Not too long ago, the idea of a 10,000rpm road car was the stuff of wild engineering fantasy, but lately, the mythical five-figure rev limit has been breached by several cars – the Aston Martin Valkyrie, Mercedes-AMG One, GMA T.50 and Lamborghini Temerario all manage it.
They, of course, are all uber-exotic super- or hypercars – but what if you could achieve the same heady heights in a Mk1 Ford Escort? That’ll soon be possible thanks to the new ‘Ten-K’ four-cylinder being developed by Boreham Motorworks, builder of the upcoming, Ford-approved part-continuation, part-restomod version of the original Escort RS.
Boreham Motorworks Ford Escort Mk1 RS
We knew when the car was announced just under a year ago that Boreham was targeting 10,000rpm from a 2.1-litre four-pot, and now we’ve got full details of the engine that’ll do it. A naturally aspirated unit, it features lightweight innards and a billet construction for the crank, conrods, mounts, sump and cam cover.
Elsewhere, it’s got a 16-valve head, and the port design is said to be inspired by F1. Thanks in part to 3D-printed casting, the whole unit weighs just 85kg, which will doubtless help the entire car get down to its targeted 800kg kerbweight.
Boreham Motorworks Ten-K engine
Helping move that 800kg along will be a peak of 325bhp, handily eclipsing the originally projected 296bhp. That makes for more tantalising figures in its own right – how do 406bhp per tonne and 155bhp per litre sound? Nearly as good as this engine presumably will.
All that’ll be powering a car free from any electronic driver aids, or even power steering and brake servos, and it’ll be sent to the back wheels via a five-speed dogleg manual and a mechanical limited-slip diff.
Boreham Motorworks Ten-K engine
Naturally, not many people will get to experience all this engineering loveliness – Boreham plans to build just 150 of these reborn Escorts, priced from £295,000 a pop. Still, we haven’t heard the last of Boreham Motorworks – there’s still that new RS200 to come, for a start…
Mike joined Car Throttle as a Staff Writer at the start of 2024, a role that sees him driving the news desk, as well as reviewing cars and (often unsuccessfully) pitching features on obscure Italian hatchbacks.
