@SamMasonRallySport & @Perego6 - you are both winners! Chosen personally by Nicky. Please DM us on Instagram or Facebook to claim your prizes! (The links to the pages are in the video description)
Great interview thanks Nicky, we owe John a lot for the cars he has given Ford fans. Totally agree Group B for me, such a shame a 4WD RS1700t never made it though, a successful RS Escort rally car sells cars, fact. Those were the days……👍🏻
Very good interview! For me, You can’t beat the MK2 Escort. Some of my earliest rallying memories involve my dad taking me to the Wyedean Rally. Watching MK2s on full opposite lock, with BDAs screaming away really stuck with me!
I'm really glad to see that you have your own channel now Nicky, I listen to your 3 hour interview with Chris Harris about every six months and enjoy it every time!
I think you’ll love this reply Nicky. My mum was Fords translator and was in the last stages of a breast cancer battle. At 9 I was taken to Boreham and saw two RS1700Ts being built. Someone then took me out in Ari Vatenen’s WRC winning Mk2 for 100mph sideways! The brilliant FMC then paid for my education with a guaranteed job offer. She read me every Ford invention, and I chose the insurance industry where various inventions created thousands of jobs. Knowing I could do it again, I have devoted the last few years of my life to road safety ideas after a young father died outside my home on a Kawasaki. A big part of my invention, is passenger. And the prevention of multiple young deaths, such as the 4 who died in north Wales in a Fiesta. And the 3 that died in an Audi A1 in South Wales, recently. It works in 86 countries that use English as a municipal language. So it can be taught in schools. It has beautiful overtones of a Co-driver, guiding, or influencing the safety of the journey. So in simple terms, speak up as a passenger, and say you don’t feel safe. I have the initial belief that I can prevent at least one of these multiple fatal accidents, from Jodie Kidd and Frank Stephenson. All I ask is that you reply with ‘yes’, I believe you could. I have had the exciting news this week, that in May there is an International Road Safety week where the UN and FIA work together to influence road safety worldwide. I have written to many people who have been ridiculously nasty to me. All I ask for is a ‘yes’ I believe you. And maybe the flavour of the soup ❤
Favorite Ford? What to choose from the BDA Escorts to the Focus WRC that I saw for the first time in Acropolis Rally WRC 2001? I think the Focus WRC that Colin and you Nicky won the Acropolis of that time. Thanks for all the good memories.
My first car was a Mk2 Escort, NAW539P a rather under powered 1100 Popular version that did not like the hills around Knighton !!!! Years later in Bexhill I saw a real RS200 being driven from the Ford dealership, must have been visiting. BUT, guess my favorite rally car ever ????
I think it was a HUGE mistake to drop the RS1700T and not convert it to 4WD. It would have been the perfect fit among the other "silhouette" cars like the 205, it would've been in the game much earlier than 1986 and it certainly would've boosted sales of the ordinary MK3 even more.
An AWD RS1700t would have been an embarrassment compared to the mid engine opposition. Audi couldn't get the short wheelbase quattro to work, so why would the 1700t been different?
@@gregy67mead If they would've decided to redesign the RS1700T drivetrain and floorpan, what would have stopped them to choose a mid engine design? I'd think it would be ready to go in '84, 2 years earlier than the RS200. Audi is a complete different story, their 5 banger is a HEAVY piece of machinery. If you drive a normal 10V turbo coupe, you will notice that it wants to go straight all the time. You have to force it to go around corners.
Mine is the Ford Ficus 1999 Rally monte carlo car along with the safari rally winning ford focus which I have recreated in memory of Colin and yourself which you signed at Rally day , along with Jimmy, hollie, stig blomquist and others
Ford escort rs cosworth' certainly the best looking car of that era' the most competitive winning numerous rallys & championship also my era of cars ..
