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The Ford RS200 is a mid-engined, four-wheel drive sports car produced by Ford from 1984 to 1986. The road-going RS200 was based on Ford's Group B rally car and was designed to comply with FIA homologation regulations, which required 200 road legal versions be built. It was first displayed to the public at the Belfast Motor Show.
Following the introduction of the MKIII Escort in 1980, Ford Motorsport set about development of rear-wheel-drive, turbocharged variant of the vehicle that could be entered into competition in Group B rally racing, and dubbed the new vehicle the Escort RS 1700T. A problem-filled development led Ford to abandon the project in frustration in 1983, leaving them without a new vehicle to enter into Group B. Not wanting to abandon Group B or simply "write off" the cost of developing the failed 1700T, executives decided to make use of the lessons learned developing that vehicle in preparing a new, purpose-built rally car. In addition, Ford executives became adamant that the new vehicle feature four-wheel-drive, an addition they felt would be necessary to allow it the ability to compete properly with four-wheel-drive models from Peugeot and Audi.
The new vehicle was a unique design, featuring a plastic/fiberglass composite body designed by Ghia, a mid-mounted engine and four-wheel drive. The cars were built on behalf of Ford by another company well known for its expertise in producing fibreglass bodies - Reliant. To aid weight distribution, designers mounted the transmission at the front of the car, but this required that power from the mid mounted engine go first up to the front wheels and then be run back again to the rear, creating a complex drive train setup. The chassis was designed by former Formula One designer Tony Southgate, and Ford's John Wheeler, a former F1 engineer, aided in early development. A double wishbone suspension setup with twin dampers on all four wheels aided handling and helped give the car what was often regarded as being the best balanced platform of any of the RS200's contemporary competitors. Such was the rush to complete the RS200, the Ford parts bin was extensively raided - the front windscreen and rear lights were identical to those of the early Sierra, for example, while the side windows were cut-down Sierra items.
Power came from a 1.8 litre, single turbocharged Ford/Cosworth "BDT" engine producing 250 horsepower (190 kW) in road-going trim, and between 350 and 450 horsepower (340 kW) in racing trim; upgrade kits were available for road-going versions to boost power output to over 300 horsepower (220 kW). Although the RS had the balance and poise necessary to be competitive, its power-to-weight ratio was poor by comparison, and its engine produced notorious low-RPM lag, making it difficult to drive and ultimately less competitive. Factory driver Kalle Grundel's third place finish at the 1986 WRC Rally of Sweden represented the vehicle's best-ever finish in Group B rallying competition, although the model did see limited success outside of the ultra-competitive Group B class. However, only one event later, at the Rally de Portugal, a Ford RS200 was involved in one of the most dramatic accidents in WRC history, claiming the lives of 3 spectators and injuring many others.[1] Another Ford RS200 was crashed by Swiss Formula One driver Marc Surer against a tree during the 1986 Hessen-Rallye in Germany, killing his co-driver and friend Michel Wyder instantly.
The accident at Rally Portugal set off a chain reaction and the RS200 became obsolete after only one full year of competition as the FIA, the governing board, which at the time controlled WRC rally racing, abolished Group B after the 1986 season. For 1987, Ford had planned to introduce an "Evolution" variant of the RS200, featuring a development of the BDT engine (called BDT-E) displacing 2137 cc, developed by Briton Brian Hart. Power figures for the engine vary quite a bit from source to source, but output claims range from as "little" as 550 horsepower (410 kW) to as high as 815 horsepower (608 kW); it has been said that the most powerful Evolution models can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) in just over 2 seconds, depending on gearing. Upgraded brakes and suspension components were part of the package as well. The ban on Group B racing effectively forced the E2 model into stillbirth; however, more than one dozen of them were successfully run from August 1986 till October 1992 in the FIA European Championships for Rallycross Drivers events all over Europe, and Norwegian Martin Schanche claimed the 1991 European Rallycross title with a Ford RS200 E2 that produced over 650 bhp (480 kW).
One RS200 found its way in circuit racing originated as a road car; it was converted to IMSA GTO specification powered by a 750+ BHP 2.0 litre turbo BDTE Cosworth Evolution engine.[2] Competing against the numerous factory backed teams such as Mazda, Mercury and Nissan, with their newly built spaceframe specials, despite being a privateer, the car never achieved any real success to be a serious contender[3][4][5] and was kept by the original owner. A parts car was built in England and later used to compete in the Unlimited category at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, where it was driven by Swede Stig Blomqvist in 2001, 2002 and 2004 [6] and in 2009 by former British Rallycross Champion Mark Rennison.
FIA homologation rules for Group B required the construction of at least 200 road-legal vehicles, and Ford constructed these 200 units with spare parts for another 20+ units put aside for the racing teams. Those chassis and spare parts were later also used to build a couple of non-genuine, so-called bitsa cars.
