Riviera MotorSports is proud to present the fully restored 1968 Ford RS1600 Group Rally car. The image posted in the advert is for representation purpose only. Images, supporting documents and race history will be provided upon serious request.
In late 1967, the new and much lighter Escort was forecast to be the most suitable model in the Ford range to replace the aging Cortina, which in Mk1 and Mk2 Lotus-badged guise had become the company’s main competition car, the later model initially even employing the same Twin Cam engine as the Lotus Cortinas. However, the aging TC motor having only 8-valves and the potential of up to 140bhp were soon thought insufficient to stay ahead of the competition on the circuits and rally stages, so alternative power units such as the 2.3 V6 Granada engine were tried by the Boreham Competition Department and rejected by Ford management. o withstand the long distances and high altitudes of the Andes during the 1970 London to Mexico Rally, a rugged but simple push-rod motor of 1850cc capacity was developed for the works Mexico Escort entries which went on to dominate the leader board of the South American Marathon. The marketing spin-off Mexicos in the local Ford showroom were duly fitted with 1600cc ‘Kent’ engines of similar design though lower cost.
For the other major rallies, where the special stages were shorter and very much more power was required, both the factory team Escorts and therefore the FIA-policed run of ‘Production’ cars built by Advanced Vehicles Operations at Aveley soon gained ‘Cosworth BDA’ Ford-based engines (produced by the Northamptonshire firm of former Lotus and Ford engineers Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth of FVA F2 and DFV F1 engine building fame, the new engine so called because of being a ‘Belt Driven version A’). These Cosworth 4-cylinder engines with belt-driven double overhead-camshafts and 16-valves powered the production Escort RS1600 between 1968 and 1972. During this period BDAs in works cars went from being 1558cc and larger with a steel block to having a Brian Hart developed alloy-block of 1993cc capacity by mid-1972, whilst progressive modifications saw the power output increasing to 230bhp.
Please contact Marvin at 351 925 406 454 for questions.