Guide: Ford Escort RS1700T
Background
At the end of 1979, Ford officially withdrew from rallying.
They did so as Manufacturers’ champions having beating Datsun by 14 points. Ford’s Bjorn Waldegaard also took that year’s Drivers’ crown in his works Escort RS1800.
The ‘79 season had seen Ford provide a degree of assistance to David Sutton Motor Sport in Yorkshire. From 1980, Sutton was given carte blanche to continue. At a preferential rate, he purchased all of Ford’s existing rally equipment. With new sponsor Rothmans on board, Sutton’s partnership of Ari Vatanen and David Richards went on to win the 1981 Drivers’ crown.
By this time, Ford Rally Sport in Boreham had already planned their return to top flight competition. The announcement officially came in May 1981, when a mock up for a new Group B car was unveiled.
Along with Groups A and C, Group B was part of a new regularity framework to be introduced for the 1982 season. Group B was designed to replace the existing Group 4 and 5 categories which had a 400 car production requirement. Now though, to participate in Group B, manufacturers only had to produce 200 cars in a twelve month period.
Homologation into Group A required 5000 units (much like the old Group 1 category). Group A cars were eligible for rallying and touring car racing.
Group C was for circuit racing prototypes and had no minimum production requirement.
Ford’s new Group B challenger was to be based on the Mk3 Escort which had been introduced in 1980. However, the Mk3’s new front-wheel drive layout would not be able to handle the power required to win.
Ford therefore created a special rear-wheel drive version specifically for rallying: the Escort RS1700T.
At this stage, the four-wheel drive Audi Quattro had yet to realise its potential; many manufacturers considered all-wheel drive to be heavy and overly complex.
In Italy, Lancia were known to have a Group B car of their own in the works. The Abarth-engineered 037 was also rear-wheel drive, but unlike the conservatively engineered RS1700T, the Lancia featured an advanced construction that comprised a central tub with spaceframes at either end.
Chassis
In contrast to the state-of-the-art Lancia, the RS1700T used a modified steel body shell from the Escort XR3. It was equipped with MacPherson struts and Bilstein shocks all round.
Vented discs with AP Racing four-piston calipers were fitted to each corner. Brake balance was adjustable from within the cockpit.
Custom Ford M-Sport cast alloy wheels had either a centre-lock fixing or four fastening studs depending on whether the car was destined for rally or road use.
Engine / Gearbox
Unlike the Escort Mk3 production car (which used a transverse engine layout), the RS1700T had its motor positioned longitudinally.
Ford initially commissioned two different engines to trial in their new Group B car: a 1.7-litre turbocharged Cosworth BDT and a 2.3-litre normally aspirated Hart 420R. Both were all-alloy inline ‘fours’ with dual overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder and dry-sump lubrication.
The Cosworth BDT was a heavily revised and turbocharged version of the eponymous BDA that had been used in various iterations of competition Escort over the years.
Group B regulations applied a 1.4 multiplier for turbocharged engines. Accordingly, to qualify for the 2000-2500cc class with its 890kg minimum weight limit, Cosworth capped displacement at 1778cc. Although ‘RS1800T’ might therefore have been a more appropriate name, ‘RS1800’ had already been used, so Ford opted for ‘RS1700T’ instead.
Cosworth fitted a Garrett AiResearch T3 turbo with two rear-mounted intercoolers. The compression ratio was 7.2:1 and Bosh Jetronic fuel-injection was employed.
In this configuration, the BDT produced 350bhp and 380lb-ft of torque. The road version was expected to put out 200bhp and 220lb-ft.
The Hart 420R was a common choice in Formula 2 racing where two-litres was the class limit. A 2290cc variant was created for the Group B Escort with 300bhp and 241lb-ft.
To optimise weight distribution, Ford decided to use a five-speed Hewland transaxle with aluminium torque tube and self-locking differential.
Bodywork
The 1700T’s macho-looking body was a mix of steel and fibreglass.
GRP was used for the new single piece front and rear bumpers, the wheelarch extensions, side sills, adjustable rear spoiler and heavily vented bonnet. All of this new equipment was body coloured.
The nose aperture was made smaller to accommodate four driving lights. A pair of spot lights were added under the front bumper. Standard Escort lights were used at the rear.
Compared to the Escort XR3, the RS1700T was 100mm wider. Thanks to increased ground clearance, it stood 15mm taller.
Interior
Interiors were uprated with a full roll cage, Recaro bucket seats, safety harnesses and a fire system.
The standard Mk3 Escort dash architecture was retained, albeit modified to accommodate a host of additional dials and switches.
Between the seats was an exposed gear linkage.
Weight / Performance
The Cosworth-engined variant weighed in at 890kg compared to 910kg for the Hart-powered car.
In rally trim, top speed was around 140mph and 0-62mph took 4.2 seconds.
Production & Development
Ford earmarked their Saarlouis plant in Germany for production of the 200 road cars.
The prototype RS1700T was unveiled in September 1981, but much development was still required at this stage.
In April 1982, two RS1700Ts were sent out to central Portugal for trials on a variety of stages that had formed part of Rally Portugal a few weeks earlier.
Both a turbo and normally aspirated variant were trucked south to where Ari Vatanen and navigator Phil Short would put the cars through their paces.
Vatanen reputedly went several seconds per stage faster than Rally Portugal winner, Michele Mouton’s Audi Quattro.
The turbocharged RS1700T proved significantly quicker than the normally aspirated example. On this basis, the green light was given to proceed with BDT power for production.
The Portuguese test was not without drama though: on Sunday April 25th, Vatanen left the road at high speed and virtually destroyed one of the cars. Thankfully, both he and Short escaped uninjured.
After the positive Portuguese test, Ford announced construction of the 200 vehicles required for Group B homologation would begin in August and run until October. The 1982 season-ending RAC Rally held between November 21st and 25th was earmarked for the model’s debut.
In mid July, Arrows F1 sponsor, Ragno (who would be leaving F1 at end of 1982), were linked as title sponsor for the Ford Rally Sport operation. However, a week later, news came that the RAC Rally debut was highly unlikely as production of the 200 base cars was causing considerable problems.
UK testing continued into November, usually with Malcolm Wilson at the wheel.
Around the middle of that month, Ford announced their new homologation target was April 1983 and they were aiming for a debut on the Tour de Corse (May 5th to 7th).
This was reiterated at the London Motor Sports Show in January, where Malcolm Wilson was announced as the team’s number two driver.
A few weeks later, in early February, “no comment” was the response when Boreham representatives were asked about production soon getting underway.
Ford Pulls the Plug
In mid March, the news finally came that the RS1700T programme had been scrapped altogether (along with Ford’s C100 Group C endurance racer).
The decision was made two weeks after Stuart Turner had returned to his position as Ford’s Director of European Motor Sport. Turner correctly reasoned that the RS1700T was unlikely to put Ford back on top in light of new Group B specials like Peugeot’s recently unveiled 205 T16.
By this time, many of the components for production had been ordered (including the 200 BDT engines); the project was abandoned at a cost of millions of pounds.
18 prototypes had been built, including four road cars (three right-hand drive and one left-hand drive).
Most of the RS1700Ts were scrapped. Some departed to South Africa where homologation requirements did not apply.
Instead of the RS1700T, Turner sanctioned the development of a clean sheet Group B contender: the mid-engined four-wheel drive RS200. A home for the otherwise surplus-to-requirements BDT engines (albeit further modified) would be found after all.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Ford - https://www.ford.com
