The design for the Ford Escort RS Cosworth - 1989

From these first sketches produced by Steve Harper, for Ford's Motorsport Division in May 1989, the mock-up aerodynamic research vehicle was created and the designs tested, utilising Ford's own Koln wind tunnel.
The tests soon proved that the design was well capable of meeting the goals for 40kg downforce for both front and rear of the vehicle.
From this, Project ‘Feral’ (the domestic cat gone wild), as it was known as at MGA Developments, where all of the design work was carried out, was further refined and a clay model was produced.
This design was regularly reviewed with input from Ford Design management, AVO engineers and the production engineers of Karmann.
In December 1989, just as the first clay model was approved, Ford management decided to use it to produce a preview showcar for the Escort launch event. The model, produced by ‘Bondo King’ Paul Hide and his team was created in less than 3 weeks over the Christmas holiday, was later seen in all of the early publicity shots.
The one year project later included Steve supervision of the creation of all the cad A- class surfaces and the master tooling models.

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