One for the stats gurus

The overall drivers top10 ranking at this history making moment is:
1st - Carlos Sainz E - 26wins, 1232points
2nd - Colin McRae GB - 25wins, 627p
3rd - Tommi Mäkinen FIN - 24wins, 544p
4th - Juha Kankkunen FIN - 23wins, 1120p
5th - Didier Auriol F - 20wins, 747p
6th - Marcus Grönholm FIN - 20wins, 412p
7th - Sébastien Loeb F - 20wins, 356p
8th - Markku Alen FIN - 19wins, 840p
9th - Hannu Mikkola FIN - 18wins, 633p
10th - Massimo Biasion I - 17wins, 726p

For the makes Ford looks back at the most amazing history. Or more like they are the most loyal team to ever compete in the WRC. We find them officially involved in rallying since many, many decades and Peugeot is the only make that is recorded as an official rally team before them. Interestingly Peugeot started motorsport when company founder Armand Peugeot himself started the first motorsport event ever, the 1894 Rallye Paris-Rouen. Ford does not need to hide behind that as Henry Ford himself has a 1904 land speed record to his name!

Ford's first big rally win as an official team is listed as the Rallye Monte Carlo 1936, when a Ford Anglia won. Following years were trying a bit here and there with cars as diverse as the Zodiac, the (similar but smaller) Zephyr (winner Monte Carlo 1953), the Falcon, an American type 4700cc V8 car, beaten narrowly by a nimble Mini(!) into 2nd on the 1964 Monte and more of the small Anglia, which was the predecessor model to the Escort.

In the 1960s things became more serious and regular. It is surprising how often some magazines and reporters forget about the Cortina when talking Ford in rallying. Maybe the Cortina was not as famous as the Escort, but it was the start of Boreham and a regular works team. The Cortina was also the car that put Roger Clark on the international map. It also had wins with Swedes Bengt Söderström and Ove Andersson. The Cortina existed in 4 versions: Mk1 and Mk2 and both shapes available as Cortina GT (1500cc) and Lotus Cortina (1600cc twin cam). And pardon me, historians just can't have forgotten the legendary Ford Lotus Cortina!

Then the Cortina handed over the chapter to the new Escort model. It must be said that the Lotus Cortina was far more successful in its Mk1 shape. The Mk2 was clearly bigger and heavier and the Escort Mk1 was closer in size and weight to the original Cortina.

Interestingly at the same time Ford was also the first manufacturer to create a specialist rally car. If you thought the first purpose built rally car was the Lancia Stratos, I have to disappoint you: These laurels go to the Ford GT70! This was also a mid-engined specialist car, but expensive to build, had no real marketing value as it didn't resemble a Ford road car and it wasn't much more promising than the Escort in performance - the GT70 was available with a 2000cc engine of similar power to the Escort or a 2600cc V6, that was more powerful but also much heavier. The project was stopped in 1972, just as the Stratos arrived. Ford also played with a Capri RS2600, which had a similar fate. It wasn't bad, in group1 (groupN) trim the Capri RS2600 put the name Walter Röhrl onto the map, but the engine was just too heavy for a good power to weight ratio and a good handling.

When the WRC started in 1973, the new championship had a problem. It was the peak time for marathon rallies, events that were proper adventures with variety of conditions and huge marketing potential. This is why Ford, just like Peugeot, Citroen and BMC (MG Rover) stayed in single adventure events rather than a full WRC program. In 1968 Ford gave a farewell to the Lotus Cortina on the London-Sydney Rally, when Roger Clark led all the way until Australia, where a small rear axle problem moved him to the bottom of the top10. In 1969 Robin Hillyar and Jock Aird put an end to many years of Peugeot 404s dominating the legendary East African Safari, when they won in a rare and unlikely Ford 20M RS (the much bigger German version of the Cortina (also called Taunus)).

Ironically the 2 biggest successes of the Escort Mk1 were before the WRC even started: The 1970 World Cup Rally and the 1972 East African Safari, both with Hannu Mikkola as the driver. The 1972 Safari was the first time ever this event was won by a European driver. But the magic example how marketing worked (and still could work) was the 1970 World Cup Rally that went from London to Mexico. After a dominant victory Ford launched an 1850cc road car to celebrate just this success and sold it as the "Ford Escort Mexico". The car became a massive success and even when still in Mk1 form Ford launched a sporty Escort RS2000, nobody would touch it and everybody rather wanted the Mexico - the name was a legend, identified glory!

