First Post and my Car

[pala]

Hi

thought Id say Hi and heres piccies of my car, its a Ford Sierra RS500, 1987, and sorry about the quality of pics but its was a really dark day here in UK, when I took them!

[Matra et Alpine]

Nice car, pala, any mods ??
couple of things.
Put your location in your profiel- even just the country - then folks know where you are. UCP is an international forum and it's not always possible to help if we don't know where you're from ( especially those who may not have read yor first post where you've told us - where in UK, Scotland ?? )
Second, it's call the "offical UCP ownership challenge", its a simple enogh thing and it prevents any debate in the future on car ownership. Just write your UCP nic on a piece of paper and stick it over the gearstick. Take a pic and post it. Search for "Official UCP Ownership challenge" and/or ?Egg-nog challenge" and you'll see examples others have done.

Welcome to UCP :)

[spi-ti-tout]

Welcome to UCP buddy :)
Ah that rear spoiler is obviously a mod, is it not?

[:Exige:]

Welcome to UCP buddy :)
Ah that rear spoiler is obviously a mod, is it not?
Nope, think thats standard .. the Cosworth Escort had one. Never been a huge fan of the Sierra Cossie .. looks arent to my taste. Just a little guess but are you from Essex? :)

[my porsche]

nice car, like matra said, mind giving egg nog test? and is it just me, or is it whenever matra posts, when you read it hes offline, but then you keep seeing new posts and that he is offline, i must be just barely missing him or something



oh...my...god...i am starting to sound like karrmann

[Sweeney921]

oh...my...god...i am starting to sound like karrmann
you've sounded like him for a long time :p

[:Exige:]

oh...my...god...i am starting to sound like karrmann
This'd be a good time to run for the hills .. run! :)

[spi-ti-tout]

Just a little guess but are you from Essex? :)
Me? :confused:
Or him? :confused:

[pala]

Hi


spoiler is standard fitment, and no im not from essex,lol,

heres the piccies to prove it mine!

[:Exige:]

Me? :confused:
Or him? :confused:
Him.

Its just that all the people Ive known who have has cossies come from Essex for some reason .. not entirely sure why :rolleyes:

Bet the sound it makes pops the ears of pedestrians :)

[pala]

I was heavily into touring cars in the mid 80's, and always promised myself that I would one day own a RS500 that was doing very well at that time on the track, then I got waylaid by buying an escort cosworth having seen them in rallying, then this car came up for sale and I decided to sell the escort and buy this, that was 4 years ago, and still enjoying this car, RWD and 370 BHP on the dyno at flywheel.so makes for some pretty good driving, especially in the wet, LOL.

steve

[derekthetree]

welcome to UCP and nice car. EVO ran a buying feature on it a while a go and it looks a real bargain as long as no bodywork gets damaged. the engine pretty much bomb proof apparently!

[:Exige:]

I was heavily into touring cars in the mid 80's, and always promised myself that I would one day own a RS500 that was doing very well at that time on the track, then I got waylaid by buying an escort cosworth having seen them in rallying, then this car came up for sale and I decided to sell the escort and buy this, that was 4 years ago, and still enjoying this car, RWD and 370 BHP on the dyno at flywheel.so makes for some pretty good driving, especially in the wet, LOL.

steve
I always remember the Texaco sponsored Sierras .. had a Scalextrics version :) 370bhp isnt bad at all .. know approximatley how much it weighs? Pretty torquey arent they too?

[motorsportnerd]

Nice. The Sierra RS500 is one of my favourite cars of all time. I'd love to own one, but here in Australia they are somewhat rarer and more expensive than in the UK.
I too, watched these cars in Group A touring car racing in the late 1980. They were particularly impressive around Bathurst and their battles with the Skyline GTR in the 1990, 91 and 92 Bathurst 1000 were impressive.
The Shell liveried Dick Johnson Racing cars were the best of the RS500s in Australia, but the Mobil liveried Peter Brock cars, the B&H liveried Tony Longhust car and the Peter Jackson liveried Glen Seton car also all won plenty of races.
Worth noting that in their final year of development in 1992, the Dick Johnson Racing Sierra RS500s were producing over 600 bhp in race trim. Johnson used that 600 bhp to put the Sierra RS500 into pole position for its last major race - the 1992 Bathurst 1000. The Sierras were reaching 299km/h on the long Conrod straight by then.
Also, I notice that the UK Motorsport magazine has a track test of both the Group A Sierra RS500 and the Group A BMW M3 in its January 2005 issue.

