BEST BUYS

FAST FORDS FROM THE CORTINA TO THE ESCORT AND THE FIESTA, Ford is responsible for some of the most popular cars in British history. But alongside these everyday machines it has also produced a stream of desirable driver's cars.

- SAM JENKINS

Many would argue the first Ford performance car outside of the USA was 1963's Lotus Cortina. Some stellar non-Lotus-fettled models followed, not least rally-proven Escort derivatives, and the '80s and '90s brought some classic collabs with Cosworth.

These days the phrase 'fast Ford' is synonymous with hot hatches, and a stream of ST and RS-badged hatchbacks have graced evo's pages in recent years. But it's worth acknowledging Ford has real supercar pedigree too, with the Ferrari-beating GT40 supercar of the '60s and its two reimagined GT successors.

We could fill every page in this issue with Ford's finest, then, but here we've singled out four top used picks that represent the brand's modern-era performance offerings at their very best.

FORD FOCUS RS500

The ultimate incarnation of a hyperhatch trailblazer

ALL THREE GENERATIONS OF THE FOCUS RS HAVE THEIR own unique character, but the Mk2 was arguably the most impressive of them all. When launched in 2009 it was one of the very first hyperhatches, with a power figure to rival those of some much more costly sports cars and an exterior design that wore its fast Ford credentials on its wing tips.

The standard Mk2 RS took the then Focus ST's 2.5-litre fivecylinder and added entirely new pistons, conrods and camshafts, an uprated BorgWarner K16 turbocharger, a larger intercooler, a less restrictive air intake and an ECU remap to bring peak outputs to 300bhp and 324lb ft of torque. But Ford hadn't finished yet...

In mid-2010 the Focus RS500 was launched as a limited-run special with a satin black exterior (courtesy of a 3M wrap) and black wheels. But the big news was under the bonnet, where further upgrades to the intercooler, air filter, fuel pump, downpipe and ECU saw outputs rise to 345bhp and 339lb ft - figures that wouldn't look out of place on a new hot hatch today.