Further to the info posted above on the MkII Escort, I contacted Rob Halliday to get the story behind it. Here are his replies:

"The car was never banned, and they were not Zakspeed guards, in fact they were X-pac guards that you could buy thru Ford, or order an Escort with them factory fitted. We ran the MK2 escort in Shellsport, then Don purchased Ken Horburns MK1 Escort, and ran that with a short stroke 1600 twin cam. The GAA was our old engine, the car was owned by David Honore, who owned the car when we ran in Shellsport".

The above I put together from a couple of emails from Rob. So essentially, the Hallidays built the MkII for the new ShellSport 2 litre series, then Don bought the MkI and sold the MkII to David Honore. David also purchased the Coswoth GAA V6 the Hallidays had run in their Capri, hence the advert posted earlier.

Neat car, I wonder if it survived?