1980 Ford Escort RS2000 Sedan

Description

The droop-snoot RS2000 has become something of a legend in Ford circles and, with rallying heritage, was the ‘70s equivalent of Subaru's WRX and Mitsubishi's Evo. Announced in 1979, the Australian RS2000 differed from its English counterpart in several ways and was available in both two and four-door guises, with a two-litre engine and short-shift four-speed gearbox (although automatic transmission was available to order). Developing 70kW and 148Nm of torque, the RS2000 was certainly a potent little car that, combined with the sports handling pack, the Escort's famously sharp steering and excellent handling characteristics, made for a great driving experience. With a kerb weight of just on 1000 kilograms, the RS2000 could reach a top speed of nearly 170 km/h, with acceleration to match. The sloping quad quartz halogen headlamps, black-outs and rear spoiler combined to give the RS2000 a purposeful look, along with cloth trimmed Scheel sports seats, sports steering wheel and full instrumentation. The RS2000 was well received by the press, with Modern Motor commenting “The Escort RS2000 is a way of putting fun back into driving. It's the kind of car we should all be driving - responsive, accurate, economical, and fast”. Although Australian production figures for the RS2000 are not well documented, there were approximately 2400 turned out and relatively few of these survive. With interest in the RS Escorts strengthening all the time, values of the Aussie RS2000s climbing rapidly and now is the time to snap up good examples.