Listen to this 600bhp Ford Escort Mexico’s start-up and rapid-fire exhaust

Turns out an aluminium-block Cosworth YB engine tuned to produce around the same amount of power as a BMW M5 bellowing through a touring-car style side-exit exhaust is the engine note we needed to hear. Repeatedly. And at great volume.

Of course, the car has been built – and is still being finalised – to run just the once on a very special and very personal moonshot: owner Andy Devine is planning on taking his ‘Mexorcist’ MkII Mexico to a drag strip later this summer and laying down a ten second quarter mile time.

“I only really want to do it once,” he tells TopGear.com with a smile. “To do 10 seconds once, that’s good enough. Then I’ll do some track stuff with it.”

TG recently paid a visit to Andy in his shed where he showcased his creation, and it really is his creation. An electronics engineer and avid motorsport and modifying obsessive, he built the MkII on his own, with a little help from his pal Colin (a fabricator). Only the paintjob – that searing orange hue – was outsourced.

“I've always had Fords. My first car was a MkI Ford Fiesta Supersport,” he says, later acknowledging that yes, he now wishes he’d kept hold of it. He went through MkIII and MkIV Escorts too before he bought this one, and after sitting around in his garage in various subtle states of tune, finally decided to go all in.

After which it became a proper labour of love. “Each little detail becomes a project. For instance, I wanted a racecar look for the wiper.” Which meant chopping out the grille, moving it, and mounting a central wiper using the arm from a Fiat Uno. That’s just the wiper for goodness sake.

But it’s all in the pursuit of something that stands apart. “I think modifying is an expression of your creativity,” he says. “But it’s not about me, it’s about the car. So if I take this anywhere I won’t actually let people know that it’s me that owns it. Because I get a kick from seeing other people noticing details on the car, and that’s what modifying is for.”

They’ll certainly hear it coming – this thing’s got 3.5in downpipes leading into a 3in Vibrant performance exhaust stacked end to end before jutting out of each side, ‘just like the Cosworth days of Touring Cars’.

It’s the engine note you need to hear. Repeatedly, and at volume.