Saturday, November 7, 2015

It’s Time To Rob a Bank. A Ford RS200 is Heading to Auction

BOLD RIDE

 
Ford RS200 4

The Ford RS200 is a car from an age of lunatics and gravel. It was birthed to compete in the World Rally Championship’s Group B era that saw heroes born, and many lives lost. Yet, before the RS200 could ever truly challenge for the overall championship, the racing series was abandoned.

However, the RS200’s small stature, legendary all-wheel drive system, and the capability of producing an absolutely comical set of performance figures, now makes it an extremely collectable and sought-after piece of rally engineering.
RELATED: Click Here for More Pictures of the Ford RS200 Here
Ford RS200 3

In its heyday, the RS200’s 2.1-liter inline four-cylinder engine made over 580 horsepower. In the RS200 Evolution guise, it made near 800 horsepower due to the engineers giving it an astronomic 23 lbs of boost. For 12 years, the RS200 Evolution held the record for the fastest 0 to 60 miles per hour time for a production car. It blitzed its contemporaries, which included the McLaren F1, Ferrari F40, and the original Koenigsegg.

For FIA homologation, Ford was required to build 200 road-going versions of the RS200. Throughout the years, many of those have either been retrofitted to racing status, or wrecked due to the car’s short wheelbase and exorbitant amount of power.  This pristine 1986 Ford RS200 however, made it through the last thirty years without a scratch.


Ford RS200 2

According to RM Sothebys, this particular Ford RS200 is number 169 of those original 200 cars, and was the last car delivered from Ford to private hands. Reportedly, this RS200 sat from 1986 until 1994 when it was bought by someone from Michigan. Currently, its odometer reads only 1,217 miles, making it one of the lowest mile RS200s in the world.


Ford RS200 1
Recently, an RS200 Evolution sold at Gooding & Company for $539,000, and while this isn’t an Evolution, it still will likely bring a hefty sum. This Ford RS200 will go across the auction block Dec. 10 at RM’s New York auction.


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