one of the most renowned Ford models of the past 40 years, the RS200, has been reimagined by the company’s European design team to tie in with a new book revealing some of the company’s many secret projects.
Mid-engined, four-wheel drive and turbocharged, the RS200 was conceived as Ford’s rally challenger for the all-conquering Audi Quattro. but the radical-looking creation was launched relatively late in the life of the spectacular group B era, and it contested only a handful of WRC rounds in 1986 before the category was banned. just 200 examples were produced, to adhere to homologation requirements.
Mitsubishi Starion 4WD: unseen pictures of the lost group B rally car
Earlier this year Ford’s European design boss, Amko Leenarts, asked his team members to submit their vision for how a modern, all-electric RS200 could look. A number of concept drawings feature in the most recent book from motor industry insider Steve Saxty, and one of the entries, seen here, features on the design department’s 2021 Christmas card.
Advertisement – short article continues below
The Vision RS2.00 is a dramatic-looking car with clear influences from the original car, notably the round headlights and round lower foglights. Its designer, former Kia man Michael Barthly, says he created the automobile “to respect the RS200’s DNA but with a futuristic twist”. It’s envisaged as a car that could be chosen and driven in a computer game, much as the extreme P1 that Ford officially released in 2020.