Ford Focus RS is the new RS200 for Essex Police - 30 years on

Ford Focus RS is the new RS200 for Essex Police

The Ford Focus RS is on test with Essex Police, and Ford are taking the chance to compare it to another Police Ford from 1986 – the RS200.

Police forces, particularly those with chunks of quick roads on their patch, have always been susceptible to a quick car or two to catch miscreants.

And if the fast police car can be an easy to source and maintain reliable mainstream car, so much the better.

That’s what a number of UK forces are currently having a play with the new Ford Focus RS.

Not only is the Focus RS pretty much bullet proof – even when you’re running it 24/7 – it also offers the same practicality of a decent boot and five doors as more prosaic Focus models. And then there’s the performance.

With 4WD and a 0-62mph of just 4.7 seconds, there isn’t much able to escape the clutches of plod in a Focus RS for long, making the RS a potential no-brainer for forces.

But this isn’t the first time Ford has delivered an RS for plod to play with, and it turns out to be exactly 30 years since the RS200 was out playing with Essex plod.

So Ford has re-issued a photo (below) of the Essex Police’s RS200 pulling over a Sierra RS Cosworth on the then newly opened A12 Chelmsford bypass, with the photo of the new Focus RS pulling over an RS200 in the new photo (above) taken on the very same spot on the A12.

Amazingly, although the performance of the Focus RS is extraordinary, the RS200 will give it a run for its money, taking only 4.0 seconds to get to 62mph, despite only 250bhp at its disposal.

But the Focus RS at just over £30k (and no doubt a chunk less to police buyers) is the bargain of the year in comparison to the RS200, which in today’s money would cost around £150k, we reckon.