Monday 23rd September 2024

First new CNC Motorsport Sierra RS500 delivered

Andy Rouse-sanctioned, Group A spec, with its FIA HTP and ready to race

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Some car announcements linger fonder in the memory than others. This one we’ve been waiting very eagerly for: back in 2021 CNC Motorsport said that it was building three continuation Sierra RS500s. Group A race cars, too, built to the spec of Andy Rouse’s racers from back in the day - and with his blessing. It would enable them to qualify for an FIA Historic Technical Passport, so they would be race ready on completion. It was a very exciting development - and now the first one is finished.

As a reminder, this one will use a brand new Motorsport spec shell that had been acquired for the project; the second car is in build and a third shell has been acquired for the final RS500. From there, CNC has done all the fabrication in house; classic touring cars have been its thing since Alan Strachan founded the company in 1996 (coming from Andy Rouse Engineering). So that means making uprights, calipers, hubs, arms and so on, with input from Rouse himself and access to the blue Labatt’s car in the pics to make sure everything was accurate. Indeed CNC Motorsport is the only company certified by Motorsport UK to make the period-correct roll cages, so there really is nobody better to build a project like this. 

Power comes, of course, from the 2.0-litre Cosworth YB, this one built by Harvey Gibbs and hurling out 575bhp (583hp) for the driver to wrestle with. Power reaches the rear wheels via a Getrag five-speed manual and 10-inch viscous diff. So best bring your A game - it’ll be a beast. 

The aim is very much for this RS500 to be out racing as well. This one has its FIA Historic Technical Passport, so is eligible for classic competition. You only need to look at the popularity of championships like the Classic Touring Car Racing Club and Historic Touring Car Challenge to see the resurgence that old tin tops have enjoyed of late, before thinking about European competition, exhibition events and Ford-specific outings. The owner of this one surely won’t be short of opportunities to drive the RS500 as intended. 

Alan Strachan added: “This project has enabled us to build a reliable, period correct car that will be competitive in historic motorsport for the fraction of the cost of an original. These are to be enjoyed, raced hard and fair and without the concerns of taking a valuable, period car on track. The fans love to see these flame-spitting RS500s on the limit and they open the door to take part in a huge array of events across Europe.” 

What a privilege that’s surely going to be. More good news, too, as while two of the CNC Motorsport cars are spoken for, the third build slot remains unallocated - why buy a supercar when you could buy a super Sierra?

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• Sierra RS500 Continuation announced
• Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500 | PH Heroes

[Turbobanana]

I hope they've noticed that the second shell in that pic is an XR4i

[CKY]

Turbobanana said:

I hope they've noticed that the second shell in that pic is an XR4i

Soon to be a genuine 'period' XR4Ti/Merkur, no doubt.

[garypotter]

Fantastic cars, fantastic racing, i was at Silverstone classic touring cars last year when they had 2 fire brething rs500's awesome.

Do i assume they have purchased NOS shells to do the build? or have they reproduced the shell similar to the company that offer the Mk1 and 2 Escorts?

[LotusOmega375D]

Anyone know the price? £185k seems to be the going rate for a replica RS500 race car, so I guess it’s around that figure. Apparently two ex BTCC race cars sold at auction last year for £182k and £370k respectively.

Edit £185k + VAT

https://paullinfootracing.co.uk/brand-new-group-a-...

[Limpet]

I don't know what it is about a Group A RS500, but they get the hairs standing up on the back of my neck whenever I'm lucky enough to see them being driven hard on a circuit.

A group of us went to the Donington Historic Festival a couple of years ago, where the historic touring car lineup included a fair few of them, and without exception all were being pushed hard. My friend's Gen-Z (and JDM fanatic) son was far more excited about the Skylines that were also there, but even he was blown away by just how well these "old dinosaurs" (his words) were going. Spitting flames on the overrun and on upshifts, sliding about coming out of the corners, and keeping the Skylines very honest, at least until it rained.

They still look very quick from trackside, and put on a great show, even today.

[Maccmike8]

Which clown(s) didnt give this 5 stars?

[gt40steve]

CKY said:

Turbobanana said:

I hope they've noticed that the second shell in that pic is an XR4i

Soon to be a genuine 'period' XR4Ti/Merkur, no doubt.

Indeed, already has the Merkur XR4Ti front bumper fitted.

[NathanChadwick]

Limpet said:

I don't know what it is about a Group A RS500, but they get the hairs standing up on the back of my neck whenever I'm lucky enough to see them being driven hard on a circuit.