A total of 24 of the 200 original cars were reportedly later converted to the so-called "Evolution" models, mostly marked by their owners as "E" or "E2" types. Ford's first intention was to mark the FIA-required 20 "Evo" cars as series numbers 201 to 220 but as this was actually not necessary according to the FIA rules they later kept their original series numbers (e.g. 201 = 012, 202 = 146, 203 = 174 et cetera).
The original bodywork tooling for the Ford RS200 was latterly bought by Banham Conversions, who used it to make a kit car version based on the Austin Maestro. Due to being a basic re-body of the Maestro, the Austin-Rover engine ancillaries are actually to be found at the front of the vehicle.
During the transition from National Express to First Scot Rail a number of units were running in strange liveries. Here a Class 170 Turbo Star coasts down from the Forth Bridge to Inverkeithing.
This gorgeous old dog belongs to a young friend. It follows him everywhere! Like all dogs Cossie likes company and will walk great lenghths across their farm to follow the activity...
I only wish my daughters had a dog when they were growing up...
Definitely a bitsa car, lots of different mechanicals from different makes and models'
at Festival Italia Brands Hatch
Brand new for 2022 Matchbox 1949 Kurtis Sport Car and one which i've been all too eager in snapping up every example I can find. Despite its glamorous movie star appearance the real car was very much a "bitsa" operation using many components from scrapped vehicles! Mint and boxed.
ŠŠ¾Š»ŃŃŠµ Š³Š¾Š“Š° ŃŃŠ¾ŃŠ»Š° Š¾Š½Š° Š² Š±ŠµŠ»Š¾Š¼ ŠæŠ»Š°ŃŃŠµ Š¾Ń Lin, Šø ŠæŠµŃŠµŠ“ ŃŠµŠ¼ ŠŗŠ°Šŗ ŠµŠµ ŠæŠµŃŠµŠ¾Š“ŠµŃŃ, Ń ŃŠµŃŠøŠ»Š° ŠµŠ³Š¾ Š·Š°ŠæŠµŃŠ°ŃŠ»ŠµŃŃ. Š ŠæŠ»Š°ŃŃŃ-ŃŠ¾ Š½Š° ŃŠ¾ŃŠ¾Š³ŃŠ°ŃŠøŠø Šø Š½Šµ Š²ŠøŠ“Š½Š¾!
Moskou | Moscow | ŠŠ¾ŃŠŗŠ²Š°, 26-09-2015.
Chertanovo Severnoe (North) on Wikipedia (English)
Bitsa Park on Wikipedia (English)
My Moscow, September-October 2015 set in my Eastern Europe collection
Martin Steele sits in a significant piece of motor racing history, the March 693P-MAE which was the very first March racing car. This was in fact a "bitsa", the car being built before March had a base; since it needed to be built as cheaply as possible anything available was used. The chassis was a square tube spaceframe, front suspension was unequal double wishbones with outboard springs and dampers. At the rear it was radius arms, top links and lower wishbones again with outboard springs/dampers. Front wheels were F2 Lotus (provided by Alan Rees), the rear wheels were F3 Brabham (from the stock of Graham Coaker). In addition the seat, pedals, gear linkage, steering etc. were all Brabham.
The car did three end of season races in 1969: at the first Ronnie Peterson finished an excellent third at Cadwell Park, he then crashed at MontlhƩry and James Hunt came tenth at Brands Hatch.
By 1970 March production was in full swing and the unique 693 was replaced by the 703, which is still winning historic races - the most recent being by Simon Armer last weekend.
Something of a bitsa this one, with a later 4dr bodyshell converted to a pickup. And a later diesel engine too...
Seen in the rather wet pits at Foxhall Raceway, 25/08/14.
'The Mule', my favorite, a true bitsa, the engine was imported in '33 to Macks and raced here in the US. The bike in this form was built by Eddie Arnold in LA in the late 70's. Great bike, the 'anti-gravity machine'.
Moskou | Moscow | ŠŠ¾ŃŠŗŠ²Š°, 26-09-2015.
Chertanovo Severnoe (North) on Wikipedia (English)
Bitsa Park on Wikipedia (English)
Chertanovka on Wikipedia (Russian)
My Moscow, September-October 2015 set in my Eastern Europe collection
This image is a 'bitsa'; put together from bits of this and bits of that. The base image is one of the relatively rare Ford K-Types, which I had previously modified to represent a fictional Commer Commando. Not being entirely satisfied with the chrome Commer grille, I have now grafted on a Dodge version, although other details are not entirely accurate for this type of chassis. I have no idea whether any (British) Dodge chassis were bodied as village buses, but it adds some variety to the collection (04-Apr-14).
See my complete collection of Cyprus buses here:
www.flickr.com/photos/northernblue109/sets/72157643253364...
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