RS ICONS EDITION

We get our hands on the final instalment to Steve Saxty’s Secret Fords collection, and it’s the perfect finale to the series

We’ve read all of Steve Saxty’s Ford books over the last few years, but it’s the Secret Ford series that we’ve found most entertaining and interesting. Secret Fords Volume One came about after Steve uncovered loads of confidential photos and never-before-told stories about cancelled projects, proposed prototypes, and generally cool stuff that helped shape the models we all know and love today. That first book in the series covered models from the Seventies and mid-Eighties, including fast Fords such as the Sierra Cosworth and RS200.

Next came Volume Two, which continued the story through the late-Eighties and Nineties. Supporting limited-edition scrapbooks and supplements completed a three-book boxed set.

Now, Steve is back with a final Ford swansong, and he brings us full circle back to the first Secret Fords with his new RS Icons

Edition, the perfect companion book to Volume One.

So, what’s it about? Well, as a bedfellow to the first Secret Fords, the new RS Icons goes back to the Seventies and early-Eighties to expand on some of our favourite stories from Volume One. At half the size, RS Icons isn’t a replacement for the main book, but it offers even more fantastic images from previously locked archives and further accompanying nuggets of information on our beloved Rallye Sport models that have either come to light since the first Secret Fords was published, or that Steve simply didn’t have the room to include in the 300-page book.

Think of it as an RS flavoured dessert to the

Secret Fords main meal. Inside, the layout is more picture-led than the main book – more like the Scrapbook that accompanies Volume

Two, only much larger at 136 pages – and that makes it easier to dip in and out of.

It also means you’ll find yourself staring at the pages for hours, looking intently for the little details Steve mentions. The awesome images grab your attention, and then the information and insight contained within the story really brings them to life.

We won’t ruin it for you, but one of our favourite examples of doing just that is the chapter on the RS1700T; we must have spent hours poring over the photos – especially the famous ‘death row’ shot – as we picked out all the minute details mentioned in the captions.

And then there’s the Sierra Cosworth story. Again, it’s a tale we’ve heard many times before, but the confidential images in RS Icons bring it to life like no other; the threewindow XR4i-shell Sierra Cosworth prototype featured in the book is simply awesome.

And RS Icons is full of little gems like that. It’s a fitting end to the Secret Fords story and is probably our pick of the bunch too.

The RS Icons Edition is limited to just 600 copies, with each one individually numbered and signed by the author and is currently only available as part of the collector’s edition box set including Volume One for £84.95. Steve has spoken of potential plans to offer RS Icons separately later in the year, but for now the only way to get your hands on a copy is as part of the two-book set.

But, Steve will be making an appearance at the Classic Ford Show at the South of England Showground on July 10, and a little birdie tells that he might have stashed a few copies in his hand-luggage to offer for sale at the show…