The X Factor

CLASSIC MOTOR SHOW 2023 PREVIEW
END OF THE FORD FIESTA
THE
Rally-inspired at a
price enthusiasts
could afford – in
period at least…
XR2
DRIVEN
FACTOR
The XR badge has come to symbolise fast
Fords with the perfect blend of potency and
attainability. We drive the first incarnation
T
here was a certain purity about the
brief period in the early 1980s before
the Group B phenomenon took hold
proper, turning the special stages
into a frenzy of blistered arches, spiralling
power outputs and laughable crowd control.
While Group B served up a batch of
legendary road-going homologation specials,
they were invariably unobtainable and
unlivewithable. Peaky, underdeveloped and
thrown together, they were built solely to
tick off a requirement on the homologation
application. The fact that customers
were needed to buy them was a necessary
inconvenience.
Before this brilliant but ever-so-slightlytoxic
spectacle, there was a group of rallyinspired
machines that earned their followings
on their own road-going merits. They brought
special-stage spirit to the road yet were
available and affordable. And today we’re drive
one of the best.
What it lacks in straightline
speed, it more than
makes up for in terms of
agility in the twisty bits.
Kent Crossflow is
practically bombproof
but does run out of
puff above 6000rpm.
NEW KID ON
THE BLOCK
The Renault 5 was pensionable by the time the XR2
arrived as the long-awaited firecracker of the Fiesta
range in December 1981, having been launched
almost a decade earlier. But there was nothing
retiring or indeed shy about the Gordini variant; ‘It
sorts out the men from the boy racers,’ one advert
claimed. It’s not hard to deduce which marque it
was taking aim at…
The front-engined Five was a regular podium
finisher in the Monte Carlo Rally in Alpine Group 2
form. It placed first and third in its group in the 1979
edition but there was also now a new future-ASBOrecipient
in town – the Ford Fiesta 1600S. It placed
second and fourth; not bad for a manufacturer
entirely new to deploying front-wheel-drive in
motor sport.
These Boreham-built cars, piloted by Roger
Clark and Ari Vatenen, wore new round headlights
and proud spotlights, and employed an enlivened
version of the elderly Kent crossflow based on the
lump homologated by the US-spec 1.6-litre Fiesta.
The commendable Monte shift that the two
cars put in was the stimulus for the 1981 XR2’s
rally thematics; at the time, the World Rally
Championship had as big a following as Formula
One. The project was executed by Ford’s new
Dunton-based Special Vehicle Engineering (SVE)
department (the phoenix of the shuttered
Advanced Vehicle Operations division), which had
previously created the Capri 2.8 Injection as its
maiden offering.
A peek under the bonnet reveals that SVE stuck
with a carburettor for the XR2 and employed a
breathed-on Kent crossflow much like the Monte
works machines. This also served to satisfy Ford’s
product planners who wanted it to leave some
headroom for the Escort XR3, with its newer CVH
engine. Once Ford had belatedly signed off a
simmering Fiesta in late 1980 (both the Volkswagen
Golf GTI and the naturally-aspirated Gordini arrived
here in 1979), it took SVE only a year to chaperone
the XR2 from boardroom to showroom, with the
lukewarm 1.3 Supersport filling the range’s sporting
void until it arrived.
In this time SVE borrowed what it needed from
the US-spec Kent, mounted it transversely and
affixed a twin-choke Weber and a fancy exhaust
manifold. Dunton’s crack team re-engineered
the entire suspension setup then wrapped it all
‘It took Special Vehicle
Engineering only a year to
chaperone the XR2 from
boardroom to showroom’
30 | CLASSIC CAR WEEKLY Wednesday 18 October 2023

THIS WEEK p32-38 OUT & ABOUT p40-41 LIVING WITH CLASSICS p44-45 BUYING & SELLING p48-56 CLASSIFIEDS p60-79
WHAT TO PAY
■ PROJECT £5000-7500 ■ USABLE £11,000-15,000
■ GOOD £15,000-18,000 ■ CONCOURS £21,000+
FIESTA XR2 BUYING TIPS
■ Rust is the Fiesta’s nemesis. There’s a hidden
hotspot at the rear of the sill where multiple
panels meet; it might look like just the outer
sill but take it off and you might find carnage.
There’s a chassis part behind it that can rust,
too. Also check pillars and door posts, because
dirt builds up and they rot out.
■ If you’re buying an XR2 you need to be
sure that it’s a genuine one and not a re-shell.
