After Ford’s ruinous attempts to build a four-wheel-drive, turbocharged variant of the Escort for Group B, the company were forced to rush the production of the replacement, the RS200. Designed from the ground up, the RS200 featured a mid-mounted turbocharged inline 4, enough to take the car from 0-100-0mph in 12.6 seconds, at the time setting a world record. The combination of near perfect weight distribution attributed to a front mounted gearbox, a short wheelbase, a revolutionary 4WD system and 444hp from a 1.4-litre inline-4 led to excellent balance and agility and insane power, making the RS200 a star on the Group B, Pikes Peak and rallycross scenes.
Along with the usual Group B standards, 200 road car variants were produced. Although sold with interior luxuries such as leather seats and carpets, the road legal RS200’s were far from an everyday runabout, plagued with low speed difficulties, but when pushed, brought forth the soul and atmosphere of the purposeful, bespoke RS200 rally monsters.
Ford RS200 Gallery
Main Image credit:
hemmings.com/blog/
Ford RS200 Video
