Friday 10th August 2001

Ford RS200

60mph in 2.1 seconds! Styling by Ghia, built by Reliant - Ford's Group B rally car.

---

[Squashyorange]

Ok small moan about the RS200 write up dont laugh
:-), but its just so incorrect this idea that the nearest Reliant ever got to building cars of any speed before the RS200 body project was the Reliant Robin as though this is the only car that Reliant ever made???
I mean the Sabre, Scimitar SE5, 5a, 6, 6a and so on were but few of the um well pretty quick (?) models that came from Reliant over a period of some 40 odd years, am I being a sad Scimitar owner bemoaning mine being sat on my drive with a crack along the wing or do I have a valid point (could still be the former actually regardless hehe)

[nick_f]

At least the term 'Robin Reliant' doesn't appear: that really annoys me.

[Squashyorange]

Agreed !! Absolutely !!

[deltaf]

I just think its a shame that such beasts arent still burning around the stages cos some numpties decided to stand in a dangerous position and got hit.
These would sell like hot cakes if ford really wanted to make some inroads into the performance car market....instead...Focus C "max"...very....

[planetdave]

Agree with the 'Reliant' aspect - all their products were interesting in one way or another. The 3 wheelers had a great engine which could handle a supercharger no problem.

And I'd still love one of those 2.9 Scimitars.

[crankedup]

Now I think that Grahme Hathaway held the record for 0-60 dash in one of these. I recall him saying at a TVR presentation along with Mountune Engineering, who at the time prepared these for Wilson, that it took him ages to get the thing off the line cleanly enough to hit the record books

[gary_tholl]

I worked with Geoff, one of the engine guys from Mountune, at Pikes Peak on an RS200 Evo, driven by Stig Blomqvist. Geoff was the guy who set up the record breaking cars engine. The stuff they can make that engine do is amazing.

I would imagine that in a 0-60 sprint of around 2.5 secs, getting the launch just right is very important.

At Pikes Peak, the start is paved, Stig's launch was most impressive, the first corner is maybe a hundred yards away, and he was well into 3rd gear. The movie I took of it is www.qcma.org/albums/Pikes_Peak_movies2/Stig_race_launch.avi here.

The car really is quite amazing, the sound is and to see Stig caning the hell out of it was incredible.

Gary

[RUSSELLM]

Can anybody lend me 38k for this 350bhp model www.classic-auctions.co.uk/detailb.php?&sal_salno=S03&car_carno=15939&sal_type=CAR

or better still 60k so I can have the 650bhp version www.classic-auctions.co.uk/detailb.php?&sal_salno=74C&car_carno=16538&sal_type=CAR

[r988]

Theres a couple in the PH adverts right now

www.pistonheads.com/sales/46191.htm

www.pistonheads.com/sales/44417.htm

[RUSSELLM]

That 705 bhp model sold for £58k including commision,

What a bargain.

I mist work harder & stop playing on this computer.

[rotorist]

I STILL want one!

[Philico]

The only thing not mentioned is that at continuous operation at over 400HP, the lifetime of the engine drops to a mere 30 hours!

[Strawman]

Holy thread resurrection

Edited by Strawman on Friday 11th January 18:08

[E38]

Holy requote!

Its only 6 months, and what's the harm if its a useful/interesting contribution.

[Viper]

there's one at the PH show

[Strawman]

E38 said:

Holy requote!

Its only 6 months, and what's the harm if its a useful/interesting contribution.

No harm, I just didn't want to let the chance go by for re-cycling a cliché, I've done my bit for the environment today

[Snoop Bagg]

Ford actually went to Williams at the time, and they actually recommended Reliant. Truly awesome car, and I have been lucky enough to drive several !

[anonymous-user]

deltaf said:

I just think its a shame that such beasts arent still burning around the stages cos some numpties decided to stand in a dangerous position and got hit.
These would sell like hot cakes if ford really wanted to make some inroads into the performance car market....instead...Focus C "max"...very....

yes spectators were stood in dangerous locations and the old footage of crowds parting to see a quattro or delta S4 emerging is both scary and awesome but the death of Toivenen was just as much a reason to abolish group B. i remember reeading an interview with timo salonen about the T16 and he said the power delivery of the t16 was so scary that he didnt think he ever used full throttle.

personally if it stops drivers getting killed i am all for lower power production spec cars.

[PurelyRetro]

A car that killed itself of from its own success. Shame really, I wonder how much one will you set you back now?

[TurboShed]

Philico said:

The only thing not mentioned is that at continuous operation at over 400HP, the lifetime of the engine drops to a mere 30 hours!

Yes I've heard 1500 miles being quoted as engine life. This sounds like a bad engine to me, a 2 litre turbocharged Cosworth YB can put out this kind of power for 10s of thousands of miles no problem.

Whatever. Maybe there's something I'm missing.