Description
This lot will be auctioned via Iconic Auctioneers, The Iconic Sale at the NEC Classic Motor Show 2024 - Cars on Saturday the 9th of November, NEC, Birmingham, B40 1NT. Ford had been working on a turbocharged machine that could compete with the new breed of 'Group B' Rally cars like the Audi Sport Quattro, Peugeot 205 T16, the Lancia Delta and their remarkable 037. Unusually for Ford, the solution proved elusive and with the Escort RS 1700T failing miserably, they were forced to return to the drawing board and start all over again. The result was the RS200, however, Ford had now become 'late starters' and were effectively three years behind. The car was styled by Ghia and unusually, the bodywork was entrusted to a company who knew a fair bit about building fibreglass cars - Reliant. The chassis engineering was looked after by F1 gurus Tony Southgate and John Wheeler. Ford bosses demanded that it must have four-wheel drive and it was built around a space frame chassis, Kevlar bodywork and a potent mid-mounted engine courtesy of well proven race engine builder, Brian Hart. Add to this an innovative front mounted gearbox for better weight distribution and balance plus a variable torque split differential from Ferguson and you had a real beast of a car. The result was spectacular. At the peak of its powers in the hands of star drivers like Stig Blomqvist the larger 2. 1-litre Evo engine was claimed to be pushing out around 650bhp, it was rumoured that even 700/ 800bhp was used. It looked like Ford finally had the package to win and things were looking promising after Kalle Grundell came home third in the Swedish Rally of 1986, however the fickle finger of fate was soon to be pointed at 'Group B'. Tragedy struck on the opening stage of the Portuguese Rally when Joaquim Santos lost control of his RS200 and sadly three people died and many others were injured. Marc Surer also crashed his RS200 in the Hessen Rally killing his co-driver. This was the beginning of the end for 'Group B' Rallying. Soon after that, Henri Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto lost their lives on the Tour de Corse when their Lancia Delta left the road. This really was the end of 'Group B' and it was also the end of an era for the fastest, most dangerous, most spectacular period in modern rallying. As a result, after just one year in competition, it was all over for the RS200 so it never got to show off its full potential, however it did prove that it had enormous promise, with many of the cars being spectacularly successful in Rallycross particularly in the hands of Norwegian Martin Schanche.
FIA Homologation Rules for 'Group B' required the construction of at least 200 road-legal vehicles and Ford complied with this, building 200 units with enough spare parts for a further 20. Records indicate that 90 of these were eventually to leave the factory finished as road cars.
We are pleased to offer this Ford RS200, chassis #0053, which was supplied new by Hendy Ford, Eastleigh to another retail Ford dealer at the time, Nicklens of Fordingbridge, under their parent company Shearing Builders Ltd. The car was first registered on 24th March 1987 and remained with the original owners until July 1997 when the Hendy Group bought it back through their Cosham branch. Since the car’s purchase by our vendor, it has remained within his private Collection of cars and has had no use apart from being put through an MOT that expired in August of 2020. Although the car has not been run during its current tenure it has been carefully stored within a dry heated environment and still stands in time warp condition.
Showing just 8, 877 miles on the odometer, warranted by its extensive collection of historic MOT and Tax certificates in addition to the aforementioned history, it still boasts its original leather-bound RS200 drivers and maintenance manual. In super original condition, this fabulous RS200 evokes memories of one of the most dramatic eras in rallying history and may well be the missing jigsaw piece in a Ford collector's puzzle.
N. B. The car was purchased by our vendor in running condition, but it has since been effectively museum-stored in his heated storage and unused for 6 years - therefore some recommissioning will be needed prior to using the car.
