Original owners

[Freddel2003]

Hello all
I have a question to any original owners of the Focus RS mk1

Once you had ordered your car did you receive any gifts from Ford while you was waiting for delivery ?

[Curtis]

I believe they got a silver key ring

[Hax]

3 updates brochures dated 12/2000, 03/2001 & 07/2002.

I used to work at the Ford dealership at the time and ended up with the press pack, RS key ring and a few other bits.

[Freddel2003]

Interesting. I knew about the Owners key ring and the brouchers but not the rest . Thanks Hax

I have heard rumars in the past about an RS pen which would sit next to the hand brake in the car . A very knowledgeable friend in this club mentioned another item recently which is not in your picture. He gave me this tit-bit of information but hasn't elaborated on it. He could be winding me up but it was worth a question to the club.

[Hax]

Interesting. I knew about the Owners key ring and the brouchers but not the rest . Thanks Hax

I have heard rumars in the past about an RS pen which would sit next to the hand brake in the car . I very knowledgeable friend in this club mentioned another item recently which is not in your picture. He gave me this tit-bit of information but hasn't elaborated on it. He could be winding me up but it was worth a question to the club.

Think I have a pen as well as the press tin “tidied away” somewhere....
Mats and leather owners wallet with guide etc also tucked away.

[Clayton]

Fred, The tit-bit information I told you recently is not a wind up. We only spoke on Saturday about it, I said I would get an image after telling you what it was but unfortunately I cannot find one.

Sorry you have not heard back yet Fred and it would not have been forgotten about.



Here's what I can share:

The gifts given to owners were only for the early bird customers who placed their orders for the Focus RS, paid deposits to dealers requesting to be added to the allocation list. Many owners ordered their cars long before the Mk1 Focus RS were in production and waited over a year, I can think of an owner while I write this who waited near on a year and half until he took delivery.


It's great to know what original owners actually got as I would imagine this varied from customer to customer depending on how long they waited for their Focus RS?


I can say that there were no pens supplied with every car as many people have thought. Have only seen an image of one RS pen in 15 years. Would be interested to see a picture of your pen Hax.

The key ring was a gift from Ford Motor Company to the customers on the long waiting list, this was stated in a letter from FMC.

There were a collection of Focus RS WRC postcards with the final postcard showing as the Mk1 Focus RS road version. These were sent out individually to be completed with the full set.

A Colin McRae picture with the brown mount.

Now this is the biggest gift FMC actually sent which I explained to Fred and he is eager to know but is very rare. I have only known of two early birds from ordering their Focus RS to receive one. This is a 1/18 Ford Focus WRC Colin McRae, shipped out to customers from FMC. I purchased one of these months ago and as bad as it sounds I hav'nt collected it but I know it's in safe hands. As said I cannot find a picture but I will make a point of collecting it and will post a picture up here for all to see.



I'm going to do some more paperwork digging to see if there are any other letters I can find confirming gifts so may edit this post.

[Marathonman72]

Nice bit of information there Clayton, thanks for sharing with us!!

[Freddel2003]

It's official then.There is one golden egg out there ( well a scale model) another item to keep a look for !

Thanks Clayton for the write up and explaining it in full. This tit-bit was too good to keep to myself .

[Hax]

I can say that there were no pens supplied with every car as many people have thought. Have only seen an image of one RS pen in 15 years. Would be interested to see a picture of your pen Hax.

The key ring was a gift from Ford Motor Company to the customers on the long waiting list, this was stated in a letter from FMC.
.

Looked out the remaining stash. RS lanyard and key ring - no pen.....
I was also given the tiny Ford pin badge and a screen cleaning cloth.

[neal]

Was the 1/18 model made by hot wheels? I got a model car of someone who ordered there focus and he told me it was given to him from the dealership as a sweetener for the long wait?

[Freddel2003]

Getting interesting !

[NickB]

Those of us on the waiting list got a nice letter saying sorry for the delay as well as
1. That overpriced keyring everyone talks about
2.Colin McCre book
That was from ford direct not the Dealer with your order.
I got 2 press packs from my suppying dealer in UK as I was tucked away in Northern Germany playing soliders
If you had a good dealer then maybe he looked after you more with freebies.

also forgot... those with pre orders had a meet and greet at Gaydon with a preview of the car and a Q&A with ford bigwigs asking why our car was a lower spec than the new ST170..(black CL door handles!!)..No XENONS...no extra gauges..etc etc
it was around Mid July 2002 and we had a photo together with the car....drove all the way from Germany to be there
This was arranged not by the RSOC but by my Dealer who had around 70+ orders The Mad Welshman aka Stu Griffiths from Dag Motors Enfield

[Marathonman72]

Some nice information there, thanks for sharing with us!

