1980 Ford Escort RS 2000 Coupe

The droop-snoot RS2000 has become something of a legend in Ford circles and, with rallying heritage, was the Seventies equivalent of Subaru's WRX and Mitsubishi's Evo. Announced in 1979, the Australian RS2000 differed from its English counterpart in a number of 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 70 kW and 148 Nm of torque, the RS2000 was certainly a potent little car this, 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 1,000 kilograms, the RS2000 was capable of reaching 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 aren't well documented, there were approximately 2,400 turned out and relatively few of these survive. With interest in the RS Escorts coming up all the time, it won't be long before values on the Aussie RS2000s begin to climb rapidly and now is definitely the time to start looking hard for good, low mileage examples.