I may have found Andy Rouse's XR4Ti - Page 4

GBRM · 20 Mar 2008, 13:06 (Ref:2157234)

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunterer

Out of interest did any of his 'old' cars have any touring car race history? I.E Ex Rouse Grp 1 or Grp A chassis?

Good question and I'm not sure, will ask him.
also, I wonder if anyone has got the listing of sale from the auction.

relativtortoise · 20 Mar 2008, 16:00 (Ref:2157363)

Andy Rouse was one of the guests at the BTCC 50th Media Day at Rockingham last week and had a drive of one of his old Labatts RS500's and really made it go....good to see and from what I saw he enjoyed a bit of nostalgia in being reunited with it.

Giovarnardi took it out afterwards sadly without the bonnet pinned down which resulted in a smashed windscreen and a ruined bonnet.

RT

Al Weyman · 20 Mar 2008, 16:48 (Ref:2157386)

Ha ha even the professionals do it then!

On the subject of it being a worthless piece of rusting tin even if it was the real McCoy and that it would be far easier to clone an XR4i, well yes I can see that argument to be honest but surely the whole point of owning and restoring an old race car is just that, rusty piece of tin or not it was the piece of tin that actually went around the circuits and don't tell that bloke who did that ffantastic rebuild on the Supra Rally car featured on here as he obviously though that rusty old piece of tin was worth the effort (more rusty than this one by the looks of it!).

According to a book I have at home at least in IMSA guise the XR4ti was getting more like 500bhp from the engine not 350 and this was confirmed by HT Racing when I was starting to build one of these, Roland reconned a modest and reliable 350 bhp and if we wanted any more we could soon turn the wick up and he was very confident of achieving those figures. Apparently all these cars were built in Europe and shipped to the states minus engines where they were fitted with the Mustang turbo lump so its fair to speculate that most of these would have been built from a roady shell.

Wireless · 20 Mar 2008, 18:15 (Ref:2157477)

This could well be a Rouse shell. A giveaway was the input from the ex-Rouse engineers a few pages back where they discussed the rollcage mountings. Rouse was (AFAIK) the only guy to build and run XR4Ti in RHD (Eggenberger's were LHD). Furthermore, I do not believe that Ford ever produced any motorsports shells based on the three-pillar Sierra, so all TOCAs would have originally been either road cars or road car shells. As for power output, 300 - 330bhp tops was about as good as it got from the old Mustang lump.

It's a great piece of motorsports history, especially if you (like me) are a fan of Gp.A TOCA from the 1980's. Provided it is genuine, I'd love to see this car restored to original condition - with the proper 2.3t mill of course.

Wireless · 20 Mar 2008, 18:18 (Ref:2157479)

Quote:

Originally Posted by relativtortoise

Andy Rouse was one of the guests at the BTCC 50th Media Day at Rockingham last week and had a drive of one of his old Labatts RS500's and really made it go....good to see and from what I saw he enjoyed a bit of nostalgia in being reunited with it.

Giovarnardi took it out afterwards sadly without the bonnet pinned down which resulted in a smashed windscreen and a ruined bonnet.

RT

That'll be the Ex-Tim Harvey Labbatt's car owned by Martin Johnson. A lovely car in totally original condition. Martin will be gutted about the damage - especially as it's the favourite of the RS500's he's owned. Hope he can get it fixed OK.

relativtortoise · 20 Mar 2008, 20:43 (Ref:2157587)

Yes....I think the owner was called Martin and he took it well...

I was talking to him earlier in the day and he has two; the one that was there and another he uses much more regularly which is thundersaloon spec.

Thankfully Giovarnardi brought my car back in one piece...

RT

R59 · 21 Mar 2008, 08:06 (Ref:2157893)

Looking at the pics of the interior of the car, you can see the original rollcage mounts. The alloy cage would have been bolted in.

The Gp.A suspension would have fitted to the original mountings, and was thus removed.

