1988 FORD SIERRA RS500 GRPA RACE CAR ROUSE RACING BUILD FULLY RESTORED ALSO AVAILABLE 1988 TERRY DURUY RACING CAR WHITE. BEING RESTORED. P.O.A. FULL DETAILS ON REQUEST. By the mid 1980s Ford were no longer competitive in touring car racing as the Capri was outpaced by Rovers Vitesse, amongst others.The Sierra range did not contain a high performance model and Ford Motorsport had spent very little time trying to develop the car. Cosworth had designed and built a 16 valve twin cam conversion to fit the 2 litre Pinto bottom end which was intended as an aftermarket normally aspirated engine which could replace the BDA. It was Ford Motorsport Director, Stuart Turner, who conceived the idea of putting a turbocharged version of this engine into the Sierra. In order to homologate the car, he then persuaded Fords bosses to sanction the building of 5000 cars. The Sierra RS Cosworth was duly homologated by the FIA in Groups A and N on 1st January 1987. The FIA rules at the time also allowed an evolution version for racing (but not rallying) if a further 500 cars were produced with a different specification. There were four prototypes and then a further 496 RS Cosworths were taken from the production line at Genk and put into storage. During the summer of 1987 these cars were taken to Tickford in Coventry for conversion to RS500s. The work involved changing the complete engine, intercooler, ECU and rear suspension beam plus different spoilers. The new engine featured a stronger block, revised cylinder head, larger turbo and a special inlet manifold with eight injectors (only four were actually connected). The majority of the cars were black with 52 each in white and moonstone. Following an FIA inspection the RS500 was homologated on 1st August 1987. In 1987 there was a World Touring Car Championship, which was dominated by the Swiss Eggenberger team of factory supported Sierras. Starting the season with only about 340bhp in RS Cosworth specification, the full 500bhp evolution was unleashed as soon as the RS500 was homologated. With the World series cancelled for 1988, Eggenberger returned to the European Touring Car Championship. The black Texaco cars won seven of the eleven rounds, easily taking the championship. In the British Touring Car Championship the leading Sierra driver and preparation expert was Andy Rouse. In 1987 he concentrated his efforts on the World series but in 1988 he won nine out of the twelve races. Despite this the class based scoring system gave the title to Frank Sytner in his BMW M3. This system would also deny an RS500 overall victory in 1989, despite six wins for Rouse and four for Robb Gravett. 1990 was the year when the RS500 clinched the BTCC title, with Gravett winning nine races for his Trakstar team. The RS500 was also very competitive in various Touring Car series around the world. Most famous was Dick Johnson who won the Australian Touring Car Championship in both 1988 and 1989. Amongst other countries where the RS500 raced were Belguim, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand. In the European Rallycross Championship the RS500 was dominant in Division One (two wheel drive), Swedens Kenneth Hansen taking the title four years running from 1989 Petrol
Colour: White
Right-hand Drive
