The Ford Escort XR3i was one of those cars that looked absolutely heroic when you were young enough not to care too much about whether it was actually any good.
It had the looks. It had the badge. It had the spoiler, the wheels, the stripes and the deeply important sense that whoever owned one was probably doing better than you.
Now Tolman has revealed a one-off Escort XR3i that keeps all of that glorious 1980s energy, but quietly fixes quite a lot of what we complained about at the time.
The Warwickshire-based specialist is best known for its Tolman Edition Peugeot 205 GTi, but customer demand has pushed it into other hot hatch heroes. This XR3i is one of four one-off customer-commissioned Tolman Edition cars being built in 2026, each based on a different 1980s icon, making the car look like the one the customer wanted as a teenager, but make it drive far better than the original ever did.
That meant starting with a standard Diamond White XR3i with Rosso Red inserts, then spending a heroic 1,600 hours restoring and improving it. The original shell needed a full-body restoration, including repairs for the kind of corrosion that old Escorts are rather famous for.
One of the trickier jobs was the sunroof aperture. With good replacement roof skins unavailable, Tolman developed a custom laser-cut jig and forming tool to recreate the sunroof opening from a non-sunroof panel. That is the sort of sentence that sounds deeply dull, but explains why proper restorations cost proper money.
Underneath, the car has been treated with modern underseal and corrosion protection, meaning it should be a little less terrified of British weather than it was when Ford first built it.
The engine is still based on the original 1.6-litre CVH unit. Tolman could have dropped in a later Ford engine and called it a day, but that would have changed the character of the car.
Instead, the CVH has been heavily reworked with a 16-valve Zetec head, new pistons and rods, a stronger bottom end and full electronic engine management hidden inside the original units. The result is 150bhp at the wheels and 163Nm of torque, compared with the original 105hp output. It still uses the original five-speed gearbox, but now breathes through a bespoke stainless exhaust.
The original XR3i wasn’t exactly famous for being the sharpest tool in the hot hatch box, so Tolman has used Bilstein dampers, a bespoke front anti-roll bar and lessons from Ford’s RS1600i homologation special to improve the front end.
There are also bespoke 15-inch alloy wheels inspired by the original 14-inch “Dog Leg” design. They keep the period look, but allow for a wider choice of modern tyres and improved brakes. Tolman has fitted upgraded AP front discs and swapped the rear drums for discs, with Michelin Pilot Exalto PE4 tyres completing the package.
So it should still feel like an XR3i, just one that has been to the gym, learned some manners and stopped making excuses.
Other upgrades are deliberately subtle. There are LED headlights, stainless-steel brake lines, a modern alarm, immobiliser and tracker, plus a Blaupunkt DAB radio inside. The Daytona cloth trim remains, because some things should not be messed with.
Tolman founder Chris Tolman said the XR3i remains popular because so many people have an emotional connection to it, but admitted that driving one today could be underwhelming.
He said: “Just as with the 205 GTi, we’ve applied our knowledge to make it drive the way you think you remember the original driving, while looking essentially like the one you yearned for.”
And that is really the magic here. This is not a wild restomod with carbon bodywork, a giant turbo and an interior full of screens. It is still recognisably an Escort XR3i, just carefully rebuilt and improved by people who understand why the original mattered.
He is the founder of Huff Media, publisher of Professional Pickup, Professional Van, Average Janes, Average Joes, and CALIBRE. His work focuses primarily on light commercial vehicles, pickups, and real-world vehicle use, with much of his time spent on manufacturer launches, industry events, and long-term vehicle testing.