Millington Diamond engine
The Millington Diamond is the historic rally Escort's ultimate heart: a purpose-built all-alloy 2.5-litre four making ~300 naturally aspirated horsepower — the engine that decides who wins forest events, priced and traded accordingly.
History
Millington Engines built the Diamond to answer a question the fast-Ford world kept asking: what powers a top-flight rally Escort when period engines reach their ceiling? The answer was clean-sheet — an all-aluminium, 16-valve four (Series 2 and evolutions refining the line) designed as a rally engine from the sump up: ~2.5 litres, ~300 hp naturally aspirated, torque curves shaped for forest stages and service intervals a national campaign can live with.
Adoption at the sharp end was total: the winning end of UK and Irish historic and open rallying runs Diamonds as near-default equipment, with the engine's costs simply priced into what a front-running Mk2 build means. The marque's record-keeping became part of the value: Millington knows every unit built, its spec and its refresh history — a single-source provenance registry rare in engine markets.
That registry structures the used trade: Diamonds change hands inside cars and as standalone units, priced by build spec and hours since Millington (or authorised) refresh, with the factory's paper the differentiator between an asset and a gamble.
Palmarès
The engine of modern historic rallying's winning tier — national and international historic rally titles, forest-event wins across the UK and Ireland for two decades in Diamond-powered Escorts and specials; the results sheet is effectively the customer list.
What to check before you buy
Ring Millington first: the factory's per-unit records (spec, ownership, refresh history) verify any Diamond's claims in one call — treat a seller's reluctance to share the serial as the answer. Price on hours since refresh and build tier (spec evolutions and output levels vary), confirm ancillaries completeness (mapping, throttle bodies, exhaust manifold — replacement costs are real) and installation provenance in-car. Standalone units command strong money because demand structurally exceeds supply at the winning end. Budget the next scheduled refresh into any offer; a Diamond's costs are known quantities, which is precisely its value.
Did you know
- Millington keeps records of every Diamond ever built — buyers verify engines with a phone call, a provenance luxury unique in the rally-engine trade.
- ~300 NA horsepower from a rally-serviceable alloy four made the Diamond the ceiling-breaker: period-engine development simply stopped making sense above it.
- The engine's ubiquity at the winning end means forest-event results sheets read as Millington customer lists — rivals' adverts say 'Diamond-beating' as a specification.
