The Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth is as British as a car can get – it was conceived over a Ploughman’s lunch. The story goes that after Ford top brass were shown around Cosworth’s engineering facilities and happened upon a turbocharged Pinto engine, the car’s designed on a paper napkin. Stuart Turner said that if Ford built that car, Rover’s all-conquering SD1 wouldn’t win another touring car race.
We want a Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth - really, really, really badly.
And he was right. From 1986 until 1990, the Ford Sierra dominated the British Touring Car Championship for outright wins. It also took victories across Europe, sticking it to BMW and Mercedes, and in Australia too. Even Holden hero Peter Brock switched to the Blue Oval to remain competitive.
But if the race cars were spectacular, then the road car upon which it was based was beyond belief. The RS500 was a pure homologation special, and was deemed at the time to be a bit unwieldy compared to the normal Sierra RS Cosworth, thanks to extra lag from the bigger turbocharger. It didn’t add much in the way of horsepower (224bhp compared to 204bhp), but it’s the subtleties that made it a winner on track. There were modified spoilers, extra brake ducts, a larger intercooler, bigger brakes and an additional fuel rail. Utterly pointless for the road car, but these modifications were essential to give the RS500 the edge in touring car racing – which it soon got.
But it wasn’t long until road cars started sporting huge horsepower conversions. It’s accepted that 350bhp could easily (and fairly cheaply) be had without major upgrades to the car’s structure, which meant this car could take it to the performance car royalty such as Ferrari and Porsche – and win. Some hardy modifiers took it to 550bhp and beyond, matching the race cars. And all that in a three-door saloon you could buy from the same place that sold your mum her Orion.
However, the RS500 is now recognized as a blue-chip member of the classic car elite. That goes some way to explaining the large numbers quoted for RS500s these days, and this one is no different. That’s down to rarity, as just 500 were built in the first place, and many have been stolen, crashed or simply disappeared over the years. Just 52 Moonstone Blue RS500s were built, and only 19 are left – this is one of them.
To many any Sierra worth more than £10,000 is ridiculous. Others will baulk at the in-your-face-styling, the unrefined-sounding four-cylinder engine and the lack of a Maranello or Stuttgart stamp on the VIN. But they’re missing out – this really is a supercar for the common man.