Sierra RS 500 Cosworth - the 80s BTCC homologation hero

The Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth was the 80s BTCC homologation hero that also became the affordable super car. In this episode Jonny visits an owner with probably the perfect pair of examples; an unrestored 34,000 mile RS500 and Group A touring car. The latter has been raced both in the winning hands of Andy Rouse and Peter Brock.

Thanks for stopping by this episode of The Late Brake Show, where Jonny meets Rupe Kent and his pair of stunning Sierras.

In the summer of 1986 the Sierra Cosworth went on sale to the public as a homologation car. They needed to sell 5000 in order to go racing and beat Rover and BMW in British Touring Car. A year later they increased the intensity of the Cosworth recipe and created a homologation 'evolution' which became the RS500. As reflected in the name, only 500 of these needed selling in order to trounce the opposition on the race tracks of Britain and Australia.

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The Group A race Sierra was built in 1988 by Andy Rouse Engineering and was actually Andy’s car for the 1988 BTCC. Ran as number 22 in Kaliber livery (number 33 in the endurance races). Of the 12 rounds run that year the car scored 10 pole positions, 7 fastest laps and 9 outright wins. Statistically it’s the most successful RS500 that Andy built or ran.

The car, driven by Andy partnered by Le Mans ace, Frenchman Alain Ferté won the 1988 Silverstone TT against the ‘best of the best’ Sierras from round the world – The Ford works Eggenberger team from Switzerland and the Dick Johnson Racing Shell team from Australia. Sold to the Brock Racing Team for the 1989 season and driven by Australian touring car legend Peter Brock in the Mobil livery.
The car competed twice at Bathurst and finished strongly both times. Brocky last drove the car at the Adelaide GP support race in 1990 where he blew it up.

2 litre DOHC 16v with a Garrett T04 turbocharger and air-to-air intercooler
Getrag 5-speed dog-leg motorsport gearbox
Eggenberger spec bulletproof differential
One piece light weight magnesium motorsport wheels

Thanks to Adrian Flux insurance for covering Jonny on Rupe's immaculate RS500 road car.

Jonny wears:

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Jonny Smith
Creative content maker, car presenter & car pervert for hire since '98

CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:45 35 years since Cosworth went on sale
2:27 Group A racing archive
2:59 Engine start up
3:28 Sierra Cosworth history lesson
5:20 Most successful race car ever?
5:40 What IS an RS500?
11:55 Race car walk around
12:28 Sierra race stats
12:42 Peter Brock history
14:28 Winning list of this car
15:17 Why the Sierra obsession?
17:15 Tiff on Top Gear
17:50 Rup on track day
19:00 Last raced in 1990
20:09 Cosworth shrine in the house
20:55 OUT ON THE ROAD
23:35 Rudi Eggenberger maintained
24:00 Rup's car story
25:08 JONNY DRIVING RS500
26:30 Worth £100,000
30:38 Outro

#sierrarscosworth #ultimatesierracosworth #sierrars500cosworth #groupasierracosworth #btcc

[FastAsFunk]

Hello all. I just wanted to say thanks. First to Jonny and Chops for choosing to feature my cars for TLBS and second to everyone that's watched and commented. I hope you enjoyed it. It was a genuine pleasure to work with Jonny and videographer Phil to help them present the cars to you. I appreciate they aren't to everyone's liking. Are they an 80's boy racer car...? Yep. Iconic homlogation special...? Yep. Death trap...? Yep. Any way round, there's no getting away from the fact they are a modern classic. Had a few questions asking if the Brock car is legit. Yes it is. Brocky drove 2 RS500s - This is one of them, the other is owned by ex Brock Team member Andrew Miedecke in Port Macquarie. The only other BRT RS500 race car got crashed quite a lot (first somewhat famously by by Barry Sheene). It was finally crushed in a car crusher may years ago to avoid paying import duty and therefore no longer exists.

[stevenclarke]

In 1990 I was working at a Ford dealership and one of the mechanics was selling his sierra sapphire cosworth, dark grey metallic, the asking price was £2000, I seriously wanted to buy it, when I checked the insurance cost, it ranged from No to £2000, I said that’s the cost of the car and doesn’t make sense, I was informed that the chance of it being stolen was 100% . This ended my Cosworth dream.