[Clayton]

Here is a summary taken from letters (condensed) written to customers who secured an order for a Mk1 Focus RS before they completed development, started production and were unveiled…….

When the Mk1 Focus RS was first heard about becoming available there were many people visiting the dealerships in order to secure a car. There had been so much press, magazine articles many RS enthusiasts were desperate to own one, a Limited production RS of only 2147 in the UK and they were soon allocated to people who had committed to buy one. Now the early orders were allocated to owners back in 2001 so well ahead of the planned production start date.

As these customers had placed their order and left deposits with their Ford Dealer they were classed as what was known as “on our official waiting list for one of the limited number of these vehicles”.



Ford Motor Company kept customers informed of any of any progress by letter as the following:


September 2001.

Notified that FMC were still in testing and development stages.

October 2001.

It was announced to the customers that the Focus RS was in its final stages of development, fine-tuning the handling, honing the engine's power delivery and making sure the Focus RS meets all the stringent criteria but still working on the test track, development labs and at the Saarlouis plant in Germany.
As time went on and into 2002 waiting on production many customers were getting inpatient with the wait, some were known to cancel their orders but these were soon reallocated to new customers.

May 2002.

Announced again by letter that after extensive prototype testing FMC were at the stage of “production readiness evaluation phase”. This meant that a handful of vehicles were built to finished specifications for final appraisal ready for launch. At this time of update a gift was sent out as a gesture of Fords appreciation.

July 2002.

Announcement made of production to commence at the Saarlouis plant in Germany starting in the middle of September. At this stage it was requested that customers re-confirm their order by completing an attached form which included an enclosed envelope. It was requested to be sent back before the 31^st July 2002. It was not a legal contract but made it clear that if the form was not received that FMC would assume that the customer decided not to proceed. It was also said that during August 2002 that the first production units would be allocated to the customers on the waiting list.

September 2002.

Announcement made again of the production to start mid-September 2002 and an expected build date of customer they were writing to. At this point the customer received what was known as “Exclusive Focus RS key ring” and as a gift for their new car. It was also stated that the Focus RS will have a unique 4-digit identification number on the centre console. Confirmation that the on-the-road price of the Focus RS to be £19,995.

November 2002.

Customers were informed that unfortunately components for the unique front assembly kit were only available in limited numbers from the suppliers, therefore it meant that there could be a five week delay for many of the vehicles. At this point a Test Drive Opportunity was offered to these customers reading…..


Test Drive Opportunity

Many people have expressed a wish to drive the Focus RS before taking delivery of their car. Accordingly, we are offering you an exclusive opportunity to attend a 60 minute vehicle familiarisation and test drive session at our Gaydon Test Facility in Warwick.

In order to provide test vehicles, we will be using our engineering and development vehicles. To meet the safety requirements of our test track you must have held a full U.K driving license for 5 years and have no more than six penalty points.

The test drive events will run over two weekends as follows:

29^th, 30^th & 1^st December
6^th, 7^th & 8^th December

[Marathonman72]

Thanks for sharing this information with us Clayton, very interesting reading!! 🤓

[Bay]

Really interesting reading this, some great history here. Right up my street . Thanks Clayton.

[Hax]

Clayton,
I think much of the communications were very much dependent on the dealership. At the time the Ford dealership network was set-up with Main Dealers and Local Dealers.
Local Dealers had no direct way of ordering cars other than requesting cars from the Main Dealer who in turn ordered from Ford. I'm aware of many occasions where Main Dealers were keeping the better spec cars to themselves and the Local Dealers getting what's left - XR, Ghia and Scorpio cars creamed off vs L and Pop's........
My order was with the Local Dealer I worked at. I believe that the Main Dealer sat on orders as much of the communications from Ford direct was never received and only due to Andy Barrett being the Scottish Regional manager previously we were able to get updates and progress.
The Mad Welshman was certainly very prevalent on forums at that time and kept us updated.

[Clayton]

Have finally arranged to pick up my collection bits tomorrow which will include the 1:18 model supplied from FMC, will share the pictures here.

[NickB]

The pen people are on about was supplied via a support group called RSSI for all of us with pre orders back in 2001-02...will see if I still have mine.
The RSOC (bless them) never really got involved like they did with the mk2 and mk3 ..I suppose you could blame the tinterweb as it was still early days in website and support
There was a RS chatroom as well which gave us owners to be some where to catch the news first hand from Stu (The mad Welshman) as he had all the info back then.