A group of us went to the Donington Historic Festival a couple of years ago, where the historic touring car lineup included a fair few of them, and without exception all were being pushed hard. My friend's Gen-Z (and JDM fanatic) son was far more excited about the Skylines that were also there, but even he was blown away by just how well these "old dinosaurs" (his words) were going. Spitting flames on the overrun and on upshifts, sliding about coming out of the corners, and keeping the Skylines very honest, at least until it rained.

They still look very quick from trackside, and put on a great show, even today.

One of the problems with the Sierra, according to Andy Rouse, was that you couldn’t change the arches, which meant you were d fairly restricted on tyre size. This meant that there was a hell of a lot of torque going through a relatively small contact patch.
Of course, Rudi Eggenberger’s belligerence in not un-adapting the wheel arches despite being warned at Bathurst in 87 is what robbed them a championship title and Steve Soper a dominant victory. Digressing somewhat.

This all means that even with improvements in tyre technology and a diff, traction is always a problem, a very entertaining one.

[TheMachMan]

My Dads friend had the Rouse Sport Cossie back in the day!

[Earl of Petrol]

LotusOmega375D said:

Anyone know the price? £185k seems to be the going rate for a replica RS500 race car, so I guess it’s around that figure. Apparently two ex BTCC race cars sold at auction last year for £182k and £370k respectively.

Edit £185k + VAT

https://paullinfootracing.co.uk/brand-new-group-a-...

Unless memory is playing tricks I’m sure the previous article announcing the build gave a price in 7 figures. Without the pence! Stand to be corrected.

[J4CKO]

NathanChadwick said:

Limpet said:

I don't know what it is about a Group A RS500, but they get the hairs standing up on the back of my neck whenever I'm lucky enough to see them being driven hard on a circuit.

A group of us went to the Donington Historic Festival a couple of years ago, where the historic touring car lineup included a fair few of them, and without exception all were being pushed hard. My friend's Gen-Z (and JDM fanatic) son was far more excited about the Skylines that were also there, but even he was blown away by just how well these "old dinosaurs" (his words) were going. Spitting flames on the overrun and on upshifts, sliding about coming out of the corners, and keeping the Skylines very honest, at least until it rained.

They still look very quick from trackside, and put on a great show, even today.

One of the problems with the Sierra, according to Andy Rouse, was that you couldn’t change the arches, which meant you were d fairly restricted on tyre size. This meant that there was a hell of a lot of torque going through a relatively small contact patch.
Of course, Rudi Eggenberger’s belligerence in not un-adapting the wheel arches despite being warned at Bathurst in 87 is what robbed them a championship title and Steve Soper a dominant victory. Digressing somewhat.

This all means that even with improvements in tyre technology and a diff, traction is always a problem, a very entertaining one.

Will be why I always remember being very impressed with the touring cars coming onto Hangar straight I think it was laying two black lines for quite a distance.

I can sort of see why the 3 door Sierra Cosworth has gone so stratospheric price wise, I was 14/15 when they came out and remember being transfixed, when my mates neighbour (who looked like Terry Nutkins) got one brand new in Moonstone blue, the 911 Turbo across the road was suddenly a lot less interesting. That feeling stays with you, cant help it and obviously a lot of young chaps, who are now rich older chaps feel the same way. I know its only an old 3 door Sierra with a big wing, a few bits changed and 204 bhp but they are seared into my brain as the coolest thing ever.

[Blu3R]

J4CKO said:

Will be why I always remember being very impressed with the touring cars coming onto Hangar straight I think it was laying two black lines for quite a distance.

I can sort of see why the 3 door Sierra Cosworth has gone so stratospheric price wise, I was 14/15 when they came out and remember being transfixed, when my mates neighbour (who looked like Terry Nutkins) got one brand new in Moonstone blue, the 911 Turbo across the road was suddenly a lot less interesting. That feeling stays with you, cant help it and obviously a lot of young chaps, who are now rich older chaps feel the same way. I know its only an old 3 door Sierra with a big wing, a few bits changed and 204 bhp but they are seared into my brain as the coolest thing ever.

I'm totally with you there. I was 7 when my dad had his white 3dr delivered after an E21 & an E30 BMW. I can still remember the distinctive exhaust note and the smell of the interior. What a magical thing it was to be in the back of in '86, and like a spaceship compared to everything else you'd see back then. D246 KCL, I'll never forget that reg!

[Evolution 2]

all getting very silly with atmospheric pricing and probably more expensive to run than a Ferrari -imagine the repair bill when it's had a trip to the barriers...

There seems to be a staggering amount of money around to buy relatively mundane cars, that drug business must be the way to go!

