I think the ZX2 is when the Escort started morphing into the Focus. At least, that's what it looks like to me. I may be wrong, but ever since the Focus came out, I haven't seen any other Escorts coming out.
Yes, it is an Escort. I love telling the import punks at PIR. Most of the time it's a 12 year-old with a sideways hat, "yo man what year's your civic?" lol.
Here's a quick history lesson if anyone's interested. Zx2's first started selling in 1997, but a model year of 1998 on the title. In 1999, California Ford dealerships were given the Zinc Yellow Zx2 S/R. The ZX2 S/R came with a Iceman intake, Borla exhaust, B&M short throw, Tokico struts, Eibach springs, a cute little "S/R" decal on the door [limp], a 150mph speedo, and a FR tuned ECU. Stock it pushed about 140whp and 150ish ftlbs of torque. The downfall, only 99 were produced it's first year. The fallowing year, Ford kicked it up a notch and produced in the ball park of 3K red, 3K black, and xK yellow S/Rs. In 2003 the name Escort was dropped and only Zx2 remained and the front fascia was changed. This was also the final production year for the Zx2 [bigcry]
One of the big things us Zx2 guys are jealous about is the focus tranny. We got stuck with a crappy little Mazda G-series transmission. The damn diff. breaks all the time because of a design flaw. One guys' barley pushing 200whp and he goes through phantom grip LSDs every few months. But a few people have pulled off a MTX-75 swap or skip it and go straight for the 5.0L RWD conversion lol.
So only 1 maybe??? Common there has to be a few more people from Portland around here!
Edit: Here is a pic of the S/R, I forgot to add it got a different set of wheels. Picture from 2001zincsr.
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