In a world where collector car values are often measured by hand-painted shields and coach-built body lines, a humble British blue-collar hero just stole the limelight at Historics Auctioneers’ recent sale. A meticulously restored Ford Escort RS1800 from 1976 has fetched a staggering the £278,848 paid by the new owner, a figure close to 100 times the cost of the car when new. Forget a brand-new Ferrari 296 GTB, a car once synonymous with rally grit and backstreet burnouts now trades blows with Maranello’s mid-engined masterpiece, and we’re overjoyed about it.
Why exactly are we overjoyed for a near-£300,000 Ford Escort we hear you ask? It solidifies that the collector car market is still evolving and thriving. So much is said about whether the values of classic cars will be at the mercy of the new generation of collectors, but with world record sales such as this one, it proves the buzz around collectorship is still alive, well and booming.
Of course, we are aware the RS 1800 is no ordinary Ford Escort. Beneath its unassuming shell lies a Cosworth-designed 1.8 litre BDA engine, a highly capable and easily tunable motor that powered Ford's dominance on the rally stages in the early 1970s. That legendary motor, mated to a razor-sharp chassis and rear-wheel drive, made the RS 1800 a weapon in its time, and a holy grail for enthusiasts today with a mere 109 examples ever made.
The bidding room was a reported frenzy, with collectors recognising the car’s rarity and pristine condition. Of those 109 examples we mentioned, only a handful of road-going RS 1800s remain, and fewer still in this calibre of authenticity. After fulfilling its promotional duties as a second Ford press car in 1976, all thanks to the first media loan RS 1800 being crashed beyond repair, where this example would remain in the same family, covering under 25,000 miles in its lifetime and still bearing its original number plate, ‘ONO 804P’. This RS Ford was twice painstakingly and professionally restored, all with the accent on originality, where upon arriving at the auction, the car was likely in a far better condition than when it left Ford’s Essex low-profile side assembly line, nearly half a century earlier!
When the hammer finally fell, it did so at a price most would associate with an Italian thoroughbred, not a once-affordable Ford. The Ford Escort was one of Britain’s most popular small family cars, as well as being an icon of Ford’s World Championship motorsport history in the RS 1800 guise, which is sadly where so many examples perished after hard competition use. That makes this story even more special, and the initially eyebrow-raising price somewhat more justifiable, as far fewer original RS 1800s survive than many exotic classics, bearing far more prestigious badges, but to the true Ford fanatic among us, this is truly the holy grail of classics!
