This is believed to be the last set of unused new-old-stock body panels for the Ford RS200– a mid-engined, all-wheel drive Group B rally car that was developed by Formula One engineers in the 1980s.
The RS200 was an engineering tour de force, with a lightweight aluminum honeycomb central tub designed by F1 engineers Tony Southgate and John Wheeler. Front and rear tubular steel subframes were mounted to the central tub, and a steel toll cage was used for safety and FIA compliance.
The RS200’s all-wheel drive system was developed in-house by Ford Motorsport and featured a complex arrangement of three differentials with viscous couplings, the engine was rear-mid mounted and the transmission in the front for optimal balance. It’s widely believed that it was the best-balanced car to ever turn a wheel in Group B competition.
Eventual race winner Martin Schanche from Norway (left in the Ford RS200 E2) and Herbert Breiteneder from Austria (right in the Audi Sport quattro S1) seen here leading the A final field into the first corner of the Austrian round of the 1989 FIA European Rallycross Championship. Image courtesy of Eddi Laumanns.
Power was provided by a 1.8 liter turbocharged Ford-Cosworth BDT engine, developed by the esteemed engineers at Cosworth Engineering. In its road-going form, the engine delivered 250 bhp, while the race-spec configuration produced 450+ bhp.
Interestingly the lightweight fiberglass body of the Ford RS200 wasn’t made by Ford, as they had relatively little experience with the material. They went looking for a company in Britain who could make it for them under license and they settled on Reliant.
The Reliant Motor Company were the creators of the three-wheeled Reliant Robin and Reliant Supervan III, the latter of which was the little blue three-wheeler that Mr Bean used to terrorize on the streets of England with his Mini.
Above Video: This is an original review of the Ford RS200 by a young Richard Hammond, long before he became a star on Top Gear and The Grand Tour.
The full kit of body panels you see here were ordered from Ford Motorsport over 30 years ago by the owner of an RS200, who wanted a set of replacements should he ever need it. Thankfully he never did, and the panels remained safely in storage.
They’re now being offered for sale as a complete kit, believed to be the final unused set in the world, with the only caveat being that a mistake was made when the kit was originally assembled – and it now includes two lefthand side side-skirts and no side-skirt from the right side.
This set of panels is due to be sold by Silverstone Auctions on the 20th of May with a price guide of £10,000 – £12,000, which works out to approximately $13,700 – $16,440 USD. If you’d like to read more about them or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Silverstone Auctions
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