The spare wheel well is the right shape for a "D" safety cell which would have protruded through the floor.

A labour of love for someone no doubt.... hop to it then!

Rob.

GORDON STREETER · 21 Mar 2008, 13:33 (Ref:2158157)

R59, Andy and a couple of the guys that made the cars have already decided that it looks like one of theirs. I showed them the pictures and spoke to Andy at length, but as always there is the mystery of what car it actually is. He claimed that they only made two racers and one show car. Also he "thought" that both the racers went to NZ. Although I would put money on it being a genuine car !

Slartibartfast · 23 Mar 2008, 20:50 (Ref:2159837)

I have some photo's of the car as it ran back in the day.
Does anyone want to see them?.
They were scanned from a variety of sources.

Mikelee · 24 Mar 2008, 05:55 (Ref:2160066)

Yes please that would be great. Thanks

**Aysedasi** · 29 Mar 2008, 09:53 (Ref:2164376)

I'd like to see them - if only to bring back the memories

RoadBlock · 1 Apr 2008, 10:58 (Ref:2166860)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ian.stewart

I would think the Pinto Turbo engine if finadable in the UK, have an ask on the NSRA site,Plenty op people rip out the Turbo engine on favour of a V8, and ofte have non Turbo 2.3s laying about as Mustang 2s are often pillaged for their front suspension. http://www.nsra.org.uk/newforum/
+ There is often a fella on here, http://www.racecarsdirect.com/categories/25.html sellig BTTC sierra parts, could be worth a looksie
Ian

Hi,
I believe that Andy Rouse Engineering built 9 of the 2.3Ti Pinto engines for that car. I know that 7 of the 9 were sold to a guy in Ireland after the Cosworth introduction. If anyone is interested I think it's possible to locate them.

RoadBlock · 2 Apr 2008, 12:35 (Ref:2167817)

Hi,
Sorry about the information above. I was wrong with the number of 2.3 Pinto XR4Ti engines developed by Rouse Engineering. The actual number was 5 and those engines currently exist in Ireland. I have also been informed that Rouse Engineering only raced 2 shells (I think the other driver was Pete Hall?). Those shells were cut to make RS500's. So if that's correct the original BTCC winning car no longer exists.

**Peter Mallett** · 2 Apr 2008, 12:51 (Ref:2167832)

Welcome Roadblock.

Could you provide details of your source(s) for the info or would you have to kill us if you told us?

GBRM · 2 Apr 2008, 13:16 (Ref:2167844)

Yes, welcome Roadblock.

Did you see this post above? Looks like it is a genuine car, from the horse's mouth so to speak!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

R59, Andy and a couple of the guys that made the cars have already decided that it looks like one of theirs. I showed them the pictures and spoke to Andy at length, but as always there is the mystery of what car it actually is. He claimed that they only made two racers and one show car. Also he "thought" that both the racers went to NZ. Although I would put money on it being a genuine car !

Peter Dunne · 2 Apr 2008, 15:51 (Ref:2167941)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoadBlock

Hi,
Sorry about the information above. I was wrong with the number of 2.3 Pinto XR4Ti engines developed by Rouse Engineering. The actual number was 5 and those engines currently exist in Ireland.

Correct. The late Dick Bailey bought them from Andy and was running them in a Dax Rush on Irish Hills.

KA · 2 Apr 2008, 19:17 (Ref:2168095)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoadBlock

Hi,
Sorry about the information above. I was wrong with the number of 2.3 Pinto XR4Ti engines developed by Rouse Engineering. The actual number was 5 and those engines currently exist in Ireland. I have also been informed that Rouse Engineering only raced 2 shells (I think the other driver was Pete Hall?). Those shells were cut to make RS500's. So if that's correct the original BTCC winning car no longer exists.

