Fast Fords · Lotus Cortina to Escort Cosworth

The dossiers

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  Lotus Cortina (1963–1970) — 3,306 Mk1s built at Cheshunt and 4,093 Mk2s at Dagenham; the Lotus twin-cam, the alloy-panelled early cars, and the car in which Jim Clark won the 1964 British Saloon Car Championship

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  Escort Mk1 (1968–1975) — the Twin Cam, the RS1600 and its Cosworth BDA, the 10,352 Mexicos named for the 1970 World Cup Rally, and the first RS2000, all built on the strengthened AVO shell

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  Escort Mk2 (1975–1980) — the RS1800 that won the 1979 world titles and the droop-snoot RS2000 that defined the 1970s fast Ford for the road

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  Capri (1973–1987) — the 250-car RS3100, the 2.8 Injection that kept the Capri alive, and the 1,038 run-out 280 Brooklands

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  Escort RS Turbo (1984–1990) — the RS-badged hot hatch of the 1980s; why the Series 1 leads and original cars are the scarce commodity

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  Sierra RS Cosworth & RS500 (1986–1987) — 5,545 three-doors built to homologate a Group A winner, 500 of them converted by Tickford into the RS500

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  Sapphire RS Cosworth (1988–1992) — the Cosworth engine in a four-door saloon, in two- and four-wheel-drive forms, at half the price of a three-door

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  Escort RS Cosworth (1992–1996) — 7,145 built, the first 2,500 for homologation; the whale-tail rally car on a Sierra 4x4 floorpan

The era

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  Win on Sunday, sell on Monday: how Ford built performance cars on the bodies of its best-sellers for three decades

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  Boreham, Aveley and the RS badge: the competition department, the low-volume factory and the badge that tied them together

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  Proof on the stages: the rally and touring-car record that explains today's value hierarchy

Buying & ownership

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  Genuine, rebuilt or recreated: the categories the market prices, and how to tell which you are looking at

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  Identity first: chassis numbers, registration history, owners' club registers, and theft and write-off checks

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  Structure and mechanics: where each family rusts, and what to check on twin-cam, turbocharged and four-wheel-drive cars

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  What originality is worth: the premiums for unmodified, documented and homologation cars