Ford RS200 Coupé Reading time: about 2 minutes. British

Cars

Design

Engineering

Ford

Rally

The Ford RS200 is one of the most famous of the non-USA developed Fords ever made. In fact I can’t think of another that even comes close, with the possible exception of the Ford GT40 – but my American friends get angry with me when I remind them that the GT40 was designed and built in England.

The iconic status of the Ford RS200 is well-cemented in Britain where it was designed and built between 1984 and 1986 – it was originally conceived as a phoenix-car that would ride from the ashes of the abandoned Escort RS1700T project.

Originally envisaged as a car to take on the Audis in Group B rally, the RS200 was designed from the ground up as a four-wheel drive, mid-engine, space-frame chassis car that would be capable of racing against the best in the world. It was designed by former Formula 1 designer Tony Southgate, and Ford’s John Wheeler, a former F1 engineer himself.

A double wishbone suspension setup, twin dampers on all four wheels, almost perfect weight distribution, an incredibly light weight, couple to an advanced, rigid chassis made the RS200 an incredible performer – it came 3rd in its first race outing and would go onto take 19 wins and 32 podium finishes at international level events.

After a relatively successful, though very eventful 1986 Group B Rally season the team at Ford were hard at work on the Ford RS200 E2 (an evolution of the 1986 car that would race in Group B in 1987) when they received word that Group B had been shut down due to safety concerns. Many had died during the 1986 season and it was seen as being just too dangerous to continue.

This car is one of only 200 built (due to homologation) and is chassis number 90, it was first registered for the road in 1989 and has only seen 17,090 miles since then. It’s presented in remarkable, original condition and has an estimated value of between $120,000 and $150,000 USD – if you’d like to snap it up you’ll need to head to the Goodwood Collector’s Motor Cars Auction that’ll be held by Bonhams on the 12th of July 2013.

Click here to visit Bonhams and view the original lot listing.

Author Details Ben Branch Founder + Senior Editor Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more. Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media. You can follow Ben on Instagram here, Twitter here, or LinkedIn here.





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