The Sierra RS Cosworth was a creation that was impressed by Ford Motorsport’s need to dominate touring automotive racing. Out of the 5545 “common” RS Cosworths made, simply 500 had been despatched to Aston Martin Tickford. These highway automobiles, made for homologation functions, had been often called RS 500s.

The RS 500 was an evolution to make the already aggressive RS Cosworth unbeatable. To have fun 35 years of the RS 500, Jonny Smith visits not one however two items of Ford Europe’s storied historical past. Proprietor Rupe presently has in his possession an unrestored highway authorized instance with simply 34,000 miles on it, in addition to a real Group A tourer that raced in Britain and Australia.

The road-going RS 500 featured tweaks within the physique for improved air consumption and aerodynamics. Though it had a modest bump in output (20hp) over the RS Cosworth, in some ways, the facility was made extra inaccessible to drivers, with extra turbo lag and a smaller enhance window. Nonetheless, what sits beneath the hood was not only a evenly tuned engine.

The RS 500 was purely designed to make its touring automotive descendent a actuality. Street automotive utilization was given the chilly shoulder in favor of modifications that will solely actually make a difference on the track. An ideal instance can be the usual second gas rail, which lay unconnected and complexly non-functional for the highway automobiles, however in fact, linked up on the race automotive to contribute to that dominance.

Learn: The Holy Grail Of The Fast Ford Family Is This Prototype Sierra RS500 Cosworth 

And dominate it did. Motorsport Journal claims the Ford RS 500 Cosworth was the most successful road-car-derived racing automotive of all time, because the RS500 gained a staggering 84.6% of races that it took half in. Rupe’s Group A tourer stays one of the vital iconic examples, constructed and raced by Andy Rouse within the BTCC, earlier than main its second life within the Australian touring automotive scene with famed GM-stalwart Peter Brock. As we speak the Group A automotive sits in its Aussie livery. Brock is claimed to have understood the necessity to pilot an RS 500 with a purpose to stay aggressive however ensured all Ford badging was eliminated.

Jonny takes us via the refined nature of the road-legal RS500 automotive. In line with him, it isn’t all that totally different from a daily Sierra on the within however nonetheless manages to show heads as we speak. The engagement which the RS500 brings to the desk makes it really feel brisk by fashionable requirements and continues to place a smile on the face of its driver when the turbo begins spooling.