It didn’t win the World Cup Rally, or even a Southern Cross in Australia. None of its previous owners held a Royal title or lived in the Vatican. Yet, this Ford Escort just set a record price for its model at auction in the UK.
The car is one of just 109 examples of the RS1800 Mk II built for use by international rally teams during the late 1970s. The cars were specially prepared for competition with strengthened bodyshells and modified suspension; early ones using 1833cc cast iron engines with belt driven twin overhead camshafts and a single Weber carburettor.
Cars slated for rally use after April 1977 featured a newly-approved aluminium engine block with a capacity of 1975cc and capable of punching out a staunch 180kW, versus the standard RS1800’s 86kW.
Two of these later RS1800s came here and competed in Australian Rally Championship events where they secured high profile wins during 1978-79 for Ford Team drivers Greg Carr and Colin Bond.
This RS1800 was never seen in competition, though. Its role was as one of five ‘press loan’ vehicles retained by Ford UK and supplied to magazine and newspaper journalists for evaluation.
Chassis number ‘GCATSA04069’ was first registered in May 1976 and remained on the Ford fleet for a year before being sold. The car’s first private owner used it until the mid-1980s when the engine was sent to tuning specialists Holbay Engineering to be rebuilt.
This was despite the car having covered fewer than 25,000 miles in its lifetime. At the same time the body was entrusted to an Escort specialist for restoration and rectification of factory flaws.
With its panel gaps near perfect, the body painted and trim issues addressed, the car was described as ‘better than new’ and its engine then sat separately but still in the same family ownership for around 35 years.
By then, more work was required to rectify deterioration and management of the renovations was entrusted to the same expert who had originally restored the car years earlier. Finally, in early 2025, it was ready for auction, some 48 years after the last time it was sold.
Auction observers were shocked when the car was offered at a pre-sale estimate of £160-180,000 (A$317-356,000) and utterly stunned by its eventual sale price of £276,848 or almost A$550,000.
Historics Auctioneers, who were entrusted to sell the car on behalf of the second owner’s widow, did not reveal the buyer’s identity or the RS1800’s possible destination. However, lovers of historic British Fords can only hope it remains on display somewhere in the UK.
Despite the RS1800’s massive selling price, it still is not the most expensive Ford Escort to be sold in Britain. That record was set in 2022 when a black Escort RS Turbo originally owned by Diana, Princess of Wales, made £720,000 or over A$1.42 million.
