Unique Ford RS200 'Evo 2' for sale
Just 200 examples of the original RS200 were built - this one came later with a few special upgrades...
Few things bring as much glee as discovering a car you never knew existed. For instance, did you know that Toyota built a front-wheel drive, 120hp version of the GR Yaris for the Japanese market? Or that the Saab 9-2X Aero was a Subaru Impreza WRX wagon with the Swedish firm’s face glued to the front of it? Probably, but there’s no harm in having a flick through the ‘cars you didn't know existed’ thread to fill in any blanks in your knowledge banks.
Of course, a good chunk of that thread is taken up by the many, many oddities of the JDM, but there’s also a bunch of home-grown heroes, prototypes that got oh so close to production and model variants so obscure that nobody remembers they existed. Nevertheless, a good couple of hours digging in the name of research (and definitely not procrastination) failed to unearth the car we have for sale here. It’s a road-going Ford RS200 'Evo 2', a one-off whose story is every bit as extraordinary as the Group B icon it's based on.
Now, you'll be familiar with the regular RS200, which is up there with the Lancia Delta S4 and Audi Sport Quattro as one of the all-time great Group B machines (despite never winning a WRC event). Before the fatal accidents that triggered Group B's demise at the end of 1986, Ford had been working on an Evolution package to improve the RS200's competitiveness. Having already built 200 road-going RS200s for homologation, a further 20 examples equipped with the Evolution package would need to be built before the upgrades could be used on the rally cars. Despite the Group B era coming to an end, Ford pressed on with Evo production, eventually upgrading 24 of the original 200 homologation cars to the newer specification.
Once production came to an end, Michael Quaife of Quaife Engineering phoned Ford to ask if he could save all the remaining spares and tubs from the scrapper, and the company duly obliged. Realising there were enough parts to build another car, Quaife enlisted Gordon Spooner Engineering, the outfit behind Ford's WRC programme, to assemble one final, post-production RS200. It wasn't a straightforward build, with the hyper-rare rear uprights absent from the original parts haul, requiring Quaife to recreate them by recasting original components - but the finished article looks virtually indistinguishable from a factory-built RS200.
Mechanically, it’s pretty much identical to the standard RS200. Behind the cabin sits the 1.8-litre turbocharged four-pot found in the pre-Evo cars, albeit with a revised camshaft and various other motorsport bits. That brings power up to around 400hp, which is bang in the middle of what the detuned road cars and the monstrous rally machines were capable of. Other changes include sublime 18-inch Speedline wheels, AP Racing front callipers and discs, the larger ‘bunny ear’ roof-mounted intercooler from the Evo models and a set of Hella spotlights from the rally car. It’s also the only RS200 finished in silver, so there’s no mistaking it for one of the ‘normal’ 200 homologation models.
Now, RS200 nomenclature is all over the place, with the upgraded cars referred to as both Evo and Evo 2s in fast Ford circles. But this one, listed as being built to ‘Evo 2 specification’, feels like the true final footnote in the RS200 story. One that’s recently been treated to a £13k recommissioning, which included a new alternator, fuel pumps and a rebuilt turbocharger, so it’s ready to be enjoyed to the fullest by its next owner. Heaven knows what’s hiding behind the POA, but given the going rate of a standard RS200 is north of £250,000, you can be sure this one’s going to cost that little bit more. Better be quick if you want to get your hands on it, because there ain’t no other Evo 2 like it.
I remember driving passed the Reliant factory in Atherstone nr Tamworth on the A5 in 1984? and seeing all the body shells for the RS200 stacked up outside in their yard.
It's been a while since I owned one - back in 1986; a treasured 1/55 scale Matchbox model which went head to head with my Shell-liveried 205 T16. I think there was a matching Subaru Brat support truck with tyres in the bed.
A thing of beauty, in my opinion.
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