A brief history of Ford RS Cars - Pictures

The first Ford to bear the RS badge, the Escort RS1600 used a version of Ford’s 1.6-litre crossflow engine. Heavily tuned by Cosworth, the new engine – dubbed the BDA – had 16 valves and could produce 120bhp – a lot in what was a very

The Escort Mexico was a sign that Ford really knew motorsport success could sell cars. Named for the Mexico Rally, where an Escort had won convincingly in 1970, the RS Mexico used an ordinary 1.6-litre engine that was less powerful tha

With rally-engineered cars surging in popularity, a handful of Mk2 RS Mexicos were diverted from the production line in Halewood, Merseyside to be fettled by Ford’s team at Avely in Essex. The 1.6-litre engine was replaced with a 1.8-l

The RS2000 was arguably the car that did most to popularise the RS name. Compared to the expensive RS1600, the engineering was quite low-tech – the 2.0-litre engine was also used in the Cortina saloon, but when placed in the small, lig

The RS1700T was “the one that got away”. The spectacular-looking car, based on the then-new Mk3 Escort, was basically a rolling testbed to show what Ford was capable of. It used a 1.7-litre turbocharged version of the Cosworth engine a

The RS1600i was arguably the first RS of the modern era. It was based on the 1981-launched Escort XR3, and in roadgoing guise it didn’t seem to offer much more performance than the similarly fuel-injected XR3i that it would soon be sol

Directly replacing the RS1600, the RS Turbo was based on the Escort XR3i. Launched in order to homologate a more powerful Escort for motorsport, early cars could be configured to meet the requirements of almost any international rally.

Group B rallying is a much-missed formula where almost anything was permitted. Intended to compete against such exotica as the Audi Quattro Sport, Peugeot 205 Turbo-16, Austin Metro 6R4 and even Porsche 959, the Ford RS200 was essentia

Around the time Group B rallying was discontinued, the Sierra RS Cosworth was launched as a road car to homologate Ford’s new combatant in Group A touring car racing. Based on the stiffer three-door version of the Sierra hatchback (a d

While the Sierra RS500 had demonstrated its incredible ability on road and track, its three-door body gave it limited appeal for everyday use. To compete with such high-performance German cars as the BMW 325i and Mercedes 190e 2.5-16,

Intended above all as a hot hatchback with capabilities beyond that of the Fiesta XR2, the RS Turbo was powered by an engine closely related to that used in the previous Escort RS Turbo, enough to cover 0-62mph in less than eight secon

With a new Ford Escort launched in 1990, it made sense to gain some publicity from a bit of rally success. At the same time, the more compact Escort was a more suitable motorsport tool than the larger Sierra Sapphire. But with the latt

By 2002, the RS name had been absent from Ford price lists since 1996, so when it returned, it needed to be attached to something really special – and it was. The first Focus RS was front-wheel drive, but used a clever differential to

A second generation of Focus RS arrived in 2009, appetites having been whetted by the five-cylinder, turbocharged Focus ST in 2005. The next RS wouldn’t be released until the MK2 Focus received a mid-life facelift – helping to give the

Bringing us bang up-to-date is the incredible MK3 Ford Focus, which does everything the previous car did, and more besides. Now with four-wheel drive, and using a 345bhp four-cylinder turbocharged engine similar to that in the latest F