All the Fords you never knew existed

Former Ford product designer Steve Saxty takes us along on a long voyage in Ford of Europe’s company archives. In two volumes, he looks at all the Fords we never got.

Both ‘Secret Fords’ Volume 1 and Volume 2 are of course mostly oriented towards production prototypes and design concepts that never left the design studio, but there are some interesting chapters on Ford Motorsport as well.

Design process

There is, of course, a large chapter on the forgotten Escort RS1700T Group B car Ford intended to rally in 1983. In Issue 4, Steve Saxty tells this story in detail. But in Volume 1 he also details the design process of the RS200, and relates some interesting stories on Fiestas and early Escorts as well. Don’t expect much rallying history, the book purely describes the conception of these cars and how they came about… or were left by the side of the road eventually. In Volume 2, Saxy talks about the Escort RS Cosworth and the Focus RS.

Crazy Fiesta

You would expect these to be books that only relate to Ford fans, but this is not entirely the case. What Saxty manages to do, is to lay bare the whole decision-making process within a mammoth company such as Ford. As such, he gives you insights that were never in the public domain before. The concept cars he shows at times seem like lucky escapes for us, the end-user. But at other times, there are some real gems in there where you can’t help thinking ‘that would have been something’. A rear-wheel drive, BDA-engined Ford Fiesta anyone?

Bundle

There is the research, the people Saxty talked to, there is the incredible amount of archive pictures. The two volumes together represent over 600 pages of unseen Fords, dating from the sixties until around 2002. Both books, offered with a slipcase each and two extra books (one on RS Fords only and a scrapbook with extra pictures of Volume 2) come signed and numbered by the author. Saxty, who has published these works himself, sells them in his webshop. The bundle price is £ 154.90 and comes with free shipping in the UK. Readers of Tazio Magazine will find a discount code for the books in issue 4, with the RS1700T-story.

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