The history of Ford’s legendary RS performance beasts
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For nearly half a century, the most exciting Fords built in Europe have been the ones with RS badges. RS stands for Rallye Sport, and it generally signals that the Ford in question has the highest performance of any car in a particular model range.
Most, though not all, RS models have some connection with motorsport, which Ford, like other manufacturers who take part, uses to promote itself throughout the world.
The very first RS cars were built in Germany in the late 1960s. They were based on the 15M, 17M and 20M, technically versions of the Taunus, though by the time they came along Ford had dropped the Taunus name.
A 20M RS won the 1969 East African Safari Rally, but since neither it nor any other Taunus was ever sold in the UK we won’t be dwelling on it here. From a UK perspective, the RS story began a year later.
1970 Escort RS1600
The first Escort Ford used in motorsport was the 1968 Twin Cam. It was soon replaced by the RS1600, whose 16-valve 1.6-litre BDA engine had been developed by Cosworth and was partly related to the DFV, the most successful engine in the history of Grand Prix racing. BDAs are still being used in race and rally cars today.
In standard form, the RS1600 produced 120bhp, 10bhp more than the Twin Cam and a fantastic amount for a road-going saloon car at that time. It was largely hand-built in Essex by Ford’s Advanced Vehicle Operations (AVO) team, which could build up to 30 a day. Competition versions were enormously successful in racing and rallying up to international level.
It’s possible to create an RS1600 by fitting a BDA and appropriate suspension and transmission to an ordinary Mk1 Escort bodyshell, but Ford experts will be able to spot that it’s not an original car.
1973 Escort RS2000
Despite the larger number in its name, the RS2000 was less powerful than the RS1600. It used a 100bhp two-litre version of the American-designed Pinto engine which had first appeared in the UK three years earlier under the bonnet of the Mk3 Cortina.
The Pinto was less temperamental than the BDA, and replacement parts were much cheaper, so the RS2000 was a popular choice for amateur motorsport teams who couldn’t afford to run an RS1600.
Racing driver Gerry Birrell helped to develop the suspension of the RS2000 shortly before he died in qualifying for a Formula 2 race in France. He clearly did a very good job. Press reports of the time praised the car’s handling and ride quality.
1973 Ford Capri RS3100
Ford of Germany created a variant of the Capri called the RS2600 specifically so that it could develop a racing version to compete in the European Touring Car Championship. Dieter Glemser and Jochen Mass won the Drivers title in 1971 and 1972 respectively.
That car, which wasn’t sold in the UK, used a 2.6-litre V6 engine known as the Cologne. Ford of Britain went a step further in 1973, using a Capri with the three-litre Essex V6 as the basis for the RS3100. The engine was enlarged very slightly to 3.1 litres, making the car eligible for the over three-litre class in the ETCC.
For racing, the RS3100 was fitted with a Cosworth GA engine loosely based on the Essex. This was also used successfully in other motorsport categories.
Only around 200 road-going cars were ever built. The second one, and the oldest survivor, was borrowed for the filming of an Irn Bru advert in the early 1990s.
1975 Escort RS1800
The most famous of the high-performance rear-wheel drive Escorts went on sale only a few months after the Mk2 was introduced. The RS1800 had a 1.8-litre Cosworth engine which was actually less powerful in standard form than the one in the earlier RS1600.
It could, however, be very highly tuned. Rally versions with Cosworth BDG engines – two-litre variants of the BDA – produced around 240bhp, which was enough to make them extremely competitive. In 1979, Bjorn Waldegard became the first person to win the Drivers title in the World Rally Championship, which had previously been open only to manufacturers.
Waldegard used a Mercedes in the two African rounds but an RS1800 in all the others. He was rarely out of the top three when he finished, and beat Hannu Mikkola (another Ford/Mercedes driver) by one point.
Four decades later, RS1800s are still extremely popular in national rallying. New ones, using 2.5-litre Millington engines rather than Cosworths, are being built and sold for well in excess of £100,000.
1976 Escort RS2000
The second RS2000 was technically similar to the first, with a two-litre Pinto engine rather than an expensive and complicated Cosworth one.
It looked quite different from other Mk2 Escorts because of its ‘droop snoot’ nose, which was said to do less damage to pedestrians in the event and also to reduce aerodynamic lift at the front. A small bootlid spoiler performed the same aerodynamic service at the rear.
