Background

When Group B ended and Group A became the top formula for 1987, Ford was one of the few manufacturers that had a car ready to be used in serious competition. The requirements to be successful were very similar to Group B and were a four wheel drive system and a powerful lightweight engine. Ford had both unfortunately they were split across two variations of the Sierra. The first one was Sierra XR4, which had four-wheel drive but was only equipped with a normally aspirated 2.8 litre V6 engine, whereas the Sierra RS Cosworth lacked four wheel drive, but had a compact two litre turbo-charged engine.

The XR4 was soon to be found lacking and Ford concentrated on running only the RS Cosworth version, but with only rear wheel drive, it was not a match for the Lancia Delta except on rare occasions. The Sierra RS Cosworth made its debut on the 1987 Monte Carlo and contested a total of 10 events and from its 20 starts and had 6 DNFs, 6 Podiums and 1 win. The win was part of a hat trick and came on Corsica in 1988. The hat trick well that was because, Didier Auriol recorded his first win, Ford recorded their first win since 1981 and the Sierra Cosworth its one and only win.

Despite this win, it was very obvious that to launch a proper attack on the World Championship the Sierra needed an upgrade. This upgrade came in form of the 4 wheel drive derivative of the Ford Sierra Sapphire, the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 4x4. Even with 4 wheel drive the car was not able to win a WRC event outright, being too large and unwieldy. The car was not a total failure though as it proved invaluable as a test bed on which to fine tune the engine and running gear before it was installed in the much more successful Escort RS Cosworth and later the Escort WRC.

 

This Car

This car was built by Bob Dowen Rally Services in 1989 to compete in the Motoring News National Championship.  Bob Dowen drove and developed the car for one season before the car was then driven by Somerset driver Tim Jones who made a full assault on the Motoring New National Tarmac Championship winning the Group N category in 1991.  The car was regularly seen competing in Belgium getting many top 10 finishes.

The car has since been upgraded to Group A specification and will be used by its current owner on demonstration and competitive events in Europe.

 

 

Technical

Engine:                            2 ltr Cosworth designed YB                          

Cylinders:                        4                                 

Aspiration:                      Turbo Charged           

Valves:                             16                               

Camshafts:                      DOHC                                   

Carburetion:                   Fuel Injected              

Drive:                               RWD

Transmission:                5 speed

BHP:                                300