Ford RS200

[Peter Mallett]

The last of the Ford homologation specials and prompted by this thread in Rallying/Rallycross http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=107496 I thought we'd get a discussion going to see who, what and where these cars are.

Over to you.

[banger_racer]

Great idea Peter

Heres a few pics of the Pikes Peak car.

http://www.gorally.net/images/profile_images/rs2004.jpg

http://www.gorally.net/images/profile_images/rs2004.jpg

http://img120.exs.cx/img120/3990/For...ikesPeak09.jpg

and also a pic of a IMSA spec car.

[banger_racer]

Any one know anything about this one http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...00knuttel2.jpg

And here a link to a site listing road and some rally car details owners, history etc
http://www.rs200.org/
This site also has a downloadable copy of the original holomogation papers.

[banger_racer]

And finally for now.

RS200 Heaven!

[KA]

Definitely a great idea for a thread...

I can definitely recommend that www.RS200.org website- it has basic histories and pics for a lot of individual cars:


Quick basic competition history- RS200 made it's rally debut on a British National event (the Lindisfarne) during 1985 with Malcolm Wilson. Homologation came in early '86, with a WRC debut in Sweden- works drivers were Stig Blomqvist and Kalle Grundel, with Mark Lovell appearing on British Championship events in a Mike Little-run car.

Other prominent RS200 competitors on international events included Joaquim Santos in Portugal (Diabolique Motorsport), Stig Andervang in Holland and Belgium (Ford NL?), Robert Droogmans in Belgium (in Belga colours), and F1 driver Marc Surer, who was a keen rally driver away from his F1 commitments- his F1 career ended after an accident on the Hessen Rally in Germany in which Surer was seriously injured, and his co-driver killed.

Sadly this wasn't the only tragic incident involving an RS200- the Diabolique car of Santos ended up in the crowd during the Portuguese WRC round, killing a number of spectators; one of a series of incidents involving Group B cars, culminating in the deaths of Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto when their Lancia crashed heavily in Corsica. The FIA took action, and Group B was outlawed in rallying from the end of the season, leaving the RS200 unable to ever realise its' potential in the WRC.

However, many cars were sold on for rallycross where with further development they became hugely successful- most notably in the hands of Martin Schanche.

I've got pics of quite a lot of the well-known rallycross RS200s, so I'll fire the scanner up later and post a few

[KA]

Originally Posted by banger_racer

Any one know anything about this one http://images.forum-auto.com/mesimag...00knuttel2.jpg

And here a link to a site listing road and some rally car details owners, history etc
http://www.rs200.org/
This site also has a downloadable copy of the original holomogation papers.

I've seen pics of the Dieter Knuttel car before- he's a hillclimb competitor in Germany and Austria

[chunder]

Ok here goes

This is going to be added to no doubt but these are guys I am aware of that used an RS in rallycross

Mark Rennison
Martin Schanche (2 or even 3 chassis one used by Rustad ,rent a car)
Thor Holm (also 2 or 3 chassis)
Bengt Wiklund
Dan Andersson
Graham Hathaway
Trevor Hopkins
Gary Baker
Pat Doran (still basically being used now!)
Jan Arthur Iversen
Martin Iversen
Pekka Rantanen
Tore Bratlie
Stig Blomqvist (works car used by J Palmer aswell)
Rolf Nilsson
Mikael Nordstrom
Oddbjorn Ottosen

These are what I can remember as being the original owners.

Some may have been driven or sold on! But these are I think they guys

[GORDON STREETER]

Mick Quaife has an immaculate road going one.

[socram]

Two around Auckland, both at the annual Ellerslie car show February 2007. One is concours.

[KA]

OK, some RS200 pics. These are all early 90's rallycross at Lydden and Brands, plus a little circuit racing...
The RS200 seemed to be a less popular choice amongst UK drivers- the Metro 6R4 seemed to be much more widespread. I'll kick off with some of the British RS200s:

• Trevor Hopkins' Haynes of Maidstone car
• Gary Baker- his car went through a number of changes of sponsor and livery- I've got three different ones here
• Graham Hathaway campaigned an RS200 before he moved over to racing and the BTCC. Later he raced this yellow RS200 in the Vecta Ford series, circa 1990/91. Was this his rallycross car?

[KA]

As chunder said, the Pat Doran car has had a very long career- pics of it in three different guises- plain white (an early pic? Didn't realise I had that one!), in white & green with Bow Waste Paper sponsorship, and -my favourite paintscheme on the car- in Q8 Oils colours.

I can't come up with a pic of the Rennison car- I think he'd moved over to circuit racing by the time I started watching rallycross. I ought to have some shots of the works car that appeared for Blomqvist and Jonathan Palmer amongst others, but can't lay hands on them

[rcarr]

There was a beautiful road going car owned by the son of a garage owner in Kirkcaldy in Fife, where Gordon Brown is from.

[KA]

A few of the Europeans that were mentioned:

• Martin Schanche- I don't think anyone else ever got an RS200 to go quite like Schanche did....
• Thor Holm- one of several drivers who added big wings to their RS200s- it's interesting that Schanche was the most successful RS200 campaigner, but never went down this route- as I recall, his cars always looked pretty much as Ford intended
• talking of aerodynamic modifications- the Iversens- father and son I think? They obviously thought their RS200s lacked a bit of downforce, so added this subtle little number....
• Pekka Rantanen- another driver to experiment with the aerodynamics of the car- used a smaller rear wing than Holm and the Iversens as I remember?

[BertMk2]

Of the rallycross cars how many of these were the genuine article (and built from the original chassis numbers) and how many were built up from the Ford spares bin? There is some debate over chassis number relating to some RS200's as there are instances of two cars having the same chassis number (presumably one the original and one a clone built from parts).

