183 - E994BNO - 1.8 - RHD - White - Current owner known (SC) - UK

[Justin Smith]

In December 2003 I found this car whilst reading a November 1990 edition of Fast Ford, at the time I was looking for a car for myself. The car was also written about by Graham Robson in one of his books. During the story he mentions it as having been the third in a line of four RS200's that Fords asked him to live with. - Nice job !

In June 2004 I was in email conversation with the owner of #010 and they said they thought #183 was originally owned by (SK) and in November 2004 I was emailed by his, he confirmed that he still owned the vehicle and it had spent the last 11 years having an EVO engine built and installed and was due to be running soon. It should produce around 580 BHP !!

But in January 2005 some images arrived along with some bad news, the car was damaged during it's first few miles after the rebuild.

In February 2006 I heard more about the story, The car had an unfortunate fire and was written off by the insurers, the good news, if there was to be any, was that the salvage was bought by (SC) and he had a mission to ensure this 200 does not die ! - The chassis is fixable and he has spent the past few months getting hold of the other parts needed to get #183 back going again. When you consider how many of the original 200 made now exist it is important that we do not loose another one ! - The problem will be getting the V5 re-issued as DVLA consider the car to written of, hopefully he can convince them of the importance of this car.

I met (SC) a few times over the past few years.

E994BNO was the third, of four RS200's that Graham Robson used, he told me the details were in the newsletters that Ford sent out to the owners club it ran in the Eighties (before the magazines). I dug out mine and I quote the articles below;

Fifth Newsletter : December 1988 (page 2) "From March 1988 to December 1988, I ran Car No. 183 (Registered E994BNO), a Right Hand Drive car prepared to the 1988 specification. This had the electrically heated/adjustable door mirrors, the optional radio/cassette kit, and was fitted with the same red leather seats which I had used in the previous two cars. It had the 'standard' 250bhp engine, and completed nearly 20,000 miles/32,000 kilometres before being returned to the factory. I understand that it has already been sold, and it will be delivered to its next owner in the next few weeks."

Sixth Newsletter : March 1989 (page 6) In an article about the number/location/specification of all RS200's sold Graham Robson writes:-

"For your interest, the following cars carried 'works' registration numbers when they were first put on the road:

#183 car is listed together with the 20 others including the 'works' rally cars and the cars used for press and publicity photographs. A nice piece of extra history with documentary back-up."

Good luck with the re-building...
If you find out anything else about this car please drop me an email and i'll update the cars entry !

justin.smith@rs200.org

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