click above image for more views of the Escachero

Autoblog reader Johnny B. sent us these pics of a hybrid Ford Escort pickup he found that, quite honestly, should have been built by the Blue Oval, as it evokes everything that was good and right about the original Ford Ranchero. (Whoa, so much dripping sarcasm, it's getting tough to type.) In Johnny's words, it's got "all the power and versatility of an Escort with the comfort of a pickup." Wait, that should probably the other way around, but you get the idea. At this point, we'd take a Focichero to replace Ford's aging Ranger pickup that's got no replacement waiting in the wings as far as we know.

As we reported a few days back, Ford has big plans for the bits and pieces that make up the Mazda 2. While the Mazda will have the requesitie joie de vivre known as "zoom zoom," Ford variants are a go, as well. Automobile posits that naming the Ford version might be a sticky wicket. We've recently seen the blue oval return to names with some history, so an all new moniker may be out from the get-go. That leaves us with some greatest hits from yesteryear. Pinto likely won't work, it's too old, and those cars are rolling punchlines, anyway. Fiesta? Well, we're getting closer. The US was graced with the Fiesta back when the Rabbit was a small car, and they were wonderful. Unfortunately, the age problem is still there, and not enough people know what the Fiesta is/was anymore. Staying with F, we can move to Festiva, but we'd rather not. Ka would probably be fine in Boston, but nobody would know what the hell you're talking about. Conversations would have a real "who's on first" feel.

"I'm going to move my Ka, or it'll be plowed in."

What kind of car is it?

"A Ford."

Ford what?

"Ka."

Right, I know it's a car, but what model?

"Ford Ka."

On and on it would go. That leaves us with one venerable name: Escort. The original Laser-platform Escorts were a pretty decent stab at a world car once they solved the oil burning issues with the 1.6L engine and funky shifting from the automatic. By 1985, they were decent little cars. It'd be a return to history all around. The Escort ended up swiping a Mazda platform for it's last iteration (The 91 "shrunken Taurus" model), so taking the Mazda2 and calling it Escort would be a return to the past. Since they've brought back the Taurus and Sable names, revisiting other 1980s names sounds reasonable, but please, leave the fashion, music, and hairstyles there.

Since it seems like most of the mainstream automotive news will be dominated with comment and analysis of Ford's WF 2.0 plan today, we thought we'd dig up something with a blue oval on it for today's RR of the Day. This car is a Brazilian 1991 Ford Escort XR3 Formula. It represents some of the Escort's higher pedigree that could be found abroad but was never delivered to the U.S. The XR3 joined the RS2000 Escort in 1991, but lacked the latter's larger 2.0-liter turbo engine in favor of a 1.8-liter Zetec. The owner of this example, who goes by the Flickr handle Tabajara-Labs, waited 10 years for this very rare XR3 Formula of which he claims only 750 were built. The Escort here reminds us of the greatest Escort of all time and a car after which I hopelessly pined as a young spud: the Escort RS Cosworth. Yum.

If you'd like to see your own ride featured here, simply upload photos of your ride into our Flickr group. We select one image to highlight each week day, and on the weekend let you vote for a RR of the Week. Detailed instructions can be found after the jump.