The Boreham-based team were again missing from the 1985 season; the Ford Escort RS 1700T programme had been cancelled in 1983, and a new car was required to compete with Group B rivals like the Audi Quattro S1 and Peugeot 205 T16.

Grundel achieved a podium finish on the RS200's debut in Sweden, a result that would not be bettered all season, the following round in Portugal saw an RS200 driven by Joaquim Santos leave the road, killing three spectators, Ford withdrew their entry for that rally.

Auriol's luck would run out on the San Remo rally in Italy, suffering an accident that would force him to retire, Sainz and Blomqvist would finish low down the order in 5th and 7th places respectively.

[10] The new car was still powered by a Cosworth developed turbocharged engine, but delays sourcing a suitable gearbox meant that it would not be used until the end of the 1990 World Rally Championship season.

[11] The team retained the Q8 sponsorship from the 1989 World Rally Championship season, the cars again being painted blue with cream coloured bumpers, but the driver line-up had almost completely changed, only Franco Cunico remained.

Airikkala was seeded in car number 1 for the final round in Great Britain, but he and Wilson would again retire, the only Ford finisher being Alessandro Fiorio who had replaced Cunico.

1991 was the inaugural year for the Catalunya rally and was only registered as a round of the drivers championship, two cars were entered, one for Delecour and the other for Jose Maria Bardolet, a pairing that would secure 3rd and 4th positions respectively.

Francois Delecour remained at the team, but he was now joined by double World Champion Miki Biasion, who Ford hoped would add the final ingredients for a championship push.

[19] Development of the Escort RS Cosworth continued during the 1994 season; a sequential gearbox and an antilag system being introduced, along with new larger 18 inch wheels for Tarmac rounds.

Commitments in the Formula 1 and BTCC championships meant that the rally budget at Boreham was significantly reduced, as a consequence Ford were not officially entered into the 1995 season as a manufacturer, the work instead being contracted out to RAS Sport of Belgium.

Ford entered the 1996 season as full manufacturer entry, again with the Escort RS Cosworth, but now with backing from Repsol and a new lead driver, in the form of Carlos Sainz.

Welsh driver Gwyndaf Evans, which his son Elfyn currently driving for the team, drove the second car in Rally Indonesia, it would be his only appearance before replaced by Bruno Thiry for the rest of the season.

1996 would prove to be the swan song year for both the Escort RS Cosworth and the preparation of works Ford cars at Boreham, resulting in the team finishing third in the manufacturers championship.

The second seat was initially filled by German driver Armin Schwarz, however, he was replaced after the sixth round in Corsica, following some disappointing results, and the fact that his sponsorship money had not arrived.

The team retained the services of four-time world champion Finn, Juha Kankkunen and Belgian Bruno Thiry, a championship mainstay and veteran pilot of previous Ford rallying models, including the Escort RS Cosworth.

McRae gave the Focus its first win two events later at the Safari Rally, in Kenya, finishing over 15 minutes ahead of the second placed Toyota Corolla WRC of Didier Auriol.

Although McRae then immediately followed up this success with a victory at the next round in Portugal, the Scot's title chances faded amid reliability problems with the new car and a series of costly shunts.

Leading the points standings outright upon entering his final home round, however, McRae led in the initial stages only to crash out of the event, allowing a consistently points-scoring Richard Burns to sneak past him for the title.

McRae began his own season with fourth place on the Rally Monte Carlo, but he suffered an injury to his hand when he crashed out on the Tour de Corse, which left him hampered and struggling to a single-point-scoring finish on the following tarmac round in Spain.

Injury worries for Sainz, meanwhile, came not from himself, but in the form of long-time co-driver Luis Moya, who was forced to end his unbroken year-on-year chain of appearances with his compatriot in order to recuperate, with Marc Marti stepping in for the double world champion's home rally.

In the absence of the departed McRae and Sainz, Ford opted to promote their younger supporting drivers, Estonian Markko Märtin and Belgian François Duval, to their top two seats.

After watching his opponent of the previous year, Sébastien Loeb, return to winning ways on the official return of the 2003–2005 manufacturers' championship-winning factory Citroën team on the season's curtain-raiser in Monte Carlo, Grönholm followed up his own third place by winning for the first time that season in Sweden in February, and led his opponent, now driving a newly homologated Citroën C4 WRC, in the drivers' standings over the championship's post-Rally Finland summer break (an event also incidentally won by Grönholm, for a record-beating seventh time, to further extend his points lead).

Unfortunately for the drivers' championship ambitions of both the Blue Oval concern and Grönholm, however, having announced his impending retirement from WRC competition at the end of the season, the elder Finn was to suffer an early exit on Rally Japan.

Combined with adversary Loeb winning, this meant Grönholm would surrender his championship lead, leaving him with an almost impossible points deficit to overhaul at the season-ending Wales Rally GB.

Ford, however, aided by supporting teammate Hirvonen's continued superiority on loose-surface events over his Citroën counterpart Daniel Sordo, sealed a successful defence of the Constructors' Championship.

Meanwhile, Hirvonen, for his part, in addition to ending the season in style by topping the timesheets after the three days' competition in Wales, had also earlier taken his second and third career world rally victories in Norway and Japan.

[26] Hirvonen was joined in the new-look M-Sport line-up by another fellow Finnish driver, Jari-Matti Latvala, who stepped into the vacant berth from his former spot at the satellite Stobart Ford team.

Unfortunately for Ford, however, neither Hirvonen nor Latvala were able to defeat Loeb, with the now dominant Frenchman proceeding to record his eighth and ninth victories of the season on the New Zealand, Spanish and Corsican rallies.

Ford's participation in the World Rally Championship prior to the start of the 2012 season was in doubt due to the continued global financial crisis, but an announcement at the eleventh hour was enough to secure their entry.

Dani Sordo also made an appearance for the Ford team at Rally Argentina, replacing Latvala who had been injured during training, he showed good pace, but retired on the final leg.