FORD HERITAGE VEHICLE COLLECTION--------------------

Friday 16th July

RS200 and GT40s spruced up for show
Four key vehicles in the Essex-based Ford Heritage Vehicle Collection – two GT40s, an RS200 and Transit Supervan 3 - have recently undergone a programme of mechanical and body refurbishment to keep them looking good and in peak operating condition.

The two GT40s are original cars that have been in the company's ownership since new. One has been used almost exclusively for track day demonstrations and has been driven by, among others, Sir John Whitmore and the late Graham Hill, while the other is the last of only seven MkIII road specification cars built.

The track car now sports the iconic Gulf Racing livery of blue and orange, a colour scheme associated with the GT40s great racing success at Le Mans. Last year this car was loaned to the development team working on the new 205mph Ford GT project, only a handful of which will be imported by Ford in this country. In its 40 years with the company this car has covered more track miles than any other GT40, including the car which won Le Mans in 1968 and 1969 – the first time the same actual car won the race twice.

Although originally painted silver metallic, the road car is now resplendent in a period shade of white with contrasting "Ford GT" sill stripes. The spokes of its wire wheels have also been painted white to contrast with the polished rims and central spinners.

This is a colour scheme once seen before on the car in the 1980s.

Mechanically both cars feature 4.7 litre (289 cu in)V8 engines, five-speed manual transmissions and can reach speeds in excess of 150mph.

The RS200 in the collection is chassis number 200 – identifying it as the final build vehicle of the RS200 programme. This car has just come out of the workshop after a major mechanical re-fit. It too has been in Ford's ownership from new and, like the Gulf Racing-coloured GT40, was chiefly used for track day demonstrations. It is a road specification car with a power output of 250bhp from its 1.8 litre Ford-Cosworth BDT engine and permanent four-wheel-drive. Customers could also specify their road cars with 300 or 350bhp engines, and fully-tuned rally cars had up to 450bhp on tap.

With a top speed of around 150mph, deep front spoiler, aerodynamic rear wing and distinctive Ford Motorsport paint scheme, the Ford Transit Supervan 3 was not designed to hide in the crowd. Built in 1984 on a Ford C100 race car chassis and powered now by a mid-mounted Ford-Cosworth Pro Sports 3000 (V6) engine producing around 260bhp, the Transit Supervan 3 has just been recommissioned after several years of inactivity. It will spearhead a number of activities next year when the company celebrates the 40 th anniversary of the launch of the Ford Transit range.

Transit Supervan 3 follows in the famous wheeltracks of Supervans 1 and 2. The original Supervan, fitted with a 400 horsepower version of the V8 GT 40 engine, made its debut at Brands Hatch on Easter Monday 1971. Supervan 2 had its first appearance in 1984 at the Donington Truck Grand Prix and was later that year clocked at Silverstone doing 174 mph. In 1994 when Supervan 2 had a major overhaul, it was decided to re-name it Supervan 3 because of the significant nature of the changes which had been made to it.
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