[Devilred]

i wish i had the money to buy the cars that i like....
i wish for a DB4... :(

[Spastik_Roach]

Sooo nice...I love hi-performance Sierras..

[Wouter Melissen]

Also, I notice that the UK Motorsport magazine has a track test of both the Group A Sierra RS500 and the Group A BMW M3 in its January 2005 issue.

Yeah a great read! It's written by someone who campaigned both in the 1980s/90s.

[pala]

know approximatley how much it weighs? Pretty torquey arent they too?


it weighs a fair bit, 2660 lbs | 1206.6 kg but less than the BMW M3 of the time,apparently. and I will look out for the motorsport magazine thanx



pala

[byronleehk]

Nice car! Fell in love with it ever since I saw them racing in the Bathurst 1000 races (speciall the one driven by Steve Soper - I'm a great fan of his). Loved the car so much I even bought several 1/24 scale kits of it.

Met one on the street years ago, it had like 3-4 people in it and I was driving a Bimmer 323i (alone) and it still blew me away :rolleyes:

[forza_autodelta]

Steve Soper's car around Bathurst...it was certainly the peak of the championship...as when De Adamich has driven his GTA on the old Nurburgring....Nostalgia is nostalgia.

[pala]

thx peeps , just went out and bought that motorsport magazine, some good articles in the mag



pala

[SlickHolden]

Not many of these cars came down under, But the ones that did maybe dick johnson own all of them in Queensland:D

[motorsportnerd]

I talked to a guy at a motor show in Sydney last year who had one. There are several road going RS and RS500s in Australia. The RS sells for around $30,000 and the RS500 a little more.
Some of the old Group A racers still exist. Dick Johnson still has one or more of his.
Two Sierras officially won at Bathurst - in 1988 and 89.
The 1989 Bathurst 1000 winning car that Johnson and Bowe drove is on display at DJRs headquarters in Queensland.
The 1988 Bathurst 1000 winning car of Tony Longhurst and Thomas Mezera is on display at the Bathurst motor racing museum.
As for the Eggenburger Sierra of Steve Soper and Pierre Dieudonne that was first across the line in 1987 but later disqualified - I haven't heard anything about where that car ended up. It would be interesting to know since it is one of the more interesting/controversial "winning" cars from Bathurst history, and it would probably be worth something in Australia now.

[fpv_gtho]

At the museum at the bottom of Conrod theyve got a Sierra parked in there as well as a Volvo, i managed to squeeze into the Volvo but i wasnt allowed in the Sierra :p Tell you what though ive never seen a bigger turbo than what that thing had

[whiteballz]

there was a standing joke about the pug 205 t16, the turbo was the size of the engine block!

[motorsportnerd]

You would have seen the 1988 Bathurst winner then FPV - quite a valuable car now, so I guess that's why you weren't allowed to sit in it.
The Volvo would have been the 1997 850 Super Tourer which finished 4th in the 97 Bathust 1000.
Well, the Sierras were producing over 600 bhp by 1992 - from a 2.0 litre engine. The turbo could run plenty of boost. The DJR car in 1992 weighed in at 1150kg, so not only did they have similar power to a modern V8 Supercar, they weighed less. The drivers used to say that it was like driving a 100 bhp shopping trolley below 5000 rpm and an F1 car above 5000 rpm, such was the uneven delivery of the power. They were super hard on their rear tyres. I remember John Bowe saying they were getting wheel spin in 6th gear on Conrod straight... which makes you wonder just how little traction the thing had.
A few years ago at the Melbourne Grand Prix there was a mock race between the 1989 DJR Sierra and the 1987 Brock Commodore. Steve Johnson got a steer for the first time in the car that gave his father two ATCC titles (1988 & 89). He mused about how fast the RS500 would be given today's tyres, electronics and suspension tuning knowhow.
Johnson's pole lap at Bathurst in 1992 was 2m12.5, compared to Murphys 2m6.9 in 1993. I do wonder how close to the V8 Supercar times a Sierra would come given the technology of today.

Here's a couple of attachments of the DJR Sierra (bottom) and the controversial 1987 Eggenburger Sierra (top).

[fpv_gtho]

What was the redline of the Sierra's, anywhere near the V8's 7500rpm? If so, 5000-7500 would still be fairly useful if you were pretty liberal in the gear shifting. But certainly something lighter than the current cars would prove beneficial around Bathurst

[pala]

A friend of mine has a big power cossie engine (thinks its 550+bhp) in a MK2 escort rally car shell, and it redlines at 8000rpm, but I think the touring cars produced peak power at 7500rpm


pala

[UCR]

I saw a Sierra cossie racing a Rx8 yestaday.

