Escort Mk1 RS2000 Introduction
The Escort RS2000 was the last car to be introduced to the AVO production range,
introduced in the June of 1973. The car fitted nicely into the AVO range with
its performance almost comparable to the complex RS1600, but with the
reliability and ease of maintenance as the Mexico.
The original name for the car was to be the "Puma", but it was decided to keep
with the RS tradition and so it was re-named the RS2000.
The car used the same type 49-body shell as the Mexico and RS1600. Fortunately,
there was a new engine in use at ford, the 2-litre overhead cam pinto design,
which Ford then decided to use instead. Fords then had the major problem to
persuade the new bulky pinto engine to fit into the engine bay, which was
something it had never been meant to do. The only way of achieving this was by
discarding the engine driver cooling fan and replacing it with a
thermostatically controlled Kenlowe fan.
It was claimed that the first 2000 cars were built between the June and
September of 1973, and were reserved for the German market, which is why
British buyers could not get hold of the cars until the October of that year.
Although group 1 homologation was achieved (5000 units built) it is now
accepted that around 3500 RS2000 cars actually left the production line at
Aveley. It has been claimed however, that over 1000 cars were produced on
the Ford production line at Saalouis in Germany, although no solid evidence of
this is to hand.
The AVO factory was closed in December 1974 to make way for the development
and manufacture of the MK2 escort.
