The teams

Ford Motorsport

Photo: MrWalkr via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

In the 1970s Ford had been rallying’s great power with the Escort. For Group B it planned to carry on with the rear-wheel-drive Escort RS1700T — but once the Quattro had changed everything, a new boss pulled the plug.

Grouve Sport documentary

Episode 5 — The British Challengers: MG Metro 6R4 & Ford RS200

Boreham’s clean-sheet Group B car.

From RS1700T to RS200

Stuart Turner became Ford’s director of European motorsport in February 1983. He concluded that the nearly finished Escort RS1700T — rear-wheel drive, front engine — stood no chance against the Quattro, and cancelled the project. In its place he commissioned an entirely new car: mid-engined, four-wheel drive, built for Group B. That car became the Ford RS200, with a chassis by Tony Southgate and John Wheeler and a composite body by Ghia.

Results

The RS200 did not make its debut until 1986. Kalle Grundel finished third in Sweden straight away, the car’s best world championship result. A few weeks later disaster struck: in Portugal, local driver Joaquim Santos went into the crowd in an RS200. Three spectators were killed. See iconic moments. Later that year Michel Wyder, co-driver to Marc Surer, was killed in an RS200 on the Hessen Rally, a European championship event.

After the ban many RS200s passed to private owners. The planned Evolution version with its 2.1-litre BDT-E engine never got its chance in the World Championship. See the end of Group B.

After Portugal, team manager Peter Ashcroft said he had already voiced concerns about the lack of crowd control on world championship rallies.

In 1983 Stuart Turner scrapped the RS1700T and started again with a clean sheet of paper: the RS200. It became a beautiful car that arrived too late.

European and national championships

The RS200 won the 1986 British (Mark Lovell), Belgian (Robert Droogmans) and Dutch (Stig Andervang) championships. See European and national championships.

In pictures 1 photos

Further resources

• Road & Track: Ford's RS200 is built on the GT40's legacy EN · article
  The thinking behind Ford's purpose-built Group B car.
• RS200 — Ford's Group B Rally Legend — Graham Robson (Herridge & Sons, 2021) EN · book
  Full history of the Ford RS200 project. ISBN 9781906133955.
• Petrolicious: The engineer behind Ford's RS200 EN · article
  Profile of John Wheeler and the RS200 he kept developing long after 1986.

All Group B resources →

More from Teams

Austin Rover (MG Metro 6R4)British, naturally aspirated and idiosyncratic: John Davenport had Williams Grand Prix Engineering develop a rally car based on the Metro. Third on its debut.Read more →Toyota Team EuropeOve Andersson's Cologne team won six world rallies with the rear-wheel-drive Celica Twincam Turbo — all of them in Africa.Read more →Opel (Opel Motorsport and Rothmans Opel)Opel won the 1982 drivers' world title with the Ascona 400 (Röhrl). Tony Fall ran the German works team; David Richards co-ran the Rothmans-backed team.Read more →Peugeot Talbot SportFrom 1981 Jean Todt built a team that conquered the world within three years. With the 205 T16: manufacturers' titles in 1985 and 1986, and drivers' titles for Salonen and Kankkunen.Read more →Lancia MartiniCesare Fiorio's Turin team won the last manufacturers' title for a two-wheel-drive car in 1983 and introduced the Delta S4 in 1985 — with Abarth as its engineering powerhouse.Read more →Audi SportThe Ingolstadt team that changed rallying with four-wheel drive. Under Roland Gumpert: two manufacturers' titles (1982, 1984) and two drivers' titles (1983, 1984).Read more →

Sources

1. Wikipedia (EN), Ford RS200 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_RS200
2. Drive-My, Group B guru Ford RS200 — https://drive-my.com/group-b-guru-ford-rs200/
3. evo, Ford RS1700T – Dead on arrival — https://www.evo.co.uk/ford/204614/ford-rs1700t-dead-on-arrival
4. Wikipedia (EN), Group B (1986) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_B
5. Motor Sport Magazine, RS200 — Ford's Group B rally legend (book review, 2021) — https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/march-2021/34/rs200-fords-group-b-rally-legend-book-review/

All text is original writing for Grouve Sports Management Group, based on the sources above. Facts checked on 21 October 2026.

Thumbnail photos on this page: MrWalkr (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0); Alf van Beem (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain); estoril (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); Neil (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0); KKPCW（Kyu3） (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0); Matthew Lamb (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0).