Mustang GT Coupe

Make
Ford
Segment
Coupe

We're back today with another example of "cool cars we don't get in America that you can't afford anyway." The closest thing we get in America to this rally legend is uh- maybe the Subaru WRX? It's not the Ford Focus. That, along with the super-quick RS version, was cruelly taken from us thanks to poor sales. In short, this thing is worth its weight in gold to American rally nerds like us.

For those who don't know, this is a 1996 Ford Escort RS Cosworth. It's a WRC homologation special built in the mid to late 1990s so that Ford could show Subaru what was up in the World Rally Championship. This one is particularly nice. It might even be the nicest example in existence with only 217 miles on the clock. Sure, that's a lot of deferred maintenance, but when you have $186,000 to drop on a hatchback, who cares?

This particular example was built in October 1995 at Ford's German assembly plant and is one of the final ones ever made. Since then, this car has only had two owners. Obviously, both of them thought of the car as more of a financial statement than one you could take to cars and coffee. Bummer. However, that means it's almost certainly been immaculately maintained, so getting it up and going shouldn't be an issue for the new owner- supposing they don't just put it back in cold storage.

Obviously, all the paint, decals, and stickers are still present. Scarily, so are the original tires, which sit on 16-inch wheels. Of course, the whale-tail spoiler the RS is known for sits at the back, just above the single-exit exhaust. Inside are Ford's very '90s hexagon seats, white gauges (including super-cool boosty ones), and a 5-speed manual transmission.

In period, the Escort RS Cossie made 220 hp from a 2.0-liter inline turbo-four, which drove all four wheels through that 5-speed manual. The torque split on these cars is something of an oddity, using a Ferguson AWD system that results in a 34/66 torque split between front and rear. Back in the day, that meant the car was good for a 5.7-second 0-60 mph sprint. And 26 years ago, that was enough to put some supercars to shame. For reference, a Ferrari 348 of the same vintage managed that in only 5.4 seconds.

However, given the car's age, it is now legal to import to the United States. It's on the table, given that details on the new owner are nonexistent. That said, we're betting that wherever this thing ends up, it'll stay in a very dark garage, never to be driven again. It's a shame, but someone has to keep one of these out of the dirt as a reminder of what the car was like in its heyday.