What are your top 5 Ford vehicles?

[white_goodman]

In the same vein as the Ferrari thread, plenty of greats to choose from (even for the non-Ford enthusiast), so what are your top 5 Ford vehicles of all time?

For me, number 5: mk1 Escort RS2000

Was this the first RS Ford? I love seeing these in action in historic rallying and believe that they were hugely successful in their day. The mk1 with its Coke-bottle lines looks marginally more cool than the mk2 in my eyes and it was my favourite car in FF6!



Number 4: mk3 Capri 280 Brooklands

I don't know why but I had a massive thing for the Capri when I was a kid to the distress of my mum, who was not a fan of "Capri man". I kind of wish that I had bought one when they were cheap now but I was still living at home and my mum wouldn't have wanted one parked on the drive!



Number 3: Escort RS Cosworth

In Imperial blue of course. Just a 90s rallying and road car legend!



Number 2: SIerra RS500 Cosworth

I preferred this to the Escort Cosworth because being RWD it was a bit more lairy and I have fond memories of this scrapping it out with the E30 M3s in the BTCC and on tarmac rallies.



Number 1:1965 Shelby Mustang GT350 Fastback

One of the coolest cars ever made and I prefer the more delicate looks of the '65 model compared to the more overwrought '67- GT500 model.



So what are your all-time favourite Ford vehicles?

[white_goodman]

300bhp/ton said:

What's the last vehicle 300? Is the Ace/Cobra technically a Ford?

[white_goodman]

300bhp/ton said:

I think there are claims it's Shelby and/or AC, but without Ford they wouldn't have had the engines and they raced under the Ford flag and banner across the USA and at LeMans. So there was certainly a degree of Ford backing/money involved in them.

However, I'll happily substitute it for this instead.

Fair enough. That Lincoln is pretty nice for (I'm assuming) a 90s car.

[white_goodman]

lucido grigio said:

I should be able to find a top 5 out of the 30 or so I've owned.

1......RS200.......never allowed to show its potential but a car I'd buy if lottery win came my way.





2......RS2000 MK2.The go to choice for late 70s early 80s boy racers.
I had 4.
3.......RS1600i ......an underrated car due to it having lots of flaws,no faster than XR3i but a much nicer car and also nicer than the S1 turbo in many opinions.

I should include a Cosworth but the only one I owned spent far too long broken.

I don't know much about the RS1600i. What was the difference between it and the XR3i? In what way was it better (I know the RS1600i came out when the XR3 was still on sale) and the XR3i replaced both cars?

[white_goodman]

Petrolhead_Rich said:

1: GT40 (original "fine, I'll show you" car)


2: Ford GT (the new "look, we can still beat you if we want" car)


3: Escort Cosworth (for that ridiculous spoiler that made a boring litte family saloon into the stuff of dreams!)


4: RS200 (yet another ford madness project, shame about it's ugly front though)




5: Transit MK6 (Transits have been the word for van since they came out, and the mk6 is the best looking & one of the most reliable models they ever made IMO)

Excellent choices, although I would query the Transit. I would agree that the Transit is pretty iconic, especially in the UK and yes that one looks OK for a van and may be reliable too but I once had the misfortune to rent one back in 2013. It was loud, basic, rough riding, understeered for England, had an on/off clutch and seat comfort that came second best to a church pew! I've spent some time driving VW T5/T6s and they are much more pleasant. Imagine my dismay when I booked a rental for the weekend from my local van centre who proudly boasted that they had an all VW van fleet only to turn up for the chippy agent to tell me that they had just taken delivery of some new Ford Transits. Sure, it did the job and didn't break down but I was more than happy to take it back and pick up my rusty heap of a C-Class on the Monday morning. Probably one of the worst vehicles that I have driven and I couldn't quite believe that a brand new vehicle in 2013 could be quite that unpleasant. I can only hope that the latest Transit is rather better to drive.

[white_goodman]

Petrolhead_Rich said:

Transit was more for how iconic it has become, the VW's are probably better vans, all be it smaller (unless you're comparing the new customs), but you can go anywhere in the world and there will probably be a transit van.

Plus I own one!

As for the ride, I'm pretty sure the original GT40 and the RS200 are noisy, uncomfortable, basic and with an on/off clutch, but like the transit they are truely iconic vehicles showing just what can be produced when Ford Engineers aren't designing boxes for people to commute in....

Fair enough. I guess one could level the same criticism at the LR Defender and I also believe that it shares an engine with the Transit? Pretty awful to drive on the road but truly iconic and very good at what it was built to do. However, compared to any of their road cars that I have driven in the last 10 years that are always a pleasant surprise, the Transit for me was disappointing, the refinement and comfort in particular, as my back ached for several days afterwards.