It was in front :D

[DodgeNitroBIRM]

<sighs> Wish Ford brought something like that to the US. I would love to have that RS500.

[pala]

I saw a Sierra cossie racing a Rx8 yestaday.

:eek: :D :D

not long been fined fer speedin so i dont tend to race these days :rolleyes: ;)

[Matra et Alpine]

:eek: :D :D

not long been fined fer speedin so i dont tend to race these days :rolleyes: ;)
Racing on public roads - no matter HOW quiet you think it is - is not clever.

have the b@lls to take it on track and really find your limits ( they usually occur before the cars for noobs :) )

[motorsportnerd]

What was the redline of the Sierra's, anywhere near the V8's 7500rpm? If so, 5000-7500 would still be fairly useful if you were pretty liberal in the gear shifting. But certainly something lighter than the current cars would prove beneficial around Bathurst


I'd have to check up on it - I think it was 7000 rpm. Have to remember that it had no low down torque, and it wasn't until its last year of competition that it got a six-speed gearbox. Had to make do with a 5-speed.
Also, that rear wing doesn't produce anywhere near the downforce of the V8 Supercars.
They were by all accounts on of the hardest Touring Cars ever to drive at the limit - very much an all or nothing car in terms of driveability.

[pala]

if any of you guys are interested there is a guy on the ford rs owners club website forum who has three RS500 touring cars in his garage and he is racing one of them over here in the UK, he has piccies posted too, the address is -
_http://bbs.rsownersclub.co.uk_

just look for posts by a member called Martinlabatts ( one of his posts is titled race RS500 updated)



pala

[Falcon500]

Well fromw hat i read the seierras at eastern creak where raceing against the first of the r32 cars and bowe was haveing the thing bounce off the rev limiter every chance he got and still couldent pass them this was signified by a backfire when it heit the rev limiter....seto or skaife never had theis problem and easily lead while bowe struggled in 3rd......

[DodgeNitroBIRM]

You know, the more I look at this, the more I start to think that Ford MIGHT have actually brought this car over here. The 1987 Mustang SVO has not only the same body shape, but the split rear spoiler was modeled after the Sierra XR-4. Here's an information page from the Mustang SVO Owners Association: http://www.mustangsvo.org/svostory.htm

What do you guys think?

[motorsportnerd]

Not the same car. The Mustang SVO used a 2.3 litre Turbocharged engine - the same engine as the Merkur XR4Ti.
The Merkur XR4Ti is the closest to the RS500 Cosworth in the US. But it is in fact the forerunner of the Cosworth, and not as highly developed.
In comparison, the Cosworth RS500 uses a 2.0 litre 16-valve DOHC turbo engine producing in standard form about 160kW.
The Merkur is the US version of the Sierra, and used the Mustang's 2.3 litre SOHC 8-valve engine producing about 135kW. The Merkur was actually homolagated in Group A Touring Car racing in Europe and used by Andy Rouse to win the 1985 and 86 BTCC. Ford Europe used this car as a test bed for the later RS & RS500 Cosworth.
The first of the Sierra Cosworths was the Cosworth RS. This car was basically a race car detuned for the road. It shared little in common with the Merkur/Sierra XR4Ti, except the bodyshell. The car was released in 1986. The engine was developed by Cosworth and produced 150kW. The rear wing is completely different to the XR4. Just 5000 examples were built for homologation purposes to allow the car to compete in international Group A Touring Car Racing.
The RS500 is the specialised "homologation" version of the RS Cosworth. Only 500 were built - all right hand drive. This car differed from the standard RS in that it had a larger intercooler and other beefed up engine components. Power was raised by about 10kW. The car also received a second rear spoiler, under the wing. It also got an additional lip on the front air-dam. They were only sold officially in the UK, though some private imports made it to New Zealand, Australia and Japan. Apparantly, some 19years after their release, there are less then 300 left on the roads.

[motorsportnerd]

Well fromw hat i read the seierras at eastern creak where raceing against the first of the r32 cars and bowe was haveing the thing bounce off the rev limiter every chance he got and still couldent pass them this was signified by a backfire when it heit the rev limiter....seto or skaife never had theis problem and easily lead while bowe struggled in 3rd......

