Pre 87 Sierra Cosworth in Rallycross

[chunder]

it was a great car that pint

I remember him going to Croft once or twice and it ust looked a bit heavy!

I think Terry maynard had it eventuall didn't he?

[Pinto]

It weighed 1250kg but when it was reshelled into a escort cosworth shell it still weighed 1230kg! It always went better in damp conditions and at brands hatch, the rear end never moved after the radiator was moved to the rear but was prone to understeer on a dry track although it didn't help running Welchs old avons down to the kanvas!

[chunder]

Awesome! One of the guys who lead the Irish resurgence who doesnt get much credit really, he and Alastair Galloway, Fred Patterson, all running what you might call exotic cars before DErmot, John an Denis really.

I would guess a non turbo 4wd car would always be better in the wet, what 4wd system were you using, just generic Ford XR?

[Pinto]

Just xr4x4 4 wheel drive system with zf box seemed to take 465bhp without a problem if ford had done the same in 87 the lancia delta would not have had such an easy time in rallying!

[chunder]

Exactly, good point, the XR was a totally awful car.

But in fairness the 300hp limit imposed byt he FIA before restrictors was always the problem. a N/A enegine was always going to struggle against a turbo when there was very little way of enforcing the limit for turbo cars. we all knoew FOrd were getting 400 odd hp out of Cosworths in 86 let alone when GpA started!

They just dragged their heels too much building a 4wd Sierra C|osworth sadly, but then again they sold thousands of Cossies, and they still won rallies and also dominated touring cars for a generation, so they didnt do bad!

[GROUP B MAN]

Originally Posted by jcrally

Please can I have some help in identifying any pre 1987 Sierra Cosworths used in Rallycross.

I know they were used extensively as an RS500 in 1988 + but I need info on any early ones if possible

Look forward to your comments

Regards

John

Basically aemon mathesons sierra was a 1984 3 door shell pre cosworth ,but ran XR 4X4 front and rear diffs and rear half of a XR transfer box prop driven from a direct top ZF box and a swindon racing GAA v6 so it met the rules as a XR was ford blocked V6 and a GAA was also ford derived ,he certanly came to croft in 1987 and possibly turned the car out in 1986 in ireland as he had several breakages before he ventured to england

[jamescos]

hi guys

this is my first post on here and i am not clued up on rallycross tbh .i have phil collards old rallycross sierra cosworth for the past few years sitting as a rolling shell .i am always trying to find information on it but what i know although sketchy .

it was a 1985 boreham built groupa car ,no 13 built so one of the very first.from what i have heard boreham done all the build up and testing of these before they went into prouction.
it was supposed to have come to ireland as a group a rally car ,unsure of which driver had it at the time
returned to uk and built into a thunder saloon ,i have a pic and it is yellow and blue and has seb racing team decal on the back of it .i have never found anymore about the seb team or owner etc
phil collard then got it and the bulkhead was moved back to allow the engine be moved back ten inches .i think mountune were supporting him at the time
it the got turned into a track car /kaliber rep and was used for a while

it was then broke up for spares by tony at tcs

the shell got sold on and eventually it made its way back to ireland ,where i have it in storage

the car was featured in fast ford as a touring car replica 10 year ago

i think thats the lot but if anyone can correct or add to the information i would be delighted

cheers james

i

[USRallycross]

Have you asked Phil directly? He did an incredible amount of work on that car and is a bit of a perfectionist (everything from his Minicross cars to the Ford Ka were amazingly well built) and he has great contacts with Mountune, Pectel and all the Boreham guys from his work. I know Graham Hathaway also helped a lot - including his spares bin - but they could never quite get the suspension to work properly.

Phil is now competing in Time Attack with ex- minicross champion Paul Buckmaster but still goes to Lydden for every rallycross.

Are you looking to bring it back? I was responsible back in the day for the MasterCard decal on the side of it!


Mark

[jamescos]

hi mark


i never enquired with phil directly about the car ,but probably should do instead of getting third hand information.the shell is still in A1 condition and the fab work fantastic on the car .

i only have one old picture of the car with phil driving it and it has the number 234 on the door of it and its painted blue

what was your tie up with the sponsorship stickers mark?

i will revive it as a track car ,but will need to get hold of a powerful yb for it .i have a mk adjustable rear beam with a jag powerlock diff and a tremec tko600 for it .

i will throw up a few pics this evening in its kaliber livery back before it broke .i will also try scan the older pics of it in its thundersaloon days which i think were taken at phils when he got it too turn it into a rallycross car

cheers for the info mark

james

[bigted]

Im sure PUKKA can chip in on here

[jamescos]

these pics were taken before it got broke ,and was run as a tack car by a chap called steve fitzpatrick in the uk

cheers james

[retrorallycross]

Hope this helps, we confirm that the rules for Retro Rallycross are not 'pre 1987' the 2 classes are pre 1982 and 1982-1987. So 1987 is taken into account for verification purposes and we can confirm that the Sierra Cosworth was used in the relevant period and can therefore be used in our series.

[retrorallycross]

The rules are not pre 1987, the 2 classes are pre 1982 and 1982-87. Therefore 1987 is taken into account for verification purposes. We can confirm that the Sierra Costorth is acceptable for our series. Please contact us if we can help any further. www.retrorallycross.com

[jcrally]

This is good news thanks for all your comments

Other projects may take over this one this year but who knows

Regards

John