There are some differences but these can be
replicated or transferred, so it’s crucial that
any potential buyer contacts the clubs, checks
the register and also decodes the colour plate,
which tells you what spec the car was when it
left the factory.
■ A lot of owners work on their cars
themselves. There isn’t a dedicated XR2
specialist as such, but since the crossflow Kent
engine is similar to the Escort MkII’s (albeit
with the Fiesta’s having mounting points in the
block that Escorts don’t have), owners usually
use crossflow engine specialists.
■ Bodge repairs are the biggest things to watch
for on MkIs, and on XR2s the kit can hide this
to some extent. Mint or new genuine parts are
getting more difficult to find and pricey when
they come up. The dashboards are hardest
to find in good condition (they crack), and
underbonnet felt deteriorates.
ENGINE ENGINE 1598cc/4-cyl/OHV POWER 84bhp@5500rpm
TORQUE 91lb ft@2800rpm MAXIMUM SPEED 106mph 0-60MPH 9.7sec
FUEL CONSUMPTION 31-38mpg TRANSMISSION FWD, four-speed manual
THE CCW VIEW
The XR2 picked up a dedicated following
in its day, and relative interest in this Fiesta
as a classic is just as strong almost four
decades later, having played a key role in
democratising hot-hatch performance.
Sadly, attrition rates have taken their toll;
XR2s were always prime candidates for
crash-and-burn TWOCers. As a result, mint
examples are rare and expensive, with the
XR2 wearing a halo of nostalgia for Fiesta
MkI fanciers in particular.
But with today’s leaden hatches armsracing
themselves into irrelevance via
ever-more unusable horsepower figures, the
simplistic charms of sub-tonne gems like
this only become more apparent.
up in one buyer-baiting package by applying the
Supersport’s styling addenda, the Capri 2.8i’s
‘pepperpot’ wheels and a distinctive decal set
to the Tom Tjaarda-penned body. It was finished
off with round Lucas headlights and Hella driving
spotlights, previewed by the rally cars.
KEEPING THINGS
SIMPLE
However it feels like the ideas ran dry inside after
all that aforementioned innovation. The Ghia-based
cabin is better ergonomically resolved and more
spacious than the Renault’s but there’s a dearth
of 1980s excess. A mundane pinstripe pattern
decorates the grey Recaro seats – supportive as
they are – and notable colour flourishes are limited
to a red encirclement of the binnacle. The 7000rpm
tachometer doesn’t even have a redline.
Was this just SVE being smug about the knownquantity
Kent Crossflow being so bulletproof that it
didn’t need one? Sadly not; it’s soon apparent that
in reality it’s because the driver would already have
changed up after realising that its gusto expired
at 6500rpm. It’s perfectly willing to rev – if a little
harsh while doing so – until then and remarkably
docile at city speeds. The clutch is a little snatchy,
but peak torque is available at just 2800rpm.
High-speed cruises aren’t quite so successful,
with 70mph requiring a boomy 3800rpm in the top
ratio of the available four, and a ride that has more
bumps and grinds than a certain R&B singer. Shame
it’s not as muted.
But the reality was that if you’d just spent a
starstruck afternoon watching terrestrial TV rally
coverage, you wouldn’t be taking your bestickered,
£5500 XR2 out and making for the M25 or
Safeways; you’d be scouting B-roads in search of
whale-tailed 911s. SVE knew it and sales of almost
20,000 in two years proved it.
The base Fiesta’s inherent low weight and
Dunton’s wishbone wizardry endow the XR2 with
supreme tautness and flabbergasting grip, which in
turn inspire confidence through predictability and
composure, bar the odd skip over a mid-corner
rut. What’s more, the gear change is slick and the
footwell spacious enough to attempt Vatanen’s
vernacular dance. By the time the XR2 arrived he’d
just won the World Rally Championship, albeit in
a privately run example of the outgoing Escort
RS1800 MkII.
It’s a crying shame that the XR2’s legacy has
been overwritten by what came next to an extent.
Although its potent siblings may have stolen the
limelight this junior rallyist offered more accessible,
usable thrills and could genuinely be used on a
daily basis – unlike many of the homologated
headline-hoggers that followed. In that respect
alone this Group 2 giggle-inducer is quite simply
second to none.
WORDS Joe Breeze PHOTOGRAPHY Rob Cooper
Plenty of room
for all those
shades of grey.
Wednesday 18 October 2023 CLASSIC CAR WEEKLY | 31