The Escort RS Turbo Series 1 was specifically developed by Ford’s Special Vehicle Engineering team to set new standards in 'Group N' and 'Group A' motorsport events and was quickly dubbed 'the car to beat'.

Ford initially planned to build 5,000 examples, the minimum number required for Homologation in 'Group A', however a total of 8,604 were built due to increased demand.

The car was greeted with huge enthusiasm and was only sold through official Rallye Sport dealers.

The much revered Series 1 cars utilised a 1,600cc CVH unit modified to suit the higher loads and the application of a turbocharger.

Computerised fuel-injection and state of the art engine management (in 1986) incorporating boost control resulted in a healthy 132bhp and offered reasonably lag-free acceleration with 0-62mph, taking 8.2 seconds on the way to 128mph.

It was the first front-wheel drive road car in the world to use a compact viscous-coupling design LSD (instead of a normal mechanical LSD), which greatly i...