row, leaving McRae into his dust and Ari inched closer to Toivonen again with the gap being at it's smallest at six seconds after SS14. Ari wins one more stage in the second day on SS20 and he now leads second placed Jimmy McRae by 27 seconds.

And then on SS22 Ari "pulls a Vatanen" and crashes off from a somewhat comfortable lead. "Well, it just landed very heavily and just bounced off the road. As simple as that.", claims Vatanen after the crash.

Big thanks to Owen Morgan for the help with some of the tricker to find stickers, cheers mate! Also thanks to Voittanen for helping with some fonts too!

There are two versions of this skin included in the pack, one like the car shown in the pics below, and another with a front license plate made with textures. Use whichever you like, there are instructions in the README-file in the pack.

I hope you guys won't land heavily and bounce off the road with this livery, hope you guys enjoy!