Ford Friday with a pair of mighty Blue Oval racers ...
Over the last fifty years, Ford's products have been raced with great success on both sides of the Atlantic. Today, we take a closer look at two of the most extreme production based competition cars to wear the Blue Oval badge.
The earliest of the pair is this Capri RS, which is one of three works cars built ahead of the 1974 European Touring Car Championship. Developed to take on the BMW 3.0 CSL, it is powered by a 3.4-litre engine developed by Cosworth and fitted with bespoke twin-cam heads. Rated conservatively at 440 bhp, it remains as one of the most extreme touring cars built during the era. The chassis featured here is one of two surviving examples and the only one in private hands. The most recent custodian has regularly raced the car in Peter Auto's popular HTC series.
During the 1980s, the Ford Motor Company had commissioned Roush to build bespoke racing frames for silhouette racers based on a full range of the Detroit-based company. Between 1984 and 1997, a total of 33 chassis were built by Roush. One of them was this Mustang that competed in the 1991 IMSA GTO Championship. It is distinct in that it does not feature a V8 but instead a 2.5-litre, turbocharged Pinto engine. The two cars were raced for Roush by Dorsey Schroeder and Robby Gordon. With victories at Portland and Del Mar, Gordon was the most successful of the two drivers and he ended the year second in the IMSA GTO driver's championship. The example highlighted today was the car raced by Gordon, which has been carefully rebuilt for historic racing.
Enjoy the links:
[URL="https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/7903/Ford-Roush-Mustang-IMSA-GTO.html"]1991 Ford Roush Mustang IMSA GTO[/URL]
[URL="https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/chassis/2644/Ford-Capri-RS-Cosworth-GAECNA19997.html"]1974 Ford Capri RS Cosworth (GAECNA19997)[/URL]