1976 Escort RS Mexico
The first Escort Mexico, without an RS badge, was a 1970 Mk1 created to commemorate Ford’s success in that year’s London to Mexico marathon. Escorts finished first (in the hands of Hannu Mikkola), third, fifth and sixth, and Ford won the team prize.
The road-going version was very popular. The 1976 Mk2 RS Mexico, with a 1.6-litre Pinto engine, didn’t catch the public imagination to the same extent. Ford withdrew it from the market after two years.
1982 Escort RS1600i
Ford briefly dropped the RS badge when the Mk2 Escort gave way to the front-wheel drive Mk3. The first hot version of this car was the 1.6-litre XR3, quickly replaced by the fuel-injected XR3i.
The XR3i was the basis of the short-lived RS1600i, which had more power (115bhp rather than 103), higher gearing, revised suspension, a front spoiler, a rear wing and bonnet stripes.
The RS1600i was quite successful in motorsport, but not to anything like the same extent as the screaming RS1800.
1984 Escort RS Turbo
Ford’s first turbocharged RS was a replacement for the RS1600i. Initially designed as a special model built in just enough numbers to allow Ford to build a competition version, its engine produced 130bhp in standard form but far more than that when extensively modified.
Later RS Turbos were toned down to make them more acceptable as road cars. The power output remained the same but the gearing was raised and the suspension softened.
1985 RS200
The first RS model not based on an existing production car was the RS200, which used the same turbocharged 1.8-litre Cosworth BDT engine created for the earlier rear-wheel drive RS1700T. (The RS1700T project was an expensive failure abandoned by Ford before any production cars were built.)
The mid-engined, four-wheel drive RS200 had a fibreglass composite body made by Reliant. Reliant knew all about fibreglass bodies, having used them for years in its three-wheelers as well as the four-wheeled Kitten and the Scimitar sports car.
In standard form the car had a power output of 247bhp, the highest yet for any unmodified RS. In rally trim it could exceed 400bhp.
The rally programme was only slightly more successful than the RS1700T one had been. The car wasn’t as competitive as hoped, and when the Group B category it was designed for was dropped after a serious of major accidents (one of them involving an RS200) Ford had no option but to pull the plug.
RS200s were still allowed to compete in rallycross and did so with great success, especially when driven by the exuberant Norwegian Martin Schanche.
1985 Sierra RS Cosworth
When the Sierra first appeared, fans of the old Cortina complained about its ‘jelly mould’ shape. That was quickly forgotten when Ford created the RS Cosworth.
Cosworth took the by now quite elderly two-litre Pinto engine and completely reworked it, fitting a 16-valve head, fuel injection and a turbocharger. The resulting unit produced 201bhp in road trim and a great deal more when modified for motorsport.
The later RS500 was quicker, but the original RS Cosworth was still good enough to make a name for itself in rallying and Touring Car racing.
1987 Sierra RS500 Cosworth
Ford had had to build 5,000 examples of the RS Cosworth to make it eligible for Group A competition. The rules allowed manufacturers who had done this to produce another 500 ‘evolution’ versions. Ford took advantage of this, and the RS500 was the result.
The new road car’s engine wasn’t much more powerful than before at 224bhp, but it was heavily modified to make it receptive to further tuning. For example, it had only four working fuel injectors, but also another four that could be brought into action if necessary.
500bhp was easily achieved, and the engine has been known to produce over 600bhp in some cases. The car was dominant in racing, winning the Manufacturers title in the 1987 World Touring Car Championship.
Standard examples are now rare and, if in good condition, very valuable. One beautiful example was sold at an auction in July 2017 for £114,750.
1988 Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth
The Sapphire was the five-door saloon version of the Sierra, launched in 1987. A year later Ford created an RS version by fitting the running gear of the original Cosworth.
This was never officially intended to be a competition car, though some amateur competitors converted it for racing and rallying all the same.
As a high-performance road car, it was quite a bargain. It could accelerate faster than a Porsche 928, and cost only slightly more than half as much as a BMW M5.
In 1990, Ford based the only four-wheel drive Sierra RS on the Sapphire. More manageable than any of its predecessors in road-going form, it also did well in World rallying over the next two seasons, never winning an event but achieving several podium positions.
1990 Fiesta RS Turbo
The first RS-badged Fiesta was also, in 1990, the most powerful yet produced. Its 1.6-litre engine could muster 133bhp, well above the 109bhp of the contemporary XR2i.
