Hidden Heroes: Ford Escort RS2000 16v
Fri, 14 Nov 2025
Reinventing a legendary name and attaching it to an otherwise mediocre car was never a new idea. But when Ford realised its humdrum MkV Escort needed a bit more sizzle in its sausage, it pulled out all the stops.
Cue the 1991 Ford Escort RS2000. Who could forget the original launch ad? It came complete with the Rocky theme tune and the words: 'I’m gonna make you great again; the people want you back.'
Here was Ford trading on its heritage to try and convince an unconvinced public that the Escort MkV was a car that was worthy of the Escort nameplate. In most respects, it probably wasn’t, but the Escort RS2000 was a little bit different.
Not only did it introduce a new 150bhp 16v 2.0-litre engine to the model range, but it also brought with it several chassis improvements. It was much sharper, more agile and genuinely quite entertaining to drive. Acceleration from 0-60mph took just 7.9 seconds, which made it a seriously quick hot hatch for its day.
The Ford Escort RS2000 hid its light under a bushel. Its bodykit was discreet - apart from the positioning of the front number plate, if you saw one coming towards you, you’d barely tell it apart from a standard MkV. Flat-faced brushed alloys and a subtle but special RS2000 badge finished it off.
Things got a bit more racy with the MkV facelift in 1993, which not only saw the Ford Escort RS2000 get a slightly bigger bodykit, but also saw the introduction of a 4x4 model - essentially a testbed for the Ford Escort Cosworth, using a truncated version of the Ford Sapphire Cosworth drivetrain. The handling was sweet, but the extra weight meant it lost a fair chunk of acceleration to the front-driven car.
By the time the MkV Ford Escort morphed into the MkVI in 1995, the country’s car crime epidemic was easing and security had improved. The Ford Escort RS2000 grew fat alloys, a boot spoiler and a more heavily revised front bumper to make less of a secret of its sporting pretensions.
This is the version to go for - the facelift brought a number of small detail changes which made the base car much more refined as well as improving the ride and handling. Transferred to the RS2000 it became the hot hatch it always should have been.
Today, there are few survivors (thanks in part to this generation of Escorts capacity to rust). Less than 400, in fact, which is below half the number of Mk2 RS2000s from the 1970s. It’s the forgotten fast Ford. A car that was a thousand times better than the models alongside it in the brochure, but never realised its true potential. Finding one won’t be easy, but it’s worth the effort.
