Photo: Silverstone Auctions
It’s not everyday that we come across development prototypes of legendary cars available on the open market. But such things are known to happen, and when they do we’re more than glad to let you know more about these machines.
About a week ago, we dug up on a British auction site a 1986 Ford Sierra Cosworth, fitted with one of the last YB200 engine blocks made by the British engineering company. But aside from the Group A rally car, there were also the development prototypes.
Back in the 1980s, at a time when Ford was looking to revive its motorsport involvement, the Sierra RS Cosworth was born with the single goal to sell enough of them to the general public (regulations called for 5,000 units to be sold) so that the car could enter Group A.
Ford reached that goal in no time, and soon had to get to work on developing the race-prepped version of the Sierra. With the goal of creating the Group A-worthy car, the carmaker sent a batch of 500 Sierras to Aston Martin Tickford to have them converted to RS500 Cosworth variants.
Featuring the same 2.0-liter turbo engine as the other cars in the range, but with a power increase to 224 hp, upgraded brakes, and modified bodywork, the family of RS500 was born with just four development prototypes.
One of them, #003, is now available for purchase on the Silverstone Auctions website. It is the car used to homologate the turbo, intercooler and engine enhancements. Since back in the day all that testing required a lot of changes, the car as is in the gallery above is actually equipped with the engine initially used on the #001.
The engine has been used for 69,000 miles (111,000 km), but is otherwise very well maintained. The auction house lists the car at a price of £70,000 ($90,500).
Back in the 1980s, at a time when Ford was looking to revive its motorsport involvement, the Sierra RS Cosworth was born with the single goal to sell enough of them to the general public (regulations called for 5,000 units to be sold) so that the car could enter Group A.
Ford reached that goal in no time, and soon had to get to work on developing the race-prepped version of the Sierra. With the goal of creating the Group A-worthy car, the carmaker sent a batch of 500 Sierras to Aston Martin Tickford to have them converted to RS500 Cosworth variants.
Featuring the same 2.0-liter turbo engine as the other cars in the range, but with a power increase to 224 hp, upgraded brakes, and modified bodywork, the family of RS500 was born with just four development prototypes.
One of them, #003, is now available for purchase on the Silverstone Auctions website. It is the car used to homologate the turbo, intercooler and engine enhancements. Since back in the day all that testing required a lot of changes, the car as is in the gallery above is actually equipped with the engine initially used on the #001.
The engine has been used for 69,000 miles (111,000 km), but is otherwise very well maintained. The auction house lists the car at a price of £70,000 ($90,500).
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