Cosworth solidified its association with Ford on road cars by developing the YB series of engines. Starting with the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth in 1986 with the famous in-line four producing 204 PS, this hugely successful engine destined for great things both on and off the track. This collection includes three of those famous cars, all very successful for both Ford and Cosworth which made Ford Cosworth a household name.

BRS Truck Rental was established in 1975 and was part of the government-owned British RoadServices company created in 1949 as part of a very ambitious post war plan to nationalisethe UK’s transport system. The vast majority of BRS’s van rental fleet at this time were UK-builtdiesel-engined vehicles such as the Ford Transit and the company rarely bought foreignvehicles although contract hire fleet companies sometimes requested them. BRS did, however,buy six VW Type 2 vans in early 1975 including the example modelled here, believingthat the quieter rear-engined positioning of their petrol engines and more car-like drivingposition might appeal to customers who’d not previously driven a van.Production of the T2, the second-generation Type 2 Volkswagen commercial, commencedat Hanover, Germany, in August 1967. It was both slightly larger and slightly more powerfulthan the original and was a wholly new design in both structure and styling. It remainedfaithful to VW’s traditional layout however, using a rear-mounted air-cooled engine in a unitaryconstruction body. Like the original Type 2 it was available from the factory in an array of guises,although specialist conversion companies also used it as a base for vehicles such as fire engines.The vehicle modelled was made in early 1975, the twenty fifth year of Type 2 production, andon August the 9th of that year Volkswagen celebrated the production of the four millionth Type 2.

Ford’s AVO plant, which had been created to build short runs of limited-edition cars, was mothballed in 1975 but the company still wanted to offer enthusiasts the option to build the RS Escort of their dreams. Thus the customer or Dealer-fit Series X modifications were developed. The Series X tuning parts catalogue addressed every area of the car, engine, brakes, suspension and body styling but customers could pick the components that they wanted or more pertinently,
could afford. Six X-pack RS2000s were built by Ford’s engineers at Aveley using the full body kit, which was made for the company by Fibresports of Essex.

The Escort modelled is one of only two known survivors of the six RS2000s built by Ford’sengineers at Aveley to promote the Series X options available from official Ford Rallye Sportdealers. Photographs of it wearing its original German Cologne-registered number plate,K-HJ 184, appeared in brochures and as posters at the time because it is believed it was theonly example to feature the full graphics package. It lived up to its looks, however, with animpressive mechanical specification that included a Group 1 twin-carburettor 145bhp engine,7.5x13 RS alloy wheels wearing Pirelli CN36 tyres, Bilstein anti-dive suspension, close-ratioRocket box, limited-slip differential, ventilated disc brakes and a 69-litre, long-range fuel tank.It was used for promotional work in Europe before being sold to a museum in Belgium whereit remained until 1991. Although the car has always been left-hand-drive, it was then registeredin the UK and offered for sale by well-known historic car dealers Oakfields. It was purchasedfrom them by a London-based Saudi Arabian Prince who kept it as part of a collection ofinteresting cars but used it sparingly. He sold the car after around twenty years of ownershipand, during 2012/2013, the new owner entered this remarkably original survivor in the'Expert' concours class at Ford RS Owners' Club events. It was the National Day winnerin both years and took the overall Gold Cup in 2013.

After twenty years of continuous production, the last British-made Cortina, the car modelled here, was driven off the production line on July 22nd, 1982, by Ford UK’s Chairman, Sam Toy. It was retained by Ford, road registered in December 1982 and has since remained in the company’s Heritage Collection being used for press and PR work. This has included appearances on the TV programmes ‘James May’s Cars of The People’ and ‘The Grand Tour’, as well as numerous magazine articles. The UK market only Crusader edition Cortina grew out of a friendship between Toy and Victor Matthews who was then the Chairman of Trafalgar House Investments, the company which controlled the Daily Express newspaper.Every Cortina Crusader featured the Daily Express ‘Crusader’ emblem on the boot lid as well as Ghia-styled interior trim in Durham velour, cut-pile carpet, a long centre console incorporating a radio, wheel rim embellishers and distinctive pin-stripping with matching decals. The Crusader was launched in April 1982 and was available in three engine sizes, 1.3, 1.6 or 2-litre. Over 30,000 of this run-out edition Cortina were produced because it offered remarkable value; the list price of a Crusader 1600 was only £5435 when the GL, which was not so lavishly equipped, cost £6054. Cortina Mk1 production commenced at Dagenham on June 4th, 1962, and in that period of just over twenty years 4.3 million Cortinas were produced with each generation selling over a million examples.