Ford Sierra RS Cosworth, Focus WRC y RS200: libros - historia, modelos y técnica

Ford's legendary Sierra and Escort RS Cosworths changed the face of performance road cars, making them as desirable to keen drivers as they are to classic collectors. This title aims to help buyers select the best car, pay the right price, and avoid the potential pitfalls. It also includes at-a-glance tips, and real-world cost considerations.

When world rallying introduced a new formula for "World Rally Cars," Ford seized the opportunity. Malcolm Wilson's M-Sport organization was contracted to do the job, completed the design in less than a year, and spent the next 12 years campaigning this turbocharged, four-wheel-drive car all round the world.

Working from state-of-the-art facilities, M-Sport built 97 Focus WRCs, all of which proved to be worthy of World level action when they won 44 World Championship events. Stellar drivers like Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz, Markko Martin, Marcus Gronholm and Mikko Hirvonen all added to the mystique of an ultra-professional organization, along with substantial support and sponsorship from the likes of Martini, BP, and the state of Abu Dhabi.

By building its in-house technical expertise, M-Sport not only engineered and developed the entire car on behalf of Ford, but gradually took over development of the 300bhp, 2.0-litre, turbocharged engine, and led the design of the complex four-wheel-drive transmissions provided by Xtrac. M-Sport's reputation exploded to the point that when regulations changed, the company immediately produced a new-generation Fiesta WRC, and kept the winning days rolling.

Features
- The complete 12-year story of the Ford Focus WRC's career in World Championship rallying
- An unrivalled analysis of the birth, design, and evolution of Ford's Focus WRC project
- Detailed coverage of events, victories, and Championships in the 1999-2010 period
- M-Sport, Dovenby Hall, and the growth of a famous motorsport team
- Interviews and viewpoints of all the major characters - team owner, sponsors and drivers.
- For the first time, cars, drivers and engineers all profiled in great detail
- Listing and competition history of all 97 WRC cars built.

In a short-lived but tempestuous and exciting life, motorsport's Group B category attracted world-class manufacturers to develop new models. Almost all were technically-advanced, very powerful and striking in many ways - with Ford's RS200 being perhaps the most attractive, and the most promising, of them all.

Conceived in 1983, built in 1985 and 1986, and rallied strongly in 1986, the RS200 not only looked purposeful but was only at the start of a promising career when the FIA killed off the controversial Group B category.
Although Ford had already built 200 cars to satisfy homologation requirements, the RS200's career was brought to an abrupt close, and Ford Motorsport's efforts were almost entirely negated.

Graham Robson was closely involved with the project throughout its tempestuous career, noting (and sometimes experiencing) all the concept stages, the engineering process, the styling, development, and manufacture, followed by a four-year period when he drove RS200s as normal road cars.
This is the complete story, as related by the top management, the designers and the enthusiasts who ran, and competed with, the cars themselves, along with many details of when, where and how, all the elements of the design came together.

But this is not merely a trawl through the archives, as Robson persuaded top personalities including Motorsport boss Stuart Turner, engineer John Wheeler and project manager Mike Moreton to fill in the details. This is a complex, visually and technically enthralling tale, which provides inside information of probably the bravest sporting programme ever tackled by Ford UK

The definitive history, to date, of the Ford RS200, the Group B rally car conceived by Ford Motorsport HQ in Boreham, Essex. Includes a full chassis number database.