We'll never know if Ford's Group B rally car would have been able to do anything about the Peugeot 205 T16's dominance of rallying in the mid-eighties. Just as they were getting into the swing of things, a couple of tragic high-profile accidents meant that time was promptly called on the 450+bhp World Rally Championship lunacy and the RS200 project was dropped by Ford in favour of the Sierra RS Cosworth.
The Group B cars found refuge in events like the European Rallycross series (among others), where they ran with more like 600bhp, and usually hit 60 mph in around two seconds. Have a look at this video for a reminder - it's not in English and the quality is a bit iffy but it's still epic stuff! Not surprisingly, quite a few cars were destroyed...
As a result, the remaining road-going 'homologation' RS200s which weren't adapted for competition represent one of the most sought-after fast Fords ever. The one you see here is, we think (but can't confirm),
Ford RS200 number 116
, which was ordered new by a Japanese collector and has covered just 5900 miles since. Although 200 cars were originally built it's contended by some that a number of 'bitsa' cars were also built from the remainder of the spare parts set aside for competition teams.
The price for this car is a shade under £110,000 - which is a lot, but compared with the cost of GT40s nowadays it might be considered decent value...
The good news is that if you think 110k is a bit steep, there is
another RS200
with slightly higher mileage for just over £100,000. Shame it's in Japan, too. Still, there can't be many cooler cars to turn up at a track day with...but would you dare take it out and chuck it around for an afternoon?