Indeed in WRC terms the Escort Mk1 only won 4 events: Finland and GB 1973, GB 1974 with Timo Mäkinen, Finland 1974 with Hannu Mikkola. Over the years the Mk1 saw permanent development. Early versions had the 1600cc twin cam Lotus engine from the Cortina. But there were also experiments with a (again too heavy) 2300cc V6, in London-Mexico we had a 1850cc version, followed later by Cosworth designed 2000cc and 2000cc 16v BDA units. During its career the power output of the Escort Mk1 raised from 140BHP to 240BHP.

This meant when the Escort Mk2 came, Ford had a potent and ready package. The car got more and more reliable, power went up to 265BHP, which wasn't that much at all more than the latest Mk1's had! The car was simple, powerful, indestructable. It is the Escort Mk2 (officially called Escort RS1800) that became one of the biggest legends of the sport. The Mk2 won no less than 17 WRC events, even though in most of those years they were not even regularly competing at WRC level! The Escort Mk2 is also the only car that gave Ford WRChampionship titles: the makes in 1979 and the drivers the same year for Björn Waldegaard - again a Swede, so it seems nice victory #50 comes in Sweden. After that success we seemed to have a situation comparable to now. Ford withdrew as an official works team, the equipment was sold to Rothmans and the private David Sutton team, who in 1981 won the drivers title for Ari Vatanen, the only private WRChamp to date!

The birth of group B was confusing. Ford's weapon was meant to be the Mk3 Escort RS1700T, an exciting car with RWD and turbo engine. But the dawn of specialist 4x4 vehicles, lead by the Audi Quattro spoiled the project, a fate the Escort RS1700T shared with Renault R5 Turbo and Talbot Horizon Lotus Turbo. This fate means 1982-1985 were the only years in WRC history that saw no Ford involvement at all. Nevertheless Ford was presented in the legendary group B era. Following the delays for the ill born Escort RS1700T came the group B supercar Ford RS200 - again with an all Swedish team with Stig Blomqvist and Kalle Grundel. Judging by stage times, the Ford RS200 could well have been the most competitive group B car there was. However named delays and the sudden fall of group B meant we never had a chance to see this car fully develop.

The move to group A also came a bit hasted and Ford had only the RWD Sierra Cosworth available. Nevertheless the Sierra Cosworth won 1 WRC event and got the careers of legends like Carlos Sainz and Didier Auriol on track. When Ford eventually had a 4x4 turbo base car for group A, it was however in the shape of the long, heavy, understeering Sapphire Cosworth. Still, Francois Delecour very nearly won the 1991 Monte Carlo with this car on what was Francois' WRC debut as a works driver!

The Escort Cosworth from 1993 got Ford more back on track. Maybe development and results were slowed by some kind of inconsistancy in driver contracts and switching the running of the project from Boreham to R.A.S. in Belgium, back to Boreham and eventually M-Sport. Still, the Escort Cosworth won 8 WRC events, plus 2 for the very similar Escort WRC version.

In 1999 the focus switched from Escort to Focus. The car won it's only 3rd event, the tough Safari at that, and carried on to win a total of 16 WRC events, only 1 down on the legendary Escort Mk2. Now the Focus Mk2 is 3 events old and already gave Ford victories #49 & #50!

The overall makes top10 ranking after Sweden 2006 is:
1st - Lancia - 73wins
2nd - Ford - 50
3rd - Peugeot - 48
4th - Subaru - 44
5th - Toyota - 43
6th - Mitsubishi - 34
7th - Citroen - 26
8th - Audi - 24
9th - Fiat - 21
10th - Renault (with Alpine) - 12

In single models Fords are in good company. The Lancia Delta in early, strange group A days is unbeatable. But we note:
Ford Escort Mk2 - 17wins - that is identical to the Lancia Stratos,
Ford Focus Mk1 - 16wins - that is identical to the Peugeot 205 T16.
Other famous markers are 21 wins for the Audi Quattro in the long version (A1, A2) and currently 24 victories each for Citroen Xsara T4 and Peugeot 206 WRC - maybe a realistic target for the Ford Focus Mk2 after this promising start.