Ford Rally Through The Ages - Bridgend Ford

Ford has always been on the forefront of the automotive industry, pioneering and shaping the way for future generations to come. With such a strong and persistent presence throughout the industry, it's no surprise that Ford has also created some of the most iconic and desirable vehicles around - Rally cars.

View the selection of cars below and digest the history behind these remarkable vehicles.

BGMsport is owned and run by Ian Gwynne, who has been in the car industry for over 35 years and has a wealth of experience in many areas.

Ian grew up in a motorsport family and environment and has gained a huge amount of knowledge in rallying, racing and over the last 10 years has extended the service’s offering to provide expertise and knowledge in the restoration, recommissioning, enhancement, maintenance and preparation of rare and unique historic and classic rally, race and road cars.

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This car was a prototype RWD car designed by Ford Motor Company in The early 80'S to compete in Group B rallying. We believe that only 18 were built and of those only 5 exist today one being owned by Malcolm Wilson. When the car was finished we took it outside and took several photos of the finished car for our gallery.

Still at the top of her game and putting on a great demonstration for the crowds at the Goodwood race circuit and putting in the fastest times on all runs on both days, Ian Gwynne driving the RS200 did a great job of taking care of the car and doing just enough for her to shine again!!! In the main sprint Ian won by 6 seconds, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience again of driving this wonderful car.

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Just completed a road test in this very special car that only Colin McRae and Nicky Grist drove as a factory M-Sport car, 8th overall San Remo 2001, 4th overall Monte Carlo 2002 and crashed in Corsica while lying in 4th place overall. The car sat idle for some time after Corsica and then it was beautifully rebuilt by Paul Benn, Paul finished the car in 2008 and we purchased the car for Steve Rimmer. Since then the car has been on display at Steve’s Dirtfish Rally School and has recently been shipped back over here for a thorough check over and will be seen this year on the forest rally stage at Goodwood Festival of Speed. Ian has been lucky enough to drive the car on a number of occasions while it was in the US and Alister McRae also drove it last year when he visited Dirtfish ! Long time friend and great engineer Nick Clipson called by to run through some systems checks after our chief Ford Focus engineer ( for now ) Chris carried out all the work. The car ran perfectly. We are hoping to have Alister McRae with us again this year at Goodwood.

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Having now completed our 13th consecutive Festival of Speed, we would firstly like to thank Steve Rimmer for the use of some of his cars and Rick Smith and his team for running the stage so well as usual. It was a great pleasure to have Jimmy and Alister McRae driving some of the cars on the rally stage for the weekend, also thank you to Jess Watts for driving our Micra Kit car and Paul Howarth for driving the MK1 RS1600. Geoff Jones made an appearance on Sunday and had a couple of runs in the Legacy and Micra. It was an extremely hot and dry Goodwood this year which made it hard work at times but we all had great fun. Thanks to Paul, Chris and Jim for looking after the cars for the weekend, and finally to Sylviane for standing out in all the dust and putting together some photos of our cars and a few others out on the stages.

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The car was driven by Marcus Gronholm at Pikes Peak in 2009 and finished 2nd overall. Originally built by Olsbergs MSE and commissioned by Ford USA as a 5 door car as the USA didn’t have 3 door car on the market. It ran with 800 BHP though we have de-tuned it a little to make it a bit more user friendly and help with the life of the components. Steve Rimmer, owner of Dirtfish in the USA purchased the car as part of his competition car collection. Ian tested the car and gave it a good shakedown recently and seemed to really like it

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Great day today at the Speedmachine event at Silverstone. BGMsport and Dirtfish had on display a unique collection of rally and road cars side by side.

Featuring: Talbot Sunbeam Lotus ex Henri Toivonen RAC winning car along side the road car version. Vauxhall Chevette HSR ex Jimmy McRae Cork 20 winning car + road car version. Fiat 131 Abarth ex Markku Alen + road car version. Ford Escort Mk1 RS1600 ex Roger Clark + road car version. Also on display was Subaru Legacy GpA and Impreza GpA 555 cars.

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The FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) pits drivers and production-based cars against some of the toughest and most varied conditions on the planet. Established in 1973, the WRC is widely regarded as the most challenging motorsport championship in the world.

'Elfyn Evans became the first Welsh driver ever to win Wales Rally GB' - Elfyn Evans is a Welsh rally driver who displays an unusually impressive level of speed. Based in Dolgellau in Gwynedd, the 29 year old has already established a track record of success at every level he has tackled to date.

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