ESCORT RS TURBO
(1985-1986)
This was one of the first ‘Turner era’ new products which Boreham tackled. Ford liked the Turbo Championship cars so much that they initiated a series-production programme, which Special Vehicle Engineering ran and in which Boreham’s engineers – notably Terry Bradley, John Griffiths and Bill Meade – played an important role. This car was important to Ford’s high-performance production-car strategy, as it would be the first ‘small’ model to have a turbocharged engine, and the first Ford to be sold with a viscous-coupling limited-slip differential as standard.
Perhaps it is not surprising that Boreham always looked rather half-hearted over the programme they built up around this car, as by 1984 they and many of their suppliers had become deeply involved in RS200 work – which was not only a more glamorous, but potentially more exciting, project. The fact is that Boreham’s involvement with ‘works’ Escort RS Turbos in rallying was a failure, whereas the exploits of Richard Longman’s Datapost-sponsored cars in the British Touring Car Championship was an exhilarating success.
Boreham built two pre-production prototype RS Turbos for rallying in 1984; one being a proposed Group N car, the other being an ever-developing Group A machine. Soon after the Group N car was written off after hitting a sheep on the Manx Stages event, all work on that derivative was abandoned and work on the Group A was intensified. With public launch of the 130bhp road car slated for October 1984, it was always intended that Mark Lovell should be the ‘works’ driver, and that homologation would take place early in 1985.
Although homologation was delayed until June 1985, development of the car was well-advanced by then; including boosting the 1.6-litre engine to approaching 200bhp, to have a well-balanced chassis by that time, and with a brand-new optional gearbox – the AF100 – in the specification. This was always the problem. The AF100 was heavy, cumbersome to use, and had an awkward gear-change layout – such that Boreham’s mechanics nick-named the ‘AF’ part of its title as ‘Ashcroft’s Folly’, which did not please the manager very much!
Early in the year Mark achieved fourth overall in the West Cork Rally, but managed to finish only once more in seven outings – and was therefore delighted to be ‘promoted’ to drive RS200s in 1986. By then Boreham had washed its hands of the RS Turbo rally car project.
Richard Longman, on the other hand, was more and more delighted with the performance and reputation of his Datapost cars. In 1985 and 1986 the two cars developed, and held on to, a reputation for being giant-killers. In a British Touring Car Championship where Andy Rouse was dominant in his Sierra Merkur XR4Ti, the bright-red Escorts were never far behind, and were often an embarrassment to most other cars in the series.
Once homologated, the RS Turbo proved to be unbeatable in its capacity class, was as fast in a straight line even as Rouse’s Merkurs, but only lost out on more podium placings by the limited capability of its brakes and its cornering power. With 1.6-litre engines producing no less than 250bhp (with more to come in 1986), there were several category victories to celebrate.
In 1986, it was only the quirks in the ‘classimprovement’ system of Championship points scoring which stopped the 270bhp Datapost cars being invincible. Between them, Longman and Alan Curnow won seven of their nine event classes – and it was only an unlucky turbocharger failure in the very last race which scuppered their Championship hopes. Only Rouse’s Merkur XR4Ti was faster on a qualifying lap, though Richard Longman often drove at less than his limits during the races to keep his Championship hopes alive.
At the end of the season, however, it became clear that the new Sierra RS Cosworth (and its still-secret RS500 development) would dominate saloon car racing for years to come, so Ford discreetly withdrew the RS Turbo from competition.