[Timrud]

This guy is Mr RS500! Full credit when he said he'd done 3 miles in the last 6 years and he let you have a go.

[warrengage]

I don't recall ever seeing a Sierra Cosworth here in South Africa, but in my small town one of the doctors had a Sierra XR8 with a double stack wing on the back. Aside from the Ford Capri, this was a car I coveted for years.

[ericpisch]

My Rwd sap cossie was stolen outside my house. It’s replacement a sap 4x4 cossie was stolen and stripped of its cosworth bits and interior. A couple of weeks after getting it back it was stolen again and found in a field with the engine bay cut up and the engine and gearbox etc. missing. At this point the company insurance company said no more. About 18 months later the police informed me the engine had been found installed in a Ford P100 pickup ‘owned’ by some gentleman who enjoyed mobility housing.

[Shadow-Edition]

What a minter that iconic legendary black RS500 COSWORTH…. Wow looks absolutely stunning 😍 I want it PLEASE

[gregoryingraham]

3 miles since 2015. I know its low miles but you can do 500 miles a year over the next 10 years and not effect the value. Love the video love the cars and to each his own, but its a car it deserves to be driven. Just my opinion thank you for sharing the cars.

[eoink]

I drove a white 3 door Cosworth Sierra about 25 years ago and a 2 wheel drive Sapphire Cosworth. I love the look of a black RS500 the more I looked at it the more I want it ! A millionaires toy now though ! I think the value of that car has gone way up since this was recorded.The owner was very interesting too and a nice guy. One made nearly £600, 000 before Christmas 2022 ! I know everyone knows that but to be honest I couldn't drive that much with it being so valuable, I mean God forbid if anything happened to it ? Thank you for a great video very enjoyable !

[knottme]

When you've just finished a rubbish Monday and you know you've got the Smith n sniff podcast to look FWD too Johnny goes and drops an absolute banger of a yt video out Mondays are alright

[jazzdub]

The top dog Fast Fords were beasts. The Cossie RS500 was one of the very best. Legend of the old British landscape now long gone.

[Coffeewax]

Johnny that timing of the garage door opening in the intro was a work of art.

[gordonf]

I met this guy once years ago who claimed he was a nephew or cousin of Andy Rouse. One time when he was visiting, Andy gave him the keys to his RS500 road car and said to bring it for a spin up the road. He went up the road as fast as he dared and promptly got pulled over by the local bill. They explained that they thought that the car was stolen as it was going too slow for Andy!

[RichUK]

My uncle had a 1986 Sierra Cosworth and after only 12 months he traded it in! I thought he was mad but a few months later he turned up one day in another White RS500 with Gold split rims and 450bhp. I LOVED that car. The stock RS500 rims ended up living on my XR4i about 10 years later. He sold the RS500 in about 1991 for a 6 month old Porsche 928 GTS. I like the Porsche (he still has it), but the RS500 was the thing.

I was also lucky enough to see Brocky race his last Bathurst in 2002 (iirc). Great man.

[austingreen]

Saw these cars on Adam Smiths channel, but still watched this too, can't get enough of oldskool fords !

[oldskoolm.]

Wow just Wow! I remember seeing the RS Cosworth exactly the same when it was released. The Ford dealer round the corner from where I grew up had a glass display box out front with it in.

[In_memory_of_Dad]

To be fair Johnny that was a brilliant piece of film, you did the COSSIE justice there. Bloody brilliant 👍🙂

[COMABAND]

Used to work for a fast Ford garage back in 1988, mainly selling xr2's and xr3i, rs1600i's. Occasionally we sold cossies, and we played rock, paper, scissors, to see who drove/delivered the lag, when the boost came in, it felt like a saturn 5 the memories, great video.

[joemacleod-iredale]

The road car backed out and I thought ‘that sounds aggressive’ then the race car started up and sounded like it wanted an actual fight.

[gavinsmith]

I watched this car pit in Pukekohe, New Zealand where they smashed the windscreen and rear window out and Brocky went onto win the race. It flew like a rocket.

[markwilliamson]

Another brilliant video. I went out with a girl in secondary school because her dad had a moonstone Sierra Cosworth. I didn’t even like her. Feel a bit guilty.