RS200, behind the scenes

[Richard-G]

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

[Richard-G]

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

[Richard-G]

LHD said:

Brian McGee said:

Awesome. Where were they made? Germany or Dag'em'um.

Ummmm,

Tamworth.

guys im used to it, when people ask where im from on holiday and i say tamworth. they always look at me perplexed!

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

[Richard-G]

Herman Toothrot said:

Great! I'll stick some close up pics of two RS200's later that I took at Goodwood.

cheers herman! will be a nice contrast! from the then to the now

[Richard-G]

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



and that guy does look like shilton! i thought he looked familiar and looking at the above picture

[Richard-G]

TVR Moneypit said:

mat205125 said:

Right at the top of my lottery list, aslong with an Eggenberger RS500

A Rouse or Dick Johnson Cossie for me please

Being born in the late 70's and being a fan of Mark Lovell and Stig Blomqvist, the RS200 was always my favourite Groupe B car.

OP; Many thanks for the pictures and the story. I'm very suprised that engineers from BL and Lancia paid the factory a visit. BL I can kinda understand, British firm, British engineers, based in Midlands etc, but Lancia????

i honestly dont know about the lancia thing, Ford were late to the grp B party at the time and he mentioned various FIA bods visited to make sure 200 cars were made and lancia (obviously after a massive spend on the S4) wanted to make sure there were no short cuts to the production run target of 200. he did say that ford guys would come in with lancia officials and go through various documentation. maybe it was more a review of legality?

seems odd considering the rapid development and secrecy involved in projects such as these.

im just waiting for s line to comment about the quattro

[Richard-G]

unpc said:

My old man was quite involved in this as at the time Ford were looking to make a higher volume, cheaper version of this with 2wd and a mid mounted Yamaha V6 from the Ford Taurus SHO. It got reasonably well advanced before they canned the program. GN34 was the program name IIRC. Shame as it would have been a cracking car.

The team on this also got taken round Boreham test track in the RS200 with Stig Blomquist.

ahhh he did mention a track day! that’s when they got given the memorabilia such as the jackets and hats etc, they really got the production team motivated, so much so that in the summer months they were working nearly 18 hours a day! Obviously the brazier and strike approach adopted by BL at the time was the wrong route!

when i picked the photos up from him the other day he was telling me about how the ford guys would come in and just attack a chassis under the watchful eyes of the team manager like a bunch of piranhas, changing the centre diff in under 5 mins, replacing whole corners of the suspension in the blink of an eye.

[Richard-G]

Carparticus said:

Amazing pics especially since they come from someone who worked at the Tamworth plant.

I love the one showing an RS20 with 'Car 200' … Maybe Reliant / Ford were trying a bit too hard to prove 200 had been built … because it was reasonably well known in the GroupB club that about 144 or so RS200s were madeup as finished cars, yet 200 were required for homologation purposes. There might have been 200 sets of bits though.

Legend has it that when the FIA inspectors turned up to check 200 had been put together, various sheds at Tamworth were packed with them but not all in one spot, but in between checking the management took the inspectors out for lunch or some such. During that break the cars were apparently shuffled around with previously counted cars rolled into unchecked sheds ! Some of the cars were apparently little more than rolling chassis too.

Richard - does your mate who worked at the Tamworth site have recollection of what actually happened ? It would be great to find out what really happened !

haha i bought this subject up with him, in my gleaming eyed optimism i just assumed they built 200 and went home. However he virtually confirmed what you have just said, the cars were counted in the morning at one place (fradley/Alrewas about 15 mins away) then driven to the main reliant premises in two gates in the afternoon, he didn’t comment on total numbers but said not close to 200. It was the staff that drove a lot of these to the other premises and apparently the clutch was a right nightmare, on or off and very stiff. apparently during the 'transfer' of cars the FIA and British Leyland bods were taken out for the afternoon to tour some of the local pubs and restaurants, bringing back some of the champers you can see in the second from last picture before the final count in the main two gates/fazeley factory. after this count they had a celebratory meal

he did however mention to me not to mention any production numbers, though i think its far enough into the history books not to be of worry now

by the way, your car

[Richard-G]

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1175944.htm

so £124k is needed!

interesting looking at the interior pics, next to the gear lever in this car the selector switch is missing, however peel back the carpet and all will be revealed!

[Richard-G]

young_bairn said:

Great pics, great car. I would do bad things to own that car.

Dare I say it....but Ford should do a re-make....although probably not viable.

how about a 4WD focus RS

[Richard-G]

aeropilot said:

olly22n said:

aeropilot said:

Twincam16 said:

aeropilot said:

Carparticus said:

Legend has it that when the FIA inspectors turned up to check 200 had been put together, various sheds at Tamworth were packed with them but not all in one spot, but in between checking the management took the inspectors out for lunch or some such. During that break the cars were apparently shuffled around with previously counted cars rolled into unchecked sheds ! Some of the cars were apparently little more than rolling chassis too.

Ford was particularily good at pulling that type of stunt and had done so on many previous occasions over the years, as did most of the other manufacturers regarding homolgation inspections.

Yeah - I thought that story had originated with the Lancia Stratos. Perhaps 'word got around'.

Nah, Ford had pulled the trick with the Escort Twin Cam in 1968 with less than 20 completed cars but with lots of ermine white 1300's fitted with rostyle wheels parked up in adjacent car parks

:no: lotus steels not rostyles on a twink

Actually, yes.

The first batch of handbuilt cars incl, for example WWC 465F were shown to the press wearing chrome Rostyle wheels and they were always shown as being an optional extra in the Twin Cam brochure through the life of the car, although, 99% of owners opted for the standard plain Lotus Cortina wheels + hub caps or splashed out on a set of Magnesium Minilites available through Boreham.
The storey was that by putting the distinctive Rostyles on these first cars, an adjacent car park full of ‘ordinary’ ermine white Escorts with Rostyles fitted would make them distinctively enough like a car park full of Twinks. It worked because Ford claimed 1000 made for Group 2 homolgation by May 1968 when it’s now known that they made a few hundred less than that in the entire 3 year production run of the car...

Edited by aeropilot on Saturday 17th July 14:37

good for classic values!