Ford Escort RS1700T

About this model

Despite winning the Manufacturer’s title in 1979, Ford was worried about their future prospects in the World Rally Championship. The Escort Mk3 was about to be introduced and was now adopting front-wheel-drive, so, with the outlook looking rather grim, Ford sold their Mk2 works cars to privateer David Sutton.

A Fiesta was initially considered as a successor, as the Group 2 Fiesta 1600 that Ford ran in 1979 had some success. Burton Engineering had also developed one of their own, and it also performed well, albeit in rallycross, but the team had to look elsewhere after a Blomqvist/Vatanen testing session showed that the Escort was one-and-a-half seconds faster per kilometre.

The idea was junked and in its place came near-perfect exploitation of the lax rules of Group B. Hiring John Wheeler and Karl Ludvigsen, Ford Motorsport coined this new project Columbia , in reference to the first space shuttle due to leave Cape Canaveral the following year. And the rally car wouldn’t be far behind, with a press unveiling in August, and its competition debut planned for June 1982 in Scotland.

In true Group B fashion, this was a ‘silhouette car’ - a car that carries a recognisable body for marketing purposes, but is almost entirely bespoke elsewhere. The Escort Mk3’s look was seen outside, but if you started to peer behind the curtain, it was an entirely different animal.

Despite Audi showing the obvious traction advantages of all-wheel-drive with its quattro, it was a clunky, unreliable beast, convincing Ford management that conventional rear-wheel-drive was the way to go. Starting with a familiar 2.0-litre Cosworth BDA engine, Ford engineers added the now-crucial turbocharging system and reduced the displacement to 1778 cc (to maximise the new Group B regulations, causing cars with forced induction systems to be graded higher than their cubic capacity) - A naturally aspirated, 2.4-litre Hart engine (derived from their Formula 2 efforts) was also considered, but it was outclassed by the BDA. A healthy 320 bhp, but the question then came about weight distribution.

The engine was to be front- and longitudinally-mounted, but it was decided that a transaxle be adopted to try to achieve a good balance. This is where John Wheeler came in, as, using his experience in Porsche’s 928 project, oversaw the fitting of an aluminium torque tube, greatly increasing chassis rigidity over a conventional propshaft. However, the suspension setup required significant modifications over the regular Escort Mk3’s bodyshell, not limited to bespoke inner wings for Group 4 Escort Mk2 turrets and struts, moving the front cross member forward three inches and reducing the rear overhangs.

The issue was that while the Competition department was forging ahead with the race car development, Ford was struggling to get the infrastructure there for the 200-strong road car run needed for homologation. Still, the 1982 Portugal Rally provided a chance to pit the RS1700T - so named as not to confuse with the previous Escorts - against the quattro. Ari Vatanen gave a negative review of the Hart-powered car (which he crashed into a ditch) but the Cosworth-powered machine proved promising, running 1.5 seconds per kilometre faster than the Fiat Abarth 131 that had won a year previously. But, just as the German factory in Saarlouis were ready to start production, newly appointed Director of Motorsport Stuart Turner announced the cancellation of the RS1700T project, Ford then focused on what was to become the RS200, using the same BD(T) engine as the RS1700T.

The remaining RS1700Ts and spares were sold to Ford South Africa, who would take advantage of the low homologation requirements of that country’s competition. 1700Ts competed in the 1984 season, but were largely unrefined and suffered frequent retirements, but, for the following year, 250 kg was stripped from the cars through the use of Kevlar and polycarbonate, and the cooling system and rear chassis rails were modified. This allowed the RS1700T to take its only ever win at the 1985 Nissan Rally, and a 2nd place between two quattros in South Africa’s esteemed mountain rally, Fleet Lease.