Ford Escort RS Mexico

As part of the new Mk II Escort range a RS Mexico became available in 1976. The RS Mexico continued the theme of the previous Mk I Mexico, that was to provide good performance in a body style similar to the more powerful RS versions. A tuned "Pinto" engine was used in favour of the more complex (and more costly) Cosworth units.

Standard equipment included sporty body stripes, spoilers, matt black trim and quarter bumpers. The RS Mexico was built exclusively in Germany and continued until 1978.

Further information submitted:

The mk2 RS Mexico became available in January 1976 along with the new RS2000 & continued to the end of August 1978, from then on the new RS2000 custom & base model became available. The mk2 Mexico shared the same heavy duty body shell as the RS2000, except it was flat fronted, it had the same type gearbox & rear axle with twin radius arms & 3.54 diff as the RS2000.  The inteior had black scheel RS roll top seats & matching beta trim back seats, RS 3 spoke steering wheel & RS dash.  The rest of the interior was black as was the escort popular, there was no centre console or rs clock pod and the carpet was standard pile.  The engine was a 1593 cc OHC GT version with the webber carb the same as the Capri 1.6S & Mk4 & 5 Cortina 1.6 Ghia, it shared the same exhaust manifold & exhaust system as RS2000 mk2.  The body had stripes similar to the sport model, the wheels were 5.5 steel deep dish style with an rs badge centre caps & black nuts.  1976 to September 1977 cars had FORD badged grill & boot lid, the rear panel was never black only the RS2000 & RS1800 shared a black panel.  The Mexico was built in Saarlouis, West Germany along with the RS2000. It was only sold to the UK market with approx 2500 cars sold.  It did not sell as well as the RS2000 so its quite a collectable car now, more so than the mk1 Mexico.