[banger_racer]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

Of the rallycross cars how many of these were the genuine article (and built from the original chassis numbers) and how many were built up from the Ford spares bin? There is some debate over chassis number relating to some RS200's as there are instances of two cars having the same chassis number (presumably one the original and one a clone built from parts).

The site myself and KA posted links to does mention something about cars made from bits. I havent read it for a long time so not sure if it refers to rally/rallycross cars or road cars.

[BertMk2]

RS200.org seems to cover the road cars well but is vague at best about rallycross and other competition specials - according to the site the Pikes Peak car "underneath the body it does not really resemble a 200" all the articles I've read about that car indicate it is very much an RS200 through and through.

[KA]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

RS200.org seems to cover the road cars well but is vague at best about rallycross and other competition specials - according to the site the Pikes Peak car "underneath the body it does not really resemble a 200" all the articles I've read about that car indicate it is very much an RS200 through and through.

I could be wrong, but reading that site I get the impression that whoever has put it together is an enthusiast for the cars themselves, but not neccessarily a motorsport enthusiast- the information on the rally and rallycross cars often seems very vague, as if it's collected by someone who doesn't really remember seeing the cars in competition at the time, if you get what I mean (ie someone whose mind isn't full of 20-year-old motorsports trivia like most of ours on here! )

[snowen250]

Any more info upon the IMSA car?
Also dont forget that for at least the '91 rallycross season i believe 2 RS200s were heavily damaged if not destroyed, Gary Baker's fiery incident at Lydden with Gollop and a MASSIVE roll for one of the Iversons at (i believe) the Dutch round. Dont know if these cars were rebuilt or not.
Simon

[banger_racer]

Cant find much info on the IMSA car ive found a couple more pics on various forums but cant find any specs.
By the width of the body i guess it could be a sportscar chassis with a RS200 body on top.
I think i read somewhere that the car that crashed at Lydden required a new chassis and most of the body replacing, i dont know if it was ever repaired but i guess if it was it would basically be a new car.

[BertMk2]

I have no idea which unfortunate RS200 this is/was but it's one off the list:

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by banger_racer

I think i read somewhere that the car that crashed at Lydden required a new chassis and most of the body replacing, i dont know if it was ever repaired but i guess if it was it would basically be a new car.

The important part is the tub - if that was damaged beyond repair then essentially it would be rebuilt as a 'new' car (presumably using one of the "spare" tubs that was never built into a complete car). Possibly that way it would retain the original chassis number?

[banger_racer]

Heres some links to pics of George Traceys car including one at Brighton speed trials.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...h_MVI_9821.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1128/...5f589beb_o.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1034/...9d1232.jpg?v=0

And this site gives some info and pics of IMSA car.

http://www.motorsportsemployment.com/rs200.html

[chunder]

Regarding Baker's car it was actually in two big crashes unfortunately

The Lydden one was rebuilt into the Fred Bloggs car in one of the pictures, but that was very badly hurt at Brands for the 92 GP I think on teh startline

Regarding Aero stuff, Hollm was the first to try wide body with his Pikes Peak car, I think he even went there with it!!

Rennison was the first guy with an RS and he came up with the high rear wing that was later seen on Nilssons little 1.8 engined car in 89 I think?

Iversens cars were mad, one of them is still going and can be often seen at Gatebil events with teh Metro that Martin used aswell.

Engine wise I think most trasferred to the 2.1 as soon as possible. But I think Graham Hathaway used a 1.8, I know Hoppy used on for at least a year and Rolf Nilsson used one with great success in 88 or 89.

Schanche even built a 2.3 engine I think, but it was too powerful and he eventually settled on a 2 litre.

Builders were Jeff Page, John Minty, Brian Hart built Rennisons I think? Not sure if Godfrey built any in the early ninties to be honest.

[FordNut]

Mick Quaife's silver RS200 roadcar is one that was built by Gordon Spooner from a spare tub and a job lot of spares Mick obtained from a clearout at Boreham. He had to manufacture new parts where no functional spares were available (rear uprights, for instance), and now offers them for sale. The engine is from his old Escort rallycross car, which was bought back from a chap called Ross Browning and rebuilt.

The Marco Polo IMSA GTO car started off being based on a standard tub, but it was written off in a crash during a race (Road America rings a bell). The car was rebuilt with a Cro-Mo spaceframe instead. It's wide-arch body was designed and wind-tunnel tested by Mike Pilbeam. It was a pity it was not more reliable, but it was basically a privateer effort.

Both Knuttel's and the Mach2 hillclimb cars were built by Hathaway and are based on works-spec Evo tubs with new front and rear tubular subframes (converted to single shocks on the Knuttel car). The same modifications and aero package were applied to Doran's car when it was first brought out of retirement (the front splitter is plywood!). The Knuttel car has moved on to someone in Austria now I think, but another more 'normal' RS200 has been up for sale clad in (presumably spare) panels painted in his colours.

Martin Birrane's museum has an ex-works car finished in white, which I believe is an ex-Droogmans Belga Team car (there is currently a Belga-liveried car doing the rounds at slowly sideways events, but it's reg. no. implies that it was not actually one of the 2 cars the team used).

There are a surprising number of 'suspect' roadgoing RS200s around that have none-existent, made-up or cloned chassis numbers. I believe some of these may be rebuilt rallycross cars, or built up from spare tubs. Considering the percentage of the 200 cars that were broken up for spares without turning a wheel, and the number of cars used in competition this is probably not surprising!

[FordNut]

Originally Posted by FordNut

The Knuttel car has moved on to someone in Austria now I think

The car is now owned by Gabat Tuning ( http://www.gabat-tuning.at ).
Sorry about replying to my own post, I can't seem to find an 'edit' button!