The Ford Escort RS 1700T
This Ford Escort RS 1700T is a Group B prototype based on the MKIII Escort and it was never rallied The main reason for this was that the Audi Quattro was way too advanced and there wouldn’t have been much point to enter it. The Ford Escort RS 1700T was rear wheel drive which was being phased out in rally.
It had a 1.8 litre turbocharged Inline-four that was developed by Cosworth. It produced over 300 bhp, but other Prototypes had a 2.4 litre engine from a Formula Two car. The amount of problems that car had in it’s development and the fact it already had out of date technology gave Ford even more of a reason to drop the project all together.
A new project had begun. Ford wanted to create a car that would be able beat Audi, Lancia and Peugeot on the rally stages. That project would later become the Ford RS200.
Comments
Good write-up, but the RS1700T was being produced when they stopped the project. Ford made 18 cars, so it definitely wasn’t just a prototype. All the cars had BDA/BDG engines or the turbo versjon, BDT. Wasn’t a very fresh development when this car was new
Thanks. This originally wasn’t going to be three paragraphs long. I was only going to post the best picture that I could find of the RS1700T. The never made it past the development stages, so it was still a prototype.