Escort Cosworth VS Focus RS | Fifth Gear Classic 

For more classic shootouts like this, make sure you check out our membership page where you call watch ALL the full episodes of Fifth Gear! ru-vid.com/show-UCa6xsp7d4s-NgpPUGc57ZGAjoin

Nothing on this video has aged a day, the soundtrack was on point as well.

Maybe it's because I'm old, but the escort looks far better and is so much more desirable..

To me there's no contest, the Cosworth is a proper sports car, 4x4 and faster. The Focus RS was such a let down and never been desirable car for me, I hate torque steer it ruins all fun.

The cossie is an iconic car! But i love the mk1 focus RS too tbh! Cool cars! Take me back to the days of this fifth gear, i miss the early 2000s

A guy that lived up the road from me back in the 80s/90s was a Cosworth fanatic. He owned a RS500 Sierra Cosworth and later (when i was old enough to drive) an Escort Cosworth in the same blue. I remember following him through town, both of us going a little too fast to be legal (but not crazy speeds) At that time i owned an Astra GTE 16 valve, a rapid hot hatch and the Cossie wasn't exactly blowing me away. That was until we reached a very tight corner. He shot round that VERY tight corner in damp conditions without even touching the brakes! Behind him i had to brake heavily before the corner and then very slowly accelerate out of it, my GTE slithering with understeer and sliding. I barely got round that corner being right on the verge of a spin. The Cossie went round as if on rails with zero slide or hassle at about 30mph, it was incredible haha! After that i had a new found love of Cossies, especially the awd versions.

I used to work for Ford years back and, while the RS was well received, the disappointment over what it should have been / could have been was tremendous. What Ford initially promised was watered down to what was finally delivered.

The Cosworth is a legend

I don’t care if it lost, the MK1 focus RS is my choice

Remembered watching this on TV. I was praying the Escort battered the Focus 🤣

Good watch always wanted a cosworth when I was a kid either the Sierra or the escort 🔥🔥🔥

4wd, lighter, more downforce, developed in conjunction with cosworth. It was always a no brainer which was gonna win 😂 at least VBH talked dirty throughout 🤯😂

Both are good cars better than any over hyped type r

As an ex Cosworth owner.... Don't meet your heroes. Disappointing as a drive, amazing to have in the garage.

I noticed the rear wheels stopped rolling in one of the curves. I was wondering if you left foot brake to help keep understeer in check.

The Cossie is still a great looker to this day. The first gen Focus styling is not my fave.

Best Focus RS is Volvo powered MK2 😎

People will be kicking themselves in few weeks if they miss the opportunity to buy and invest in bitcoin

When I was 16, I hitchhiked from Cornwall, home to Manchester. I was picked up at Gordano Services near Bristol by a guy in a brand new Escort RS2000. He was driving to Leeds and went out of his way to drop me off outside my home address. He said he had a brother my age and wanted to see me home safely. Happy day.

Good to see Vicki 💪👍👌🌹

The Cossie is a great car. I test drove a couple but they were above my budget if the insurance costs were added to the price!!!

Escort cost 25k 25 yrs later Escort costs 25k for a rough one 😁😂

Cossie FTW - it's on the numberplate ;) Still love the Focus RS too...... Ford turned it around in the 90's, first came the Mondeo, then Ka, Focus etc etc and they've just got better and better ever since.

Jason Plato did 1:25,95 with the Cossie in the Fiesta ST comparison

Damp track will have favoured the 4 wheel drive Escort. The 2 wheel drive Focus wouldn’t have stood a chance. 5th gear did Escort Cosworth vs Fiesta ST after this with Jason Plato on a dry track and the Cozzy was 2.5 seconds faster on that lap (although Plato is likely the quicker driver), so the damp track is affecting both cars on this video.

I love the Ford Focus RS! The Focus RS was introduced in the WRC in 1999 & Colin McRae moved from Subaru to Ford.

I had always wanted a focus rs

I thought there were rules about pornography on RU-vid

I would have both with a lottery win!

Fantastic fast Fords, road tested by a gorgeous presenter.

Cant beat the old Cossie, imagine if it had its normal power 330bhp-380bhp that most people were running back in the day. Was around £1k to get it up to 380bhp iirc.

Different result on a dry track! Remember the Focus beat the Impreza by 4 seconds around top gear track!!

Great video and great rally cars Vicky..... but i always dreamed of Lancia Delta Integrale. 😍

I remember in Maxx power magazine, the comments for the cossie in the insurance section at the back just said 4,7,10,30,47,48 should just about do it. They were my lotto numbers for the next 26 years lol 😂 never won enough to buy a cossie though 😳

Just loved that cossie in my teens and still do now........

Cossie for me please, Loved these things all my life.

Shame it's one of the later small turbo cossies not the real badboy early version. Ford really screwed up when they didn't release the 4x4 Colin McRae RS focus.

The Cosworth won as expected - it's what they do!

Can't stand this bird, cars lovely, both good looking, but it have too be the cossie for me, used to work in a tyre shop near dual carriage way, used to see these flying up n down all the time, flying lol 😂

I know which one I’d love for my daily ride...

MK1 focus for me that thing is much more beautiful than the cossie, that whale tail is a joke what a ugly duckling.