That was nice to watch, for me my favorite Ford Rally car has to be either the 2006 Ford Focus RS wrc i don't know why i just think its amazing and am hoping to build my own rally car based off that era focus. Or the MK 7.5 Fiesta WRC as that was the car M-Sport was using when i attended my first ever wrc event Wales Rally GB in 2016 at the age of 14
Hi Nicky , if i was pushed to select a favourite car although it wasnt a successful car it would be the Escort Maxi Kit that Gwyndaf drove in 1997... It looked out of this world with its wide arches and to see it live on the Manx and hear it sing it encapsulated everything in rally Looks and sounds... Reving at 10,000 ❤ there have been more successful cars escorts Fiestas 17 wrc ...id swap them for a F2 screamer any day... Brings the kid out in me to this day!! Thanks Neal
When I watch the timeliness involved, what jumps out at me is the huge trick that Ford totally missed, namely Mike Endean and Martin Schanche, they developed a few quattro-busting Mk3 Escorts with 560bhp, 4x4 turbo in time for the 1984 Raĺlycross season which could have easily been developed for rallying. Schanche went on to then develop the RS200 into an all-beating 800hhp Rallycross monster before returning to Mk5 Escort RS2000's which he very successfully campaigned right up to 1999. Such a shame the corporate nature of Ford Motor Co. Never allowed them to be flexible enoughto use the best people to do the donkey work for them.
The WRC focus was amazing. There are a lot of co-drivers in the WRC, both old and new era, but Nicky and Phil are my favorites. You guys just seem to have a rhythm that's almost like music; I'm not sure how to describe it. The driver is just instinctive, taking lefts and rights with ease; "6 rights over crest line" is harmony. I look up to the younger generation, but they lack it.
Loved listening to John just wondering wether you remembered my late father who worked at Boreham Brian Moye I remember him telling me when Stig took him out on the rally stage and being a former ford test driver Dad was blown away by Stig andthe RS200!!!
Best ford rally car for me is the Mk2 Escort. Growing up in Ireland it made up the majority of the entry. All the local drove them and loved throwing them sideways.
lovely insights there, thanks for the interview! favourite Ford rally car is a tough draw between the escort mkII, purely for the sound of one of them approaching when watching any British rally event, you know its coming and they have so much history in the sport. Or the Escort rs cossie, the looks are so iconic.
I’m saying the most significant Ford WRC car for me is the 2017 spec Fiesta WRC because it was the first full on Ford works car I ever saw at my first World Championship event, Rally GB in 2018. I was 12 years old! I’ll never forget seeing Ogier absolutely flat chat, broadside through a gate way in Hafren I think it was. Then of course he went on to win that event. It’s safe to say I caught the rally bug after that!
Favourite ford would have to be a mk2 escort. Seeing a car park full of them in Newcastle Emlyn mart at the start of the Cilwendeg. Nothing beats the smell or the noise
For us the best ford wrc was the Focus, in the earlys 2000 was able to run face to face to peugeot and subaru The focus mk2 is another brilliant car that was capable of facing the almighty Loeb and Citroen
Thanks for this, really interesting. Kalle Grundel and various engineers involved in RS200 deveopment often say it's their favourite car or project, ever. There's not actually a huge amount online about it's development, so more of this in more detail about the RS200 would be much appreciated.
I think the most significant Ford rally car of all time is probably the start of success with the Escort at the start and it's one car that has probably no haters at all
Great to see John still out there getting stuff done! It was a priviledge and pleasure to work with him on the Mk1 Focus RS project which seems to have slid into classic status too, these days, to make me feel old.
Good interview, nice to hear the history of the group b/ group a era .. favourite ford car is the ford Escort MK2 rs1800, I saw it for the 1st time on a rally stage, it was on ss57 (rheidol stage) of the Lombard RAC rally in 1980, driven by hannu mikkola... The sound and the speed of it was unbelievable... I was only 6 at the time, some impression it made...👌
Can remember being at a rally in a forest in the UK somewhere and the group b cars went by in the dark my god it was unbelievable, I used to like Hannu Mikkola but big Walter Rohrl my favourite driver of any car ever!
My ex g/f bought a brand new Escort Cosworth in 1995, slow?, the things are pedestrian at best, biggest overblown car ever🤣Rotten behind the dodgy bodykit under the sills in 10 years, sold it with 19K miles on it a bought a missile instead, an M3 which made it look like a moped🤣
