1972 | Ford Escort RS 1600

This is an online-only auction by Bonhams|Cars Online (www.bonhamscarsonline.com). The price shown is the lower estimate. To see more details, read the full description and see 200+ photographs & video please visit our website. It is free to Register an account and bid. There is no Buy it Now or part-exchange. Here is a brief excerpt taken from the auction description:

Contemporary road tests talk of the car’s staggering performance and visceral engine note, which is hardly surprising as the car was a homologation special, only offered to the public in order to meet the requirements of Group 2, which insisted that 1,000 examples be built and sold; this was very definitely a fully-fledged competition machine rather than a marketing special dreamed up by the PR department after a few too many pints on a Friday night in Brentwood.

It is thought that only 1,138 cars were built in total, making the RS1600 one of the rarest cars of its type as well as one of the most successful rally weapons of the seventies.

With an RS1600 AVO body plate, it was prepared for the 1993 Lombard London to Sydney Marathon, an event for which the entry fee was £12,900 - and with the engine alone reputed to have cost £30,000, money-no-object preparation would have been the name of the game.

Driven by John Redding and Sarah Perris navigating, MLP 770L dropped out on Day 25 after being late for a checkpoint. The car has since been driven in the 2008 Classic Marathon and many other stage rallies plus a Land End to John O’Groats charity run by the seller in 2022.

Ideal for either fast road or competition use (or both!) it’s been a while since we’ve seen a more purposeful and beautifully prepared example of a rallying legend.

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