RS200, behind the scenes
Discussion
Hi All
got something here which i thought i would share with my fellow ph'ers!
as some of you might have seen the episode of top gear where clarkson was talking about the reliant robin. Reliant (based in tamworth) made more than just the robin, kitten and the (nice)Scimitar! Due to the long history of working with composite bodies and the skill of the work and engineer force, Ford motorsport charged them with the task of building their planned Group B monstarr, The RS 200. 200 homoglation specials of the car they planned to blitz the grp B scene with, had to be built to meet the regulations of the time.
due to the fact i live in tamworth and the sheer time i spend out cleaning my car, i got chatting to my next door neighbour who i happened to know worked for reliant, turns out he was a line engineer on the full production run of (road) RS200's and he happened to have a camera to hand! the following pictures were all taken over the production run from the start to the very end and show some, frankly disgusting car porn!
the chassis ready to start production
Bare chassis, the chassis was apparantly the same material that concorde was constructed from, at the time these were worth £11,000 and had no weight at all
detail underneath, note the way the chassis is held, to allow it to be rolled over during the production process
engine install
final engine install
heat shield install
exhast arrangement, look at all that car porn
chassis again, from a different angle
underneath with engine and gearbox installed
fuel tank installation
fitting suspension and brakes
finished rolling chassis
awaiting shells
fitting front brakes, im guessing the blue tube is loctite
fitting of the shell and interior
ones they made earier! SPAFF
ready for Quality control checks. double spaff
from the front
being addressed by the boss of ford motorsport! look at all those rs's!
last one to leave the factory, note the 200 on the bonnet to denote the last one made, must be worth a pretty penny now
some of the tales from production he told me boggle the mmind, the torque settings for the engine mounts were different for each chassis and it was VERY easy to strip the threads. Apparently the fuel tanks cost about £1000 each and were in two or three parts, to fit them needed some arm contortion so a lot got damaged and were simply thrown away! All the time, engineers from ford would pop down and test drive the production cars often taking out engineers from BL and oddly lancia! On a final note, some of the cars were sold with non production legal parts fitted, like the brake bias, which was fitted under the carpet next to the transmission tunnel, all you had to do was cut out a section of the carpet and you had brake bias
got something here which i thought i would share with my fellow ph'ers!
as some of you might have seen the episode of top gear where clarkson was talking about the reliant robin. Reliant (based in tamworth) made more than just the robin, kitten and the (nice)Scimitar! Due to the long history of working with composite bodies and the skill of the work and engineer force, Ford motorsport charged them with the task of building their planned Group B monstarr, The RS 200. 200 homoglation specials of the car they planned to blitz the grp B scene with, had to be built to meet the regulations of the time.
due to the fact i live in tamworth and the sheer time i spend out cleaning my car, i got chatting to my next door neighbour who i happened to know worked for reliant, turns out he was a line engineer on the full production run of (road) RS200's and he happened to have a camera to hand! the following pictures were all taken over the production run from the start to the very end and show some, frankly disgusting car porn!
the chassis ready to start production
Bare chassis, the chassis was apparantly the same material that concorde was constructed from, at the time these were worth £11,000 and had no weight at all
detail underneath, note the way the chassis is held, to allow it to be rolled over during the production process
engine install
final engine install
heat shield install
exhast arrangement, look at all that car porn
chassis again, from a different angle
underneath with engine and gearbox installed
fuel tank installation
fitting suspension and brakes
finished rolling chassis
awaiting shells
fitting front brakes, im guessing the blue tube is loctite
fitting of the shell and interior
ones they made earier! SPAFF
ready for Quality control checks. double spaff
from the front
being addressed by the boss of ford motorsport! look at all those rs's!
last one to leave the factory, note the 200 on the bonnet to denote the last one made, must be worth a pretty penny now
some of the tales from production he told me boggle the mmind, the torque settings for the engine mounts were different for each chassis and it was VERY easy to strip the threads. Apparently the fuel tanks cost about £1000 each and were in two or three parts, to fit them needed some arm contortion so a lot got damaged and were simply thrown away! All the time, engineers from ford would pop down and test drive the production cars often taking out engineers from BL and oddly lancia! On a final note, some of the cars were sold with non production legal parts fitted, like the brake bias, which was fitted under the carpet next to the transmission tunnel, all you had to do was cut out a section of the carpet and you had brake bias
Brian McGee said:
Awesome. Where were they made? Germany or Dag'em'um.
OP said:
Reliant (based in tamworth) made more than just the robin, kitten and the (nice)Scimitar! Due to the long history of working with composite bodies and the skill of the work and engineer force, Ford motorsport charged them with the task of building their planned Group B monstarr, The RS 200.
Brian McGee said:
Awesome. Where were they made? Germany or Dag'em'um.
Tamworth! in the same factory as the plastic pic, the relaiant robbin no less!only a very small producion team
more info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_RS200
LHD said:
Brian McGee said:
Awesome. Where were they made? Germany or Dag'em'um.
Ummmm,Tamworth.
we are famous for the snowdome (first real snow indoor ski slope in europe!) capturing the enigma machine (thanks mr peel) and the rs200!
Something else my next door neighbour told me was at the end of the run, they were all given official RS200 limited edition ford motorsport jackets, i really want one of these! so if anyone has any break in tips??? (joke, joke)
Edited by Richard-G on Thursday 15th July 10:31
justtourin1 said:
Great Pictures, thanks for sharing
AbsolutelyCracking pictures and a really interesting little story. So after production and inspection is it fair to assume that there would be a short test drive (posisbly mostly sideways lol)
Always enjoy seeing the RS200 at Goodwood tearing around the rally track and dare say id do all kinds of crazy things to get a chance to drive one.
Dave
OP - brilliant post and great pics!
Takes me right back to boyhood dreams - fantastic cars. I'm pretty sure there's a radio controlled car in my parent's loft with an RS200 body shell that my Dad and I built in the early 90s.
And there's something strangely heart-warming about seeing the pics of the guys on the production line.
Takes me right back to boyhood dreams - fantastic cars. I'm pretty sure there's a radio controlled car in my parent's loft with an RS200 body shell that my Dad and I built in the early 90s.
And there's something strangely heart-warming about seeing the pics of the guys on the production line.
wrighty78 said:
OP - brilliant post and great pics!
Takes me right back to boyhood dreams - fantastic cars. I'm pretty sure there's a radio controlled car in my parent's loft with an RS200 body shell that my Dad and I built in the early 90s.
And there's something strangely heart-warming about seeing the pics of the guys on the production line.
cheers wrighty, i have some other pictures at the end of the production run the chaps went out for a meal with all the ford bosses, free champers and steaks all around! Then another picture of the empty factory when all the cars had been transported away, all the chaps having a game of footy with the ford boys in celebration! gives the whole project a bit of a heart warming tale. Now the factory is gone, replaced with houses Takes me right back to boyhood dreams - fantastic cars. I'm pretty sure there's a radio controlled car in my parent's loft with an RS200 body shell that my Dad and I built in the early 90s.
And there's something strangely heart-warming about seeing the pics of the guys on the production line.
and that guy does look like shilton! i thought he looked familiar and looking at the above picture
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