Checked out a Ford Book I have on the history of the Escort. It does mention that Rs2000 Flat Fronts were built in Australia as well as four door version and I have seen the four door version when I was there. It also mentioned that there was a number of different options again in South Africia. A number of Rs2000 were also rallied using the flat front instead of the nose cone so it might be possible that there is actually flat front original RS2000 out there.
I do know that it was a cheaper and still is to fix the front of a RS and put her flat front so this would explain a great deal of them years ago.
Found one for sale with both struts stamped and also built in UK. But full RS spec
Errol
all proper RSs were Saarlouis build, sounds like someone's done up a STD shell, unless the gear stick hole is in the right place, then it "could" be genuine, BTW VIN should only be stamped on O/S (R/H/S)
No genuine flat front RS2000's came from the assembly line. Australian 2.0 flat fronts are normal Escorts with I believe GT or Sportpack (sure one of our Australian viewers will confirm).
If its the book below you speak of it does indeed state flat front RS2000's were built, note however the GL badge on the boot, the author also ammended his mistake in later articles.
I'm sure we've covered this at least twice on here - search under "Homologation"?
The flat front RS2 is a mythical production car and an homologation "fiddle" for International competition under the evolution regs. The kits assembled in Aus are described as "Escort 2litre" in the FIA papers but qualify as 500-off evolution of the 5000-off homologation of the std "droopsnoot" RS2 (which itself has an "evolution" homologated for nose cone with and without slots in the grillle).
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