1987 Ford

Black.

This original and un-modified RS500 was purchased by 1990 BTCC winner Robb Gravett in 1997, at which time the car had covered about 18,000 miles. In the 15 years that Robb has owned the car it has been used sparingly, such that today it has covered less than 33,500 miles. Robb Gravett founded the Trakstar racing team in 1989 and the following year won the British Touring Car Championship driving the Trakstar GpA RS500 to nine race victories.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. Contact us for further information