Ah - Great to see this debate - My dad's company car was a black 131 Sport in 1979 and he became a boy-racer overnight. In Ireland those days a 2litre engine was unusual because of taxation rules so anything on the road was easy meat. Big saloons like Volvos, Granadas, etc along with more overtly sporting cars like Capri, Fuego, Cortina S couldnt keep up. The only car that really blew us away was a Dolly Sprint which at 115mph in the 131, the Triumph overtook us like we were stopped!
This leaves us with the RS2000. We had one race, leaving a town speed limit the white Escort overtook us despite Dad's best efforts. He didnt give up though and above 80 the Escort was reeled in and slowly the Italian Stallion regained it's rightful place! ;D
The cars were really well matched conceptually and I regularly read the Car Giant Test when the two were compared. In the journalist's opinion the Fiat showed Ford how it was done although there were key areas where the RS was ahead such as accelaration and price.
Although for me, the 131 wins easily you cant ignore what the market said and I'm sure many more hot Escorts were bought that 131 Sports. Also one run in with the RS2000's successor (XR3) which was far more nimble and accelerative persuaded dad to hang up his racing boots and buy an Argenta - After all he was nearly 63.
This leaves us with the RS2000. We had one race, leaving a town speed limit the white Escort overtook us despite Dad's best efforts. He didnt give up though and above 80 the Escort was reeled in and slowly the Italian Stallion regained it's rightful place! ;D
The cars were really well matched conceptually and I regularly read the Car Giant Test when the two were compared. In the journalist's opinion the Fiat showed Ford how it was done although there were key areas where the RS was ahead such as accelaration and price.
Although for me, the 131 wins easily you cant ignore what the market said and I'm sure many more hot Escorts were bought that 131 Sports. Also one run in with the RS2000's successor (XR3) which was far more nimble and accelerative persuaded dad to hang up his racing boots and buy an Argenta - After all he was nearly 63.