RECALLING THE GREATEST HITS OF FORD MOTORSPORT’S COMPETITION DECADE

Who or what was it that stirred our sporting enthusiasms in the 1980s? Can it really be so long ago that Ford Motorsport decided to pension off the all-conquering Mk2 Escort, and to look ahead to the 1980s, where there would be new regulations, new rivals, and new challenges to be faced? Would Ford have the resources, the engineers, the visionaries and above all the drivers, to turn all their dreams into reality?

We now know that Ford developed several new race and rally cars in the 1980s, that the authorities killed off some by changing their regulations, but that the Blue Oval produced some remarkable winning machines, and programmes, in the same period.

These, then, are the cars that helped shape history.

1 EGGENBERGER SIERRA RS500 RACE CARS

So powerful, so fast, so undefeated: so memorable

There’s really only one headline for this choice: Unbeatable Eggenberger. These Group A Texaco-sponsored Sierra RS500 Cosworths were only seen in 1987 and 1988, where they won almost every event they started.

There was never a single occasion (except exclusion by biased Italian and Australian scrutineers…) where they were humiliated.

The FIA