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Hello and welcome to Car Retrospective, where today we take a look at Ford, a motoring company
You likely associate with sensible cars like the Fiesta and the Mondeo. But today we take a look at a car
that's so wild that surely it can't be associated with the Ford badge
The Rs200! Let's have a look.
The story begins in the early eighties with the third generation Ford Escort being released.
After a successful first few years with the car, Ford decided to set about designing and building a rear-wheel drive
turbocharged variant of the mark 3 to compete in the group B rallying series.
However, many technical difficulties led Ford to abandon the project by 1983.
However, Ford still needed a car to compete in Group B
So rather than modifying an already existing car, they decide to build a brand new car from the ground up.
So using the experience learned from modifying the mark 3 they started production on a
Purpose-built car, now to be fitted with four-wheel drive to better compete with group B cars produced by the likes of Peugeot and Audi,
Ford's main rivals in the rallying championships at the time. To reduce weight and cost,
The body was made out of plastic fibreglass as well as using a mid-mounted engine for better weight distribution,
In tandem with the four-wheel drive and although it was fitted with a complex drivetrain setup and double wishbone suspension
Setup on all wheels, Ford made sure to sculpt the car to give it the iconic Ford appearance.
For example using the exact same windscreen from the Ford Sierra. The car was to be fitted with a 1.8 liter
turbocharged Cosworth BDT engine, which produced
250 horsepower in the road-legal version and around 400 horsepower in the rally racing version.
However for the road-legal version you could purchase a booster pack to boost the engine to around 300 horsepower.
It was said to behave more like a smooth racing engine rather than the modified production car engines used by other rally cars of the time.
Although months of designing made the car well-balanced, a poor power-to-weight ratio meant it was rather difficult to drive
Thereby making it less competitive. Upon completion in 1986 however,
the RS200 saw fairly immediate success as the Swedish driver Kalle Grundle Manageda third place finish in the
1986 World Rally Championship in Sweden, however
a short while later at the 1986 Rally de Portugal,
an Rs200 was involved in a fatal accident when Joaquim Santos lost control of the car,
Hitting a wall of spectators, killing three and injuring around 31. Another fatal accident took place on the 31st of May
1986 when Swiss rally driver Marc Surer crushed his rs200 into a tree at Rallye-Hessen,
Killing his co-driver Michel Wyder after it burst into flames.
These accidents, combined with others in the 1986 season, meant that
the RS200's original purpose of being a Group B rally car became pointless after
Group B was abolished for fear of future disasters and the severely damaged reputation after
1986, mere months after the RS200 was released.
It was unfortunate as Ford had planned to introduce an evolution variant of the RS200 featuring an improved BDT engine
Supposedly able to produce between 500 and 800 horsepower,
Although 24 of the original 200 produced were converting to these new evolution models, just not used in Group B rally.
The Rs200 still found use after the abolishment of Group B however,
being successful in the European rallycross championships from
1987 through 1992, and the Norwegian rally driver Martin Schanche,
(Sorry if I butchered that), claimed the title in the 1991 championship, and there was even a specially modified
RS200 made for circuit racing fitted with a brand new
750 horsepower engine, however, it never really found much success.
Another car was modified for use in Pikes Peak in the U.S. Driven by Swedish driver Stig Blomqvist
(sorry if I butchered that) in 2001, 2002 and
2004 and later in 2009 by British driver Mark Rennison. And there it is, the Ford RS00!
Personally, I really like this car. I think it looks really cool,
It sounds fun to drive and it's one of my favorite cars to use in DiRT rally,
And since its a pretty realistic game it MUST mean it's a good car.
I honestly feel it would've found more success if it wasn't involved in the disasters that it was,
but Oh Well, that's life. Still a good car in my opinion. Anyway, thanks for watching guys!