Auction car of the month: The Boss's Cossie

Welcome back to Auction Car of the Month, where we dig through the latest sales to find a car with a story that just has to be told. This month, we've found a proper corker. It's a tale of a fast Ford, a legendary engineer, and a car that's barely been used. It's a story that proves that sometimes, it's not just about the car, but who owned it.

Say hello to the 1996 Ford Escort RS Cosworth Lux that went under the hammer at Iconic Auctioneers' Race Retro sale at Stoneleigh Park on 21st February. Now, any Escort Cosworth is a special thing, a true icon of the 90s. But this one? This one is a bit different. It was ordered new by none other than the late, great Richard Parry-Jones CBE, the head of Ford of Europe's R&D division and the man widely known as the "godfather of the Focus". Imagine that, the top man himself, the one responsible for how Fords drive, choosing this as his company car. That's like getting a restaurant recommendation from Gordon Ramsay himself.

A car fit for a king

If you're not familiar with the name Richard Parry-Jones, you should be. Born in Bangor, North Wales, he joined Ford as an undergraduate trainee in 1969 and went on to become the Group Vice President of Global Product Development and Chief Technical Officer. He was the genius who made sure ordinary Fords drove with a sparkle that other car makers could only dream of. The Mondeo, the Focus, the Ka, the Puma, the Fiesta, he had a hand in all of them. He headed up a team of 30,000 engineers and oversaw everything from Ford and Lincoln to Jaguar, Volvo, Land Rover, and Aston Martin.

He was famous for his "50 metre test", believing you could learn more about a car's dynamics in the first few moments of driving it slowly than you could from a hundred laps of a racetrack. Autocar called him "one of the world's leading automotive engineers" and Edmunds dubbed him a "driving dynamics guru". Sadly, he passed away in April 2021 at the age of 69, and Ford later named a building in his honour, the Richard Parry-Jones Appraisal Centre. So, for a man of this stature to choose an Imperial Blue Escort RS Cosworth Lux as his daily driver speaks absolute volumes about the car.

Barely a scratch on it

But here's the thing. Being the top man at Ford meant he was a busy chap, jetting all over the world overseeing product development across multiple continents. The upshot was that his beloved Cossie barely got driven. When the car was eventually sold in 2006, it was placed straight into long term storage. The result? It came to auction with an unbelievable, jaw dropping 3,091 miles on the clock. That's not even run in. Most people put more miles on a car in a month than this thing has done in 30 years. It's a time capsule, a perfectly preserved slice of 90s performance car perfection, presented in what can only be described as timewarp condition.

This wasn't just any old Escort Cosworth either. This was the final era 'small turbo' model, powered by a 2.0 litre Cosworth YBT engine with a Garrett T25 turbocharger producing around 220bhp through permanent four wheel drive. The Lux pack meant it came loaded with goodies, including an electric sunroof, electric heated mirrors, a quick clear heated windscreen, Recaro seats, and a leather wrapped steering wheel. It was the refined version of the rally bred beast, the one you could actually live with every day, if you ever actually drove it.

The hammer falls

So, what did it sell for? The auction estimate was a hefty £100,000 to £120,000, which is serious money for any Escort. But the bidding didn't stop there. With interest from the room, the phones, and online bidders from across the globe, the hammer finally fell at a massive £132,750. That's over 10% above the top estimate and a clear sign that provenance and story still matter enormously in this market.

To put that into context, another Escort Cosworth at the same sale, a lightweight non Lux small turbo car without the same backstory, sold for a much more modest £50,625. The Cosworth cult is still strong, every single one offered at Race Retro found a buyer, but it was the Parry-Jones car that stole the show. As Magneto magazine wisely noted, this car had "a mixture of provenance and history that will be difficult to match". They're not wrong.

Why this one matters

It just goes to show that while any classic car can be an investment, a car with a story, with real provenance, is something else entirely. This wasn't just a fast Ford. It was a piece of automotive history, a car owned by the man who made Ford great again. It's a reminder that the people behind the cars are just as important as the cars themselves. And in a market where the Race Retro sale shifted 93% of its collectors' cars for a total of £7 million, with bidders tuning in from Asia, Europe, and North America, the appetite for the right car at the right price shows no sign of slowing down.

Want to see the actual car?

If you want to see the car for yourself, Iconic Auctioneers still have the full lot listing online with a whopping 84 photos of this very car. You can have a browse through all the pictures of the actual car that was sold right here: https://www.iconicauctioneers.com/1996-ford-escort-rs-cosworth-rec16443-1-stoneleigh-0226

So, what do you think? Is there a car out there whose story makes it worth more than the sum of its parts? We'd love to hear about it.

References

[1] Iconic Auctioneers. (2026, February 24). 93% of collectors' cars sold at Race Retro 2026 with IA. Retrieved from https://www.iconicauctioneers.com/news/93-of-collectors-cars-sold-at-race-retro-2026-with-ia

[2] Chadwick, N. (2026, February 24). Iconic Auctioneers Race Retro 2026 review: Road cars do well, racers less so. Magneto Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.magnetomagazine.com/articles/iconic-auctioneers-race-retro-2026-review-road-cars-do-well-racers-less-so/

[3] Wikipedia. (n.d.). Richard Parry-Jones. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Parry-Jones