John Wheeler

The Ford Motorsport engineer at Boreham who argued for four-wheel drive, won the internal competition to design the RS200 and turned Tony Southgate’s chassis into a rally car.

Grouve Sport documentary

Episode 8 — The Architects: Fiorio, Todt, Gumpert, Turner & the People Behind Group B

The engineers and team bosses who built Group B.

Background

Born in 1948, Wheeler was a mechanical engineering graduate who began his career at Porsche, working on road and competition cars, before joining Ford’s motorsport department at Boreham. There he engineered the front-engined, rear-wheel-drive Escort RS1700T, intended as Ford’s Group B car.

From RS1700T to RS200

According to Road & Track, Wheeler was already arguing in late 1981 that Ford’s future rally car had to have four-wheel drive. When Stuart Turner took over Ford’s European competition programme in 1983, he cancelled the RS1700T and invited four design teams to propose a new car: three outside groups and Wheeler’s team at Boreham. Wheeler’s proposal won. Tony Southgate designed the chassis, FF Developments (Ferguson) the four-wheel-drive system, and Wheeler’s group integrated it all into the RS200. Ford management saw the first car in March 1984 and approved the build of 200 road cars for homologation.

Ford’s Boreham engineer who won the RS200 design competition.

Later

Wheeler went on to lead engineering on Ford’s RS performance cars, including the Sierra and Escort RS Cosworth programmes, and later the Focus RS.

Wheeler’s biography rests on a Ford press release and magazine articles rather than an encyclopaedic source. One account (Drive-My) says Wheeler was initially not invited to tender and insisted on submitting a fourth scheme; Road & Track describes Boreham as one of four invited teams.

In pictures 1 photos

Lancia Delta S4 and Ford RS200 (photographed 2007)
Lancia Delta S4 and Ford RS200 (photographed 2007)Photo: Jorjum via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Further resources

All Group B resources →

More from Designers and engineers

Sergio LimoneThe Abarth engineer behind the Lancia 037, and the Delta S4.Read more →Claudio LombardiLancia's engine designer for the 037 and the twin-charged Delta S4, later Ferrari team manager.Read more →André de CortanzeTechnical director of Peugeot Talbot Sport, later designer of the Toyota GT-One.Read more →Tony SouthgateThe racing-car designer who drew the Ford RS200's chassis.Read more →Ferdinand PiëchThe Audi engineering chief who made the quattro possible.Read more →Walter TreserProject leader and namer of the Audi quattro, first head of Audi Sport.Read more →

Sources

  1. Road & Track, Ford's RS200 Is Built On the GT40's Legacy — https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a39572640/fords-rs200-is-built-on-the-gt40s-legacy/
  2. Ford of Europe, Ford Focus RS team profiles (press release, via DocsLib) — https://docslib.org/doc/5962788/news-release
  3. Wikipedia (EN), Ford RS200 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_RS200
  4. Drive-My, Group B guru: Ford RS200 — https://drive-my.com/group-b-guru-ford-rs200/

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

Follow Grouve Sport on YouTube — rally Shorts now, Group B documentaries soon.

Subscribe

Thumbnail photos on this page: KKPCW（Kyu3） (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0); Steven Straiton from UK (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); Nicky Clarke (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0).