| Ford RS 200 Oakfields | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The story of the RS200 really begins in the early 1980s when Ford Motorsport were working on developing a successor to the legendary Mk2 Escort RS. Based on the then new Mk3 Escort body, the RS1700T featured a turbocharged version of the earlier cars Cosworth BDG engine with drive to the rear wheels through a Hewland transaxle. Also for the 1982 season the FIA introduced new groups into which cars could be homologated for competition. Group B would be such that a manufacturer would have to produce 200 identical cars. However the RS1700T was beset by delays and the project was cancelled after only a handful of cars had been built. Ford Motorsport realised that they would need a four wheel drive car in order to be competitive in International Rallies. Thus the concept of the RS200 came about, an entirely new design of car which was not based on a mass production model. The engine was to be similar to that of the axed RS1700T as many of the components for these had been made. A few components came from the Sierra such as the windscreen, door parts and rear lights. Chassis design was by Tony Southgate (ex.F1) with Fords John Wheeler. Body design was by Ghia with the glass-fibre composite bodywork produced by Reliant, who also assembled the 200 cars required for homologation. In order to aid weight distribution the engine was mid-mounted with drive being taken to the front mounted gearbox. From there drive was split between the front wheels, with a shaft taking it back to the rear wheels. Suspension was by double wishbones and twin coil-over dampers on each corner. Once the 200 cars had been inspected by the FIA, 52 of them were stripped down to provide spare parts. The RS200 made its World Championship Rally debut on the 1986 Swedish Rally, with driver Kalle Grundel finishing 3rd overall, which was to be the models best WRC result. Sadly on the following WRC round in Portugal, the RS200 of Joaquim Santos spun into the crowd, killing three spectators and injuring others. Following this and a couple of other accidents involving Group B cars the FIA decided to ban the &ldquo,supercars&rdquo, and from the start of the 1987 season WRC would be for production based cars in Groups A and N. For 1987 Ford Motorsport had been developing an Evolution version of the RS200 as the Group B rules had allowed this for a minimum build of 20 cars. With no place for this in rallying, the Evo became a successful Rallycross car, with Martin Schanche winning the 1991 European title. The remaining unsold cars were re-equipped by Tickford and sold by Ford for road use with a price tag of some 50000, which at the time was nearly twice the cost of the cheapest Ferrari. Sold by Ford in August 1989 to Mr.W.Oakes, as shown on the original invoice, the car has spent almost its entire life in a collection. It has covered just 1066 miles and as such still has the running in sticker in the windscreen along with the original Pirelli tyres. In 2011 the cherished registrati Sold on the 06.11.2012 04:12:15 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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