Car collector sells his stash of ten eighties Fast Fords for an eye-watering £325,895

A classic car collector has just made £325,895 selling ten 1980s Ford family models.

All of the bikes offered to the highest bidder in an online auction last week are rare and sought-after models from that era, stocking some of the best ‘Fast Fords’ produced by the blue oval marque four decades ago.

The top retail price of all was £65,500 for a 1987 Sierra RS Cosworth, while a few performance Escorts also fetched over £50,000 each.

The one-off sale will have piqued the interest of many a young racer of the 1980s generation.

The auction lots include some of the best bikes from the 10-year era, ranging from the most desirable Capri variant to sporty ‘XR’ versions of the Fiesta and Escort.

The ten Fords – and four other highly sought-after modern classics – were part of the Fast Fords & Friends Collection from Collecting Cars, the British company that sells exclusive motorcycles exclusively online.

The virtual hammer fell on Sunday night, earning its owner a total of £325,895 from Ford sales alone.

With the non-Ford cars included, the total was £410,895.

The incredible sales total comes as no surprise given the huge increase in value of once modest performance Fords in recent years.

Huge demand has seen some of the most pristine specimens change hands for over half a million pounds in the last 12 months.

The auction house says the owner behind the sale had spent years assembling his excellent collection, with a particular focus on the lightweight and analogue models that have recently become popular.

Collecting Cars added that it paid “particular attention to those cars with award-winning provenance on the competition circuit,” adding that “a number of these performance heroes come with an impressive amount of trophies.”

The biggest profit maker was a 1986 Sierra RS Cosworth – one of the souped-up versions of the humble 1980s Ford family car.

This particular example has recently been carefully restored.

It achieved the top mark of them all, reaching £65,000 – a relative bargain when you consider that a Sierra RS Cosworth RS500 sold for almost £6000,000 earlier this year.

Nearly all of the bikes in the single collection have incredibly low mileage for their age and are offered in remarkably original condition, with only a few aftermarket modifications.

Fitting this description is a pair of Escorts that – like the Sierra – made a lot of money on Sunday.

A 53,000 mile 1985 Ford Escort RS Turbo, widely regarded as one of the best in the UK with numerous trophies to its name, sold for a whopping £57,000.

That retail price is almost three times its original value some 38 years ago, when dealers had them in showrooms for £19,950.

Despite the high sales figure, the winning bid is a nod to the all-time record set last August for an RS Turbo Escort when a Series 1 model owned and driven by Princess Diana earned an astonishing £650,000 at the time. it was auctioned.

Another hugely desirable Escort up for grabs was a 54,000 mile 1983 RS1600i – a rare homologation special in original condition.

It ended the online auction with a winning bid of £53,750.

One of the other Fast Ford highlights in the collection was a 46,000-mile 1988 Capri 280 Brooklands, one of only 1,038 built and fresh from a recommissioning service.

Hagerty UK, specialists in classic car appraisals, estimate the top value of one of these cars at £41,500, but this example surpassed that by selling for £49,245.

The remaining Ford models to sell – in descending order of price – include a limited edition 1987 Capri 2.8i Special (£24,250), ultra-rare 1981 Fiesta Supersport (£19,300), red 1985 Escort XR3i (£18,500) , highly collectible 1982 Fiesta XR2 ($16,500) and 1983 Escort XR3i ($14,250). Finally, a beautifully preserved 1983 Fiesta 1.3 Ghia earned £7,600.

On offer alongside the Fords were a few other cars that fit the same ethos, including a 42,000-mile VW Corrado G60 (sold for £19,000) and a 1992 Peugeot 205 CTI 1.6 (sold for £17,500) with an astonishingly low 9,543 miles on the counter. the clock of new.

A pair of limited edition Caterhams round out the collection, ultimately sharing the same focus on lightweight performance and nimble handling as the Fords of the 1980s.

A 2017 Seven Sprint – with just 493 miles on it – was bought for £23,500, while a less used 2018 Supersprint 60th Anniversary with just 449 miles went for £25,000.