Ford Escort 1986

This lot will be auctioned via Iconic Auctioneers, The Iconic Sale at Race Retro 2026 Collectors' Cars on Saturday the 21st of February, Stoneleigh Park, Stoneleigh Rd, Coventry, CV8 2LG. , The RS (Rallye Sport) identity has been an important part of Ford's sporting image for a long time. Over the years, the Rallye Sport name has been applied to 19 spectacular road car models, which often proved their point by winning in races, rallies, rallycross and in the marketplace. In the late 1960s, Ford had begun to build high performance cars in small numbers, beginning with the Escort Twin Cam in 1967. Their idea was to build high performance versions of their mainstream production cars so Ford could credibly compete in motorsport in which they indeed had great success winning the RAC Rally for eight consecutive years from 1972 to 1979 in the Escort RS1600 and RS1800 models.The Advanced Vehicle Operations (AVO) department was set up at Ford, and a new facility was established in Aveley, Essex solely to design, develop and build the performancemodel cars, which were sold exclusively through Ford Rallye Sport Dealers and notably the first car was driven off the production line by Graham Hill in November 1970. However, in the early 1970s the energy crisis caused a slump in car sales and the AVO factory closed for good in 1975.However, Ford still wanted to offer their enthusiastcustomers the opportunity to build the RS Escort of their dreams and began to offer a range of upgrades for the Mk2 RS2000, with customer or dealerfit Series X modifications being developed and made available. The parts were only available through appointed Ford dealers, with the dealer able to order any amount of Group 1 parts to fit the RS2000 depending on what the customer wanted. By far the most desirable of these enhancements was the XPack body kit which turned what was already a handsome model into a race car for the road. The Series X tuning parts catalogue addressed every area of the car, engine, brakes, suspension and body styling.'With Series X kits you can add authentic Rallye Sport style and performance to your RS2000. You can specify more power, bigger brakes, stiffer suspension, lightweight alloy wheels, airdam, spoiler, wheel arches with Series X you make as much or as little change as you like.' Ford Motor Company.Not that the standard Escort Mk2 RS2000, introduced in 1976, was anything but capable, utilising a sturdier 2.0litre inline four cylinder, SOHC, 'Pinto' engine mounted longitudinally in the bay, endowing the car with a 060 mph time of 8.5 seconds and a 108mph top speed. Being a true RS, the engineering prowess continued, with the gearbox bolted to the rear of the engine feeding power to the diff by a propshaft and then in turn to the rear wheels. A single twin venturi 32/36 DGAV Weber carb was fitted with the option of a Group 1 dual Weber 40 DCNF or IDF. The front suspension used independent MacPherson struts with an antiroll bar, and the rear suspension used leaf springs with telescopic dampers. Front mounted discs (solid) and rear drums were used, and fourspoke alloy wheels came as standard. The real talking point was the cars distinctive polyurethane droop snoot front end and air dam, a modification that clearly distinguished it from any other Escort.The car presented here is a 1980 Ford Escort Mk2 RS2000 XPack manufactured on 30th December 1980, and was, according to our vendors research, originally supplied in Germany via Zakspeed, the renowned raceteam who were working closely with Ford at this time. Zakspeed were responsible for producing the legendary factorybacked Group 5 version of the Mk3 Capri to contest the DRM, ultimately spawning a turbocharged roadgoing Mk3 Capri, dubbed the Werks Turbo by Fords German Rallye Sport dealers. This car sported XPack wings and a similar style splitter. The RS2000, we are told, was bought new by a British soldier based in Germany, before being imported into the UK in 1986. At some point in 1987, the car was converted to righthand drive and resprayed in black (it was supplied new as lefthand drive and in Roman Bronze).The car is accompanied by an extensive history file, going back to 1986, with all previous logbooks and historic MOT certificates back to 1989, plus letters between previous owners, historic 'for sale' adverts and a feature in a 1990edition of Rallye News. By 2006, the car was in restoration, with lots of details confirmed about its history, before being sold on in 2011 as a rollingshell with lots of work already completed. It was then entrusted to master engineer, Andrew Stapley of ASM Classics in Kent, who specialise in restoring some of the best classic Fords in the UK. ASM were given the brief to build the best possible XPack. Sadly, the owner who commissioned this work, passed away suddenly, so the car was inevitably sold again, to our Fordenthusiast vendor, in 2014. a decade or more was spent