As you suggested, two cars raced in 1985- one for Rouse, and the second made occasional BTCC appearances with Klaus Niedzwiedz and David Sears (mainly the GP supports as I recall), as well as doing the TT with Tony Trimmer/Rex Greenslade- it was in the blue/white ICS colours, but with sponsorship from BT Radiopaging. Pete Hall drove the ICS Rover in 85/6- I don't think he ever raced an XR4Ti, going straight from the Rover to a Cosworth for 1987.

One car definitely went to New Zealand in late 85- I've seen pics of it in unlettered Rouse livery during the late 85/early 86 race series in NZ, and it went on to be entered at Bathurst in 86 by the Mark Petch operation, after they split with the Australian Volvo team as I recall. I've got a vague memory of reading on here that this one was later cut about to make it into a Cosworth shell.

This suggests, that if only two shells were raced, and the suggestion that Gordon made is that there were just two race cars and a show car, then if the car in the pics at the top of the thread is for real, then we're looking either at the car raced in 1986 (was this the second car from 85, with the championhip winner going to NZ?), or the show car

RoadBlock · 3 Apr 2008, 16:11 (Ref:2168789)

Hi,

Dick Bailey is/was my Dad, so the source was fairly close to home. While he and a two others were in the UK getting the engines two of the XR4 shells were in the Rouse workshop going through their transformation. This information about the shells was pass on by Andy during that visit. That's as much as I know about the cars. The engines however, are in my garage and looking for a good home - along with spares. I would hope that some day they could be reunited with an original shell if it does exist. Anyone who knows Irish Hillclimb knows how well those engines perform out of the XR4.

VIVA GT · 3 Apr 2008, 16:28 (Ref:2168803)

One other possible source of this bodyshell is this:
I remember that Andy Rouse Engineering used an XR4Ti shell as a jig for (aluminium) roll cage building for his early Group A Cosworth 'kits'. This would have had the cage mountings welded in, in exactly the same place as for the Cosworth. I can't remember if that shell also had the air jack tubes fitted too, I suppose that's possible if the shell was originally prepared as a spare...
I'm also sure that I was told the story that the XR4Ti shells were 'converted' into Cosworth shells in 1987 by modifying the rear 3/4 panel. Let's face it, there's a lot less work involved in doing that to a shell that's already seam-welded and caged etc. instead of preparing a totally new Cosworth one.

kurtiejjj · 4 Apr 2008, 10:32 (Ref:2169373)

I have also been following this thread with great interest.

Let's not forget that this car has an original ICS grille and double-carded doors with it. Of course this doesn't mean it's one of the race cars, but there isn't any hard facts to say it's not. One (the other one of course went to NZ)of the two cars being converted back then in Rouse's workshop could very well have been the show car. With the other racing car being sold to the previous owner to go rallying, he could've ripped the cage out, strip it, and paint it white (why would you do that really?).

What would be interesting to find out if that show car was white, and if the base colour for these rosue cars was grey/silver, as the car we're talking about on this topic.

BTW; can I point you to this photo: http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-09-06-011.jpg was this a converted xr4ti?

GBRM · 4 Apr 2008, 10:43 (Ref:2169386)

Quote:

Originally Posted by kurtiejjj

BTW; can I point you to this photo: http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-09-06-011.jpg was this a converted xr4ti?

As that's in RS500 Cossie spec I would have thought not and that it was a new shell.

VIVA GT · 4 Apr 2008, 11:48 (Ref:2169440)

Quote:

Originally Posted by GBRM

As that's in RS500 Cossie spec I would have thought not and that it was a new shell.

Yes Gregor, but that's Pete Hall's RS 500 which was originally (pre August 1st 1987 homologation) a Cosworth, and I'm sure that that's the one that Andy said he'd used the old Merkur shell, but converted to Cosworth rear window specification...

GBRM · 4 Apr 2008, 12:06 (Ref:2169454)

Oh. Could be then!!

Strange though, would have thought Pete would have a new car; he must have been slumming it that season!!

RSRoy · 4 Oct 2018, 13:21 (Ref:3854516)

Going to kick an old thread back to the top. What ever happend to