The Sunday Times described the RS Turbo as being “more fun than a Ferrari at 10 percent of the price”, but other reviews were more critical. Rapidly rising insurance costs and the car’s appeal to thieves didn’t help either, and the car stayed in production only until 1992.
1991 Escort RS2000
After a long gap, Ford brought the RS2000 name back for a hot hatch version of the Mk5 Escort. Its engine was the new 16-valve Zetec, also used in the XR3i in 129bhp 1.8-litre form but here enlarged to two litres and producing 148bhp.
The RS2000 was unusual for its time in having all-round disc brakes, and it handled far better than previous front-wheel drive Escorts.
1992 Escort RS Cosworth
Although it looked much like any other Mk5 Escort (with the addition of an enormous rear wing), the RS Cosworth was actually based on the Sierra/Sapphire 4×4 platform.
Smaller and lighter than that car, it was more effective in rallying. Six attempts to win the World Championship between 1993 and 1998 all failed, but the Escort did manage to win ten rounds in that period.
Even with a relatively modest 227bhp (far less than the rally cars produced) the standard Escort was a spectacular car which has a fine reputation nowadays, though less so than the Sierra RS500. Later models were fitted with smaller turbos to make them more practical for everyday use.
1992 Fiesta RS1800
The Fiesta RS Turbo was replaced by the naturally-aspirated RS1800, a very different car from the mid-1970s Escort of the same name.
This was a hot hatch intended purely for road use. Without a turbocharger, but with a larger and more modern 1.8-litre engine, it was slightly less powerful than the RS Turbo (129bhp rather than 133) and a little slower, but it was also more refined and was generally agreed to handle better.
1994 Escort RS2000 4x4
The last ever Escort RS was also only the second with four-wheel drive. The RS2000 4×4 was very similar to the front-wheel drive car launched three years earlier, but with the addition of a rear axle and two extra differentials. All this was achieved without reducing luggage space.
The 4×4’s traction was of course greatly superior to that of the regular RS2000, especially in the wet. However, the weight and power losses of the four-wheel drive system meant it was slower in a straight line, and it was also more expensive. Potential customers were not impressed, and sales were low.
2001 Focus RS
Every Ford RS model of the 21st century has been based on the Focus. At the UK press launch for the first one, a journalist asked why a car with a 211bhp turbocharged engine didn’t have four-wheel drive.
“It doesn’t need to,” said a PR person, as PR people do. “We couldn’t afford it,” said an engineer, as engineers do.
Impressively cheap considering its performance, the front-wheel drive Focus RS quickly gained a reputation for being difficult to handle. Some press reports suggested that its limited slip differential was to blame, but this was not true. The real problem was solved when the second-generation car was created seven years later.
In the meantime, a heavily modified 4×4 Focus RS became Ford’s most successful rally car since the Escort RS1800, winning the World Manufacturers Championship title in 2006 and 2007.
2009 Focus RS
The second-generation Focus is, to date, the only RS with an odd number of cylinders. It used the same 2.5-litre five-cylinder Volvo engine previously fitted to the Focus ST, but with 301bhp rather than the ST’s 225bhp, making it the most powerful standard RS yet.
Like its predecessor, it was front-wheel drive, but despite having nearly half as much power again, and still using a limited slip differential, it was much more benign.
This was because it had something called the RevoKnuckle, a form of front suspension design which eliminated most, if not quite all, of the previous Focus RS’s torque steer.
2010 Focus RS500
Like the equivalent Sierra of 23 years earlier, the Focus RS500 was so named because only 500 were built, 101 of them for the UK market. All of them were black, as most of the Sierras were.
Ford continued to use the 2.5-litre Volvo engine but modified it so that it produced 345bhp. This, the highest standard output so far for an RS, has since been equalled but never beaten.
2015 Focus RS
At long last, Ford introduced four-wheel drive for the third-generation Focus RS, which is therefore the easiest of the series to get to grips with.
This is also the first to have both launch control (intended to improve standing start acceleration, though the car takes off almost exactly as quickly if you don’t use it) and drift mode, which – up to a point – allows you to get the tail out without spinning.
Like the RS500, this one has a power output of 345bhp, but it’s produced by a completely different engine. Instead of the Volvo unit, the current RS has a 2.3-litre four-cylinder EcoBoost, also used in less powerful form in the Mustang.
Several aftermarket upgrade kits for this engine are available. One, developed by Mountune, raises the output to 370bhp, lowers the 0-62mph time to 4.5 seconds, can be fitted by Ford dealers and doesn’t invalidate the Ford warranty.