10 more secret Fords you've probably never seen

The handbuilt Ford. This Aston Martin Tickford technician is building one of the 500 homologation special RS500 Sierras. This example was even rarer because it’s just one of the 52 Moonstone Blue made, and few original cars survive. So expect to pay around £100,000 for a good one today.

The RS200 prototype was different to the 199 cars that followed in many tiny ways. This first car needed more stability and cooling, so here it is being hurriedly dragged into the wind tunnel for remedial work and restyling by Ian Callum who later headed to Jaguar before setting up CALLUM, his own design/engineering agency.

Former Ford product designer Steve Saxty uncovers the untold design stories of never-seen secret Fords and production cars. Here are 10 super-rare Fords you've probably never heard of...

Within days of the much-loved coupe being launched in Winter ‘69, this four-wheel-drive Capri was competing in rallycross. Several road-going prototypes were made, but weight and complexity killed it off.

The aborted GT70 started out as a rally car – four cars were made but the handling was underwhelming, so the car was cancelled. A fifth non-running car was constructed, a stunning one-off by Ghia created in Italy by legendary designer Tom Tjaarda.

The RS2000 sets hearts a flutter even today. But there’s never been one like this – it’s the original clay model created back in ’74, complete with bulging arches plus, er, yellow spoilers and yellow wheels.

The Capri was sold as “The Car You Always Promised Yourself” – but not this one. It’s the RS2800 prototype from ’75 that combined all the best RS and Ghia bits into one unique car. Were it not for the Oil Crisis you could have bought the promise of this cancelled RS.

It looks like Bobby Ewing’s Mercedes SL from Dallas. But no, it’s a Sierra, rebodied by Ford’s Turin designers at Ghia. Intended to take on the (thankfully) long-forgotten Cadillac Allante, it would have been perfect for Texans on a budget.

Capri and RS – arguably the two most powerful Ford brand names, even today. This was the Capri’s last roll of the RS dice – a limited run of 150-or-so turbocharged cars. Fitted with unique interiors and wide-arch bodies by Ford’s then works team, Zakspeed.

The Escort RS1700T is a unicorn in the Ford RS scene. Just 11 were made, and this unique example is the final road-going spec car, owned today by M-Sport team boss Malcolm Wilson.

The Sierra Cosworth is the most iconic RS hero to drivers of a certain age. This never-seen sketch shows how it originally intended to use the bodyshell of the short-lived Sierra XR4i that was hated then, but loved today.