Team RS traces its roots back nearly 60 years from the Lotus Ford Cortina and Twin Cam Escorts of the mid 1960’s, through the first RS branded Escorts of the 1970’s to the founding of Special Vehicle Engineering (SVE) in 1980. Through the 1980s and 90s, SVE delivered a breadth of vehicles from exciting XR and RS branded road going performance cars through homologation specials such as the iconic Sierra Cosworth RS500. The first ST (Sport Technology) vehicle appeared in 1996 as the ST24 Mondeo. The first collaboration between Ford’s European and North American performance teams appeared in 2002 as the ST170 in Europe and SVT Focus in North America. In 2003, Team RS replaced SVE in Europe as performance car and motorsport personnel were brought together as one team. Team RS subsequently created the 2004 Fiesta ST, 2005 Focus ST and 2009 Focus RS.