RACING PUMA

WHY YOU WANT ONE…

■ With an RS badge, the FRP would be worth double. Just 483 were built, and around 275 survive, making the FRP rarer than an RS500 and much more scarce than a Mk1 Focus RS. Values are guaranteed to rise.

■ The FRP was the perfect development of the standard Puma’s stonking chassis and revhungry powerplant. There’s damn good reason it’s known as a brilliant drive.

■ Gorgeous looks reflect the FRP’s inimitable heritage: penned by Boreham’s motorsport team, and put together by the crew that built the RS200, RS500 and Tickford Capri.

WHY YOU DON’T…

■ Despite the bulky rally-derived bodywork, trick suspension and big brakes, the FRP can’t be described as fast – just 152bhp resulted in a top speed of only 126mph.

■ To certain Ford fans, it’s an iconic driver’s car, but to everyone else it’s a cheap old coupé on a Fiesta platform, more likely to be seen shopping than racing. You’ll tire of telling your mates to quit the hairdresser jokes.

■ Hand-built bodywork and race-spec parts are typically troublesome – and naturally tricky to put right when they go wrong.

HOW MUCH TO PAY

PROJECT: £6000 TO £10,000 A rotten non-runner may look cheap, but many spares are unavailable and restoration costs will set you back more than the whole car’s eventual value. Spend more to bag a tatty but running FRP with high mileage and/or adverse history. Beware of replicas.

GOOD: £10,000 TO £17,500 Average-condition cars in good running order tend to cost around £15k – vary the value up or down depending on how many rare components need replacing or the extent of any underside corrosion.

CONCOURS: £17,500 TO £25,000 An ultra-low-mileage concours FRP could set you back more than £25,000, but anything in this bracket should have low miles, full service history and exactly the right factory-original parts. A delivery-mileage machine could easily exceed these figures.