The RS badge has adorned some legendary cars. Damien O’Carroll looks at our favourites.

Ford Escort RS1600/2000

You could make a list five times longer than this with just Ford RS (which stands for Rally Sport in Ford’s world) cars on it. Hell, this entire list of five could be just Escorts.

But if you have to single it down to one, then the pretty little original is the only choice.

The RS1600 was built alongside the equally legendary Escort Mexico and packed a 1601cc Cosworth engine that was somewhat temperamental, which is why Ford subsequently also built the RS2000 with the 2.0-litre Pinto engine.

Ford RS200

OK, we couldn’t single it down to just one RS Ford. Not when the utterly mad RS200 is a thing.

Arguably the ultimate expression of the excess of the mad Group B rally days, the RS200 emerged from the fallout of Ford’s ill-fated and ultimately abandoned RS1700T rally car project and quickly became a legend.

Ford had to build 200 roadgoing models to satisfy Group B rally regulations, but sadly the rally car became obsolete after a single year when the FIA abandoned the Group B regulations after the 1986 season.

Porsche 911 Carrera RS

Again, you could easily populate a much larger list with 911 Rennsport (Racing Sport in German) cars, but the one that started it all for the German manufacturer is our pick.

The 911 Carrera RS is rightly considered one of the greatest Porsches of all time, and was a lightweight, powered-up homologation model that originally packed a glorious 2.7-litre flat six.

Porsche would go on to introduce the magnificent Carrera RS 3.0 in 1974 that was almost twice as expensive as the 2.7.

Audi RS 2 Avant

Despite some utterly ballistic Rennsport Audis over the years, including the spectacular V8 RS 4s and the last-gen RS 6 that was utterly mad, the original is still the most special, largely because of that Porsche touch that made it legend.

Co-developed by Audi and Porsche, the latter basically tweaked every bit that mattered in the 80 Avant the RS was based on, and even supplied its own bespoke braking system.

The RS 2 was even assembled by Porsche in the same factory that built the legendary Porsche 959.

Renault Sport Megane RS265

Renault Sport (as RS means in Renault’s world) has also built many crackingly good cars to wear the RS badge, but our favourite is the mad RS265 from 2012. And the reason behind its creation is what seals the deal for us. Alongside its ferocious performance, that is.

Basically, the RS265 version of the third-generation Megane came about because Renault won the contract to provide the French police with a high-speed pursuit car, so it jammed the special bits from the limited-edition RS265 Trophy car into the standard RS to meet the power requirements.