Isn't she beautiful?♥️

Sorry. It it’s the escort all day long. Better looking, sounds and interior. A true classic

Incredible to think that just a few years later, family estate cars running on diesel would leave both of these cars for dead.

Stop trying to make "music " videos and bin that noise !!!

I love it when a hot blonde with a sexy accent knows how to handle a stick shift 😉.

Vicky BH is still the best Driver on TV, I don't know where she learned to drive like that but she has serious skills. Awesome Driver.

144mph top speed is pathetic for such a revered car.

The never should of scrapped the escorts or the Sierra rs

Focus RS is at least affordable for now.

A guy in my street has a escort and a couple Sierra cosworth and a rs focus mk1 and the new one very nice cars

I drove a escort cosworth on a test Drive and it was disappointing, didn’t live up for the hype

So, isn't there an AWD Focus RS? Surely that would be a more reasonable comparison?

Designed by Germans? Erm nope Frank Stephenson was British. Still ,Josh Wink and a Cossy, almost moist.

Saw a White Escort Cossie brakes fail he went straight passed me on the left and hit the Armco barrier at at least 150mph. It disappeared in a huge ball of sparks and red vapour , I’ll never ever ever forget the Thunderous noise of the impact. It had Coventry city f.c badges on it, but it’s the noise, it’s like a rollercoaster crash. Whereas the Focus RS has no engine and so there was no chance of a huge smash. RIP...the victims in the Southam white cossie

Man that background tune gave me a rave flashback. Big box little box

I have always loved your segments, buuuuut comparing cars, especially on a circuit race track the tyres would play the leading roll. 😘🇦🇺🤜🏼🤛🏼🍀🍀🍀😎

Such great cars the Cossies. Be it Escort or Sierra, 3 door or Sapphire, 2 wheel drive or 4x4. Even today a well driven one will hold it's own, against much newer and more expensive machines, around a track. And they still look so damn cool too. Although for the remaining years of production ford offered the Escort with the rear wings as an option, in a desperate attempt to lower the insurance rating, trying to make it appear like a lesser Escort, and not so Cosworth like, it's just not the same without it. Also, whereas the original 3dr Sierra version was a bit rough and ready, by the time the Escort came out, although still based on the Sierra platform, it had become a pretty civilized car, and was just as happy taking the kids to school as it was going on an early morning blast around some deserted county roads. Fantastic! Unfortunately, so are the prices good examples fetch today 😳! Lastly, when Vicki mentioned the five figure insurance premiums, back in the day, it reminded me of when a much younger Jeremy Clarkson had one on long term loan from Ford, (lucky f**ker), and he said on Top Gear, I think, that just out of interest he phoned up to get an insurance quote. For him, early 30's at the time, living in London, with the car parked out on the street, one quote he got was something like £21,000 for the year. If I remember correctly, the car was only £20,000 new

4wd focus would dominate if ford had the balls.

Great item thanks

Pretty pricey in their day. But I guess my MkII was pretty pricey too.

There's a bright yellow cossie for sale in my country right now. $68000... I wish lol.

I'd have both

@4:14 Why would you do a handbrake turn on a dry tarmac if you wanna go as fast as possible?

I had always wanted a focus rs

4 wheel drive is better than front wheel drive. I wonder if it would have been a tie if the Focus had 4 wheel drive

S Cossie over focus any day of the week

Well the cozzy is weird but good looking the rs is a shit box

Escort is way better

Think the only FWD car of the time that could perhaps beat the cossie would be an integra type R

The focus Rs was such a disappointment compared to the escort

Friend of mine had a Cosworth and we went to Donington in it one year and it was a fantastic outing

Why didn’t they make the Focus RS in RWD 😢

Where's the drag race you muppets 😂

Love a bit of josh wink…to start a video off

Cossie , Josh Wink, Prodigy oooo cushion 😵

Fantastic the best 😍🤩👏🏻👍🏻💥

Should have been a rs focus really.

Good girl... I liked that👍🏻

The focus just doesn't have the excitement appeal the escort does, escort much more of a beast feeling about it, and gets your spine tingling at thought of driving it, to me focus is a boring sports car which ford made no real effort with

Wow.... She can drive!

The Cosworth is the perfect car.

Definitely my favorites💪🏾🔥👊🏽

Well that's the Focus shot down!

Is that Josh wink I hear ? 😅

I would have the Escort over this focus. However the newer focus RS I would have over the Escort

Both Ford RS’s... win,win

Ford did a disservice to its loyal fans when it killed the Sierra and Escort Cosworth without replacing it with another 4WD turbocharged car. The FWD Focuses no matter how powerful, like even the RS500 with that 5 cylinder Volvo turbo engine didn't do it either. The numbers and pleasure of driving and performance show up in this test. What an insult Ford. Fast Forward to 2019 and they killed the new Focus RS which was a worth replacement although still not as beautiful as the Escort RS Cosworth. Now they have nothing. Idiotic Company.

What is the song at the start?

I'd sort you out vicki x

💦

Cossie everytime

vbh looking nice...

The Cossie all day baby

The Prodigy :D

Cool a you like .👌

Cossie all day 👌

Progress lol 😂

This is new

Cossie