This is a New Zealand car with an interesting bit of history. Ford AVO in the U.K. sent some knocked down RS 1600's to NZ in the early 1970's to support the works cars at the 1971 “Heatway” Rally (what became the Silver Fern Rally) - the works cars won. This car is one of those RS 1600’s - it's a RS1600 with Cosworth BDA engine with a Quaiffe Dog Box. It's got all the usual rally mods - 5 link suspension, bubble arches, Bilstein shock absorbers, strengthened frame etc. etc.

The car was recently rebuilt to the original specs it had when it was bolted together by Ford NZ so it was rebuilt for rallying. We imported it to Canada in 2006 so we had to bring it up to modern vintage racing requirements - most notably install a fuel cell in place of the fuel tank, brace the roll cage and install side penetration bars and put in a fire supression system.

During 2006, we got it “sorted” and changed the 5.14 Crown Wheel and Pinion in an Atlas differential to a 4.1 unit. The old ratio was great for rallying - but at 110 m.p.h. top speed, it was far too slow for racing. With the 4.1 CWP, we should get over 130 m.p.h. from it - that ought to be fast enough.