Sunday 18th February 2018

PH Service History: Be Cos It's Worth It?

Silly fast Sierra prices are familiar to many now, but do any represent good value? Scrof investigates...

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My first-ever job in this industry was working on Performance Ford Magazine. When I wasn't larking around the incredibly lax offices, my days were filled with writing about Escort RS Turbos, Focus STs, Fiesta XR2s and even the odd Mondeo. But the majority of my life was, by far, taken up by talking about the Sierra RS Cosworth.

The Cosworth sat astride the world of Ford's performance cars like a vast, tattooed gorilla; for many enthusiasts, nothing else mattered. You could feature wonderful little track day Fiestas whose owners had poured love and time into them, or beautifully set-up homebuild rallycross Pumas until the cows came home; for many of our readers, if it didn't have a YB engine in it, it wasn't worth the time of day.

As you might expect, then, we spent plenty of time writing about Cossies. Not to mention, marvelling at how much they cost. Back then, a good, clean two-wheel-drive Sapphire Cosworth could be had for £5,000 - not too unreasonable. But a three-door, as we termed the original hatchback version with largely the same mechanicals under the skin, would set you back as much as £20,000. Our mouths flew open when the first RS500 broached the £40,000 mark.

Of course, even we had no clue what was to come next. Those RS500s kept on rising, and taking the three-doors and Sapphires with them. A year or so back, the rate of ascent among Cosworth prices was so great I was steeling myself for the day the £200,000 RS500 popped up for sale.

I still am, but it seems things have calmed down a little since then, probably because it's reached a point at which even the ballsiest investor starts to question the rationale behind throwing three-figure sums at a Sierra with a hepped-up Pinto under the bonnet. Even so, though, at the bottom end of the market, joining the Cosworth club will now set you back around £10,000, at the very least - and even that only gets you a Sapphire that's in need of recommissioning and tidying to get it back on the road.

Mind you, that might not be such a bad shout, given that you'll have to double that budget to get into a tidy-looking example with history like this one. Granted, it's a 4x4, which means it's worth a little more (don't believe the hype; the two-wheel-drive car is more exciting and more involving to drive), but even so, the mileage is barely any lower, which makes me wonder whether the smart thing to do is to buy a slightly tatty modified example like the one above and spend a few grand putting it right.

Of course, if you want the original three-door, that option might not be open to you. So valuable are these cars now that tatty examples rarely appear any more; with that in mind, expect to have to fork out £35,000 at the very least to get behind the wheel. This one is going for that sort of money and, assuming the mileage isn't stratospheric, actually looks pretty reasonable; I've recently seen similar examples up for figures starting with a four. What's more, given the price disparity between the standard cars and the RS500, I wouldn't be surprised if there's more headroom here yet.

RS500s, of course, have always been the ones to have - the most prized among Cosworth collectors. Their direct link to the Cosworth's BTCC heritage and their dominance in that series is what makes them so, but despite this, I still struggle to reconcile myself with the prices they now fetch. Prices start - no, I still can't quite believe it either - at around the £70,000 mark, although if that's all you've got to spend you'll have to content yourself with either a modified or a high-mileage example; given the RS500's potential, examples of the former aren't as rare as you might think, although beware of straying above 350hp or so - a Cossie with that much power becomes rather a handful.

If money really is no object, however, and you want one of the best, original RS500s in the country, I'm afraid £100,000 is still the amount you'll have to spend. This one will give you change of a fiver from that budget; it's been fully restored and has covered just 57,000 miles. Sadly, this is probably one of those cars that will end up wrapped up, tucked away and protected as an investment. As much as I love a Cossie, I think I'd rather spend my money elsewhere and get something more usable.

Perhaps, in fact, I'd spend it on this rather lovely Rouse Sport 302R. These Sapphires were given a going-over by Andy Rouse's outfit, Andy Rouse Engineering, a reincarnation of sorts of the then-recently-liquidated Broadspeed. Rouse added a smaller turbo which reduced lag, but combined with an uprated exhaust manifold and a remap, actually increased power to 264hp. You also got the obvious uprated bodykit, as well as custom-made seats which improved side bolstering and came trimmed in leather. Of the 78 produced, most were four-wheel-drive 304Rs, meaning this two-wheel-drive example is extremely rare.

At £54,995, I wouldn't exactly call it cheap - especially given the fact that a few years back you could pick one up for less than £10,000 - but given you get just as much touring car heritage as an RS500, and 30hp or so more, it sort-of - sort-of - qualifies as a bargain. Maybe? Either way, it looks terrific, to my eyes. If I was going to take the plunge and spend big money on a Cossie - something I'd still love to do even after all this time - I think this is where I'd sink it.

[Limpet]

I still rate the Rouse Sport 304R as very probably the most capable fast road car that I have ever driven. Fantastic real world pace.

[RS500 Registrar]

sadly a very poorly written artical with wrong info

[P-Jay]

Crazy money, makes no sense to me, but then I didn't grow up wanting one, so to me they're just a repmobile with cool engine, but an ancient one.

Is is safe to assume that it's a bubble that's going to burst one day?

[Integroo]

RS500 Registrar said:

sadly a very poorly written artical with wrong info

article

[irocfan]

seriously some people need to lay off the crack pipe. 100k for a freaking Sierra . I could see that if it had race history but for common or garden cossies????

[Plate spinner]

Nope, not for me I’m afraid. Madness IMO.

[alorotom]

Remember by dad chopping his Sapphy Cossie (imperial blue of course, it was a previous Cat.B that had had its roof removed in a caravan accident some years previously and oddly had to have a police check every time it changed hands - he still has the letter from Northumbria police for this element, never heard of that before or since) for a Vectra SuperT but ended up using a scrappage scheme as they offered considerably more than what the market was paying at the time

Sad waste