The RS500's biggest problem compared to the R32 was lack of traction.
The Skyline GTR R32 put out about 610 bhp, and weighed 1350 kg, but drove all the wheels. Traction was never a problem, and it could use all its power. It could literally blast away from tight corners using all its available power.
The RS500 had 620 bhp by 1992, weight 1150kg, but was only RWD. Despite a considerable power to weight advantage over the R32, it was hampered by lack of traction.

[pala]

Hi

I agree with the above, even with my measly 370 BHP , I still spin the rear wheels upto 4rd gear if I rev its nuts off, and find myself going no where.



pala

[Falcon500]

The RS500's biggest problem compared to the R32 was lack of traction.
The Skyline GTR R32 put out about 610 bhp, and weighed 1350 kg, but drove all the wheels. Traction was never a problem, and it could use all its power. It could literally blast away from tight corners using all its available power.
The RS500 had 620 bhp by 1992, weight 1150kg, but was only RWD. Despite a considerable power to weight advantage over the R32, it was hampered by lack of traction.
True story and he was practically killing the car to keep up.....whem homoliglation goes wrong....

[Falcon500]

I'd have to check up on it - I think it was 7000 rpm. Have to remember that it had no low down torque, and it wasn't until its last year of competition that it got a six-speed gearbox. Had to make do with a 5-speed.
Also, that rear wing doesn't produce anywhere near the downforce of the V8 Supercars.
They were by all accounts on of the hardest Touring Cars ever to drive at the limit - very much an all or nothing car in terms of driveability.
it wouldent produce much less...the v8s are severly lacking in that area.....and a live axel rear end woulden hep a hell of a lot (but power down is a bit better)

[fpv_gtho]

Well the V8's although far from a mid 80's 5L are pretty much up against a brick wall, theyre basically relying on more capacity to get close to 700hp (like that guy who stuck a 6L SBR engine in his EB and then theres the SBR 3 seater with a 6L 700hp engine)

[Falcon500]

Yeah well hence my requeast for a new catigory....we might as well have single seaters if thats the way their going...shit they even want to take away what little technology they already have.....whos for super sedans...their faster and aloud to make technical leaps.....

[fpv_gtho]

Personally i think Cochrane's cost cutting will lead to the suggestion of DOHC to keep the engines lasting longer at 7500rpm. Ive said it before, they go through 2 gearboxes and engines at Bathurst and with DOHC valvegear, its possible the engines could be spread over the 1500-2000km of hard driving they do over the 4 days up at Mt Panorama, so half as much engines at $100K each will definately help. Although no doubt Orrcon is feeling the benefits of getting engines of someone supplying 6 cars, you could well imagine their former engines being made for 2 cars would cost alot more for less performance

[Manik]

i wish i had the money to buy the cars that i like....
i wish for a DB4... :(

ya i and a wish for enzo...............................

[charged]

The RS500 had 620 bhp by 1992, weight 1150kg, but was only RWD. Despite a considerable power to weight advantage over the R32, it was hampered by lack of traction.A guy in adelaide races a mark 1 escort with a sierra motor in it his makes about 340bhp with a 36 mill turbo restrictor at 22psi,what sort of boost was dicks sierrias running? These are his figures from this web page http://www.iprasa.mx.com.au/cars/clements.htm

[motorsportnerd]

See this thread: http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/forum/showthread.php?p=250555#post250555.
The DJR Sierras in 1992 were running about 2.3 bar of boost.

[RS500]

Johnson's pole lap at Bathurst in 1992 was 2m12.5, compared to Murphys 2m6.9 in 1993. I do wonder how close to the V8 Supercar times a Sierra would come given the technology of today.



dude,
if my memory serves me correctly, i believe greg murphy actually ran that record time of 2:06:9 at bathurst in 2003 and not 1993.

[motorsportnerd]

dude,
if my memory serves me correctly, i believe greg murphy actually ran that record time of 2:06:9 at bathurst in 2003 and not 1993.

Yes - it was a typo.

[NuclearCrap]

Now that's one of the finest Ford I ever seen. Nice car btw, welcome to UCP!!

*Whispers* Where's the steering wheel? :D

[Last straw]

The track "she's my baby" of the album Sunday 8pm by Faithless is about the singer's RS, including such lines as
"colour coded alloys, much noise, spoilers and poise"
"people say my baby is scary, but you pays your money and you takes your choice"
Worth a listen :D

[Mustang]

Now that's one of the finest Ford I ever seen. Nice car btw, welcome to UCP!!

*Whispers* Where's the steering wheel? :D


im guessing its BOSS removable kit