[J4CKO]

Evolution 2 said:

all getting very silly with atmospheric pricing and probably more expensive to run than a Ferrari -imagine the repair bill when it's had a trip to the barriers...

There seems to be a staggering amount of money around to buy relatively mundane cars, that drug business must be the way to go!

Whether something is mundane or not is usually brand image/perception, watch various YouTube videos of less mundane stuff and once apart you realise its just a car, Lamborghinis and Ferraris in particular look amazing and have V12 engines in a lot of cases but under the skin often look pretty amateurish, watching the Matt Armstrong videos on the Rolls he has rebuilt does make you think its just a really big Posh BMW.

A hand built Sierra like this isnt going to be much cheaper to build than something exotic, most of the cost is the labour anyway, and its not like the parts are just off the shelf old stock Sierra stuff, a lot was specific, a lot is high end Motorsport components, might get lucky with the odd bits but overall its going to be pretty much as expensive.

[generationx]

It’s remarkable just how much money is floating about in historic motorsport, but it definitely is the case. These things are magnificent, and a good, relatively cheap, alternative to damaging a “real” car with actual history.

I love the ‘500s and saw them racing many times back in the day as Dad was working with Ford Motorsport at the time, writing “Performance News” which was a monthly newsletter for the RS500 teams to keep everyone up to date on latest developments, new parts available etc. They were very spectacular and, although I’m sure most of the “how fast” stories are fabricated, one of my favourites is, on an open test day, a F3000 driver saying he couldn’t catch these things on the Hanger Straight at Silverstone…

Such was the influence that I ran a mildly-tuned non-500 3dr complete with 17” wheels and side exit exhaust as a daily for years. So much fun (and loud) but was ready to empty my wallet at any slight provocation with a technical problem!

Happy days. If I had the means

[NathanChadwick]

J4CKO said:

Will be why I always remember being very impressed with the touring cars coming onto Hangar straight I think it was laying two black lines for quite a distance.

I can sort of see why the 3 door Sierra Cosworth has gone so stratospheric price wise, I was 14/15 when they came out and remember being transfixed, when my mates neighbour (who looked like Terry Nutkins) got one brand new in Moonstone blue, the 911 Turbo across the road was suddenly a lot less interesting. That feeling stays with you, cant help it and obviously a lot of young chaps, who are now rich older chaps feel the same way. I know its only an old 3 door Sierra with a big wing, a few bits changed and 204 bhp but they are seared into my brain as the coolest thing ever.

Before I headed off in the direction of Italian and other exotic stuff – indirectly linked to the Escort Cosworth, actually – I was a Blue Oval lover. There are those who are more accustomed to the exotic stuff who can't really understand why Fords, and in particular the Sierra/Escort Cosworth hold such an appeal. Put simply – modifying it to the point where you could blow away elitist snobs in their Porsches and Ferraris.
While obviously modified Fords and modified cars were of course nothing new, the easy tuneability of the Sierra's Turbo Pinto was quite something, largely thanks to the improvements in ECUs at the time. You can see similar leaps forward with Ruf and Alpina at the time, thanks to the Bosch Motronic system. I'd love to write an article about the Bosch Motronic system and the seismic affect it had on cars and tuning, but I'm not sure who'd A) commission me B) pay me to write it C) who'd read it.

Anyway, I can't think of a 'normal' European car that could deliver such huge power gains for such relatively little money. In the USA, yes, but tuning the nat asp Buick/Rover V8 or the Ford V6s didn't provide nearly as much oomph for relatively little – the car was essentially set up for modifying anyway (unused injectors etc). That is why the Sierra Cosworth is such a legend – suddenly you could embarrass Porsches and Ferraris for relatively little.

There is a caveat though, relatively little is, er, relative. £15,950 and £19,995 for the RS500 might not sound like a lot, but £15,950 for a standard 3dr in 1986 is £48k now, and modifying them wasn't cheap – but it was the dawn of plastic money, so it was 'attainable' as long as you could keep up the payments.

Unlike today's modern world where it's more of a turn up for the books when you DON'T see a Lambo/Ferrari/Aston etc, the Sierra Cosworth was four-wheeled 'attainable' exoticism. And it looked like Darth Vader's wheels in black.

I've driven a 3dr (for Classic Cars magazine last year) and it had 350bhp and it felt remarkably potent (until I got to a corner). It felt special, it felt light (which it is) and it felt alive, and when I looked in the mirror and saw the rear wing it took me back to sitting on my grandad's rug watching Grandstand.

Edited by NathanChadwick on Tuesday 24th September 17:02