I actually had a chance to go in the passenger seat of one of these as a kid
as my Aunt was some marketing person at Ford and blagged me onto a press session at Borehamwood.
All I remember was it was hot, unbelievably noisy and then it broke down
We never went all that fast but you could certainly tell it was a beast. I've driven a Lancer Fq340 and been in Imprezzas and Escort Cosworths but they were nothing like that.