For the Mk3 Escort, Ford went front-wheel drive with what would soon be its biggest-selling model, along with a brand-new overhead-cam engine that had cost £500,000,000 to develop.

It was crucial to the company’s success, and it worked.

But what to do about the high-performance flagship? Motorsport honours were not the immediate focus, but the market demanded a sporting model, with a new name to avoid comparison with rear-drive RS Escorts.

The designation came from US, where it had featured on the Mercury Cougar XR-7, the first XR in Europe was the XR3, pitched as a volume-selling sporty variant rather than a limited-run homologation special.

That role went to the RS 1600i in 1981 and later the RS Turbo.

The XR3 faced strong opposition in the front-drive hot-hatch market, including VW’s well-established Golf GTi - Motor wrote: 'The Escort… is more attractively finished and looks terrific – few mass-production cars have ever attracted as much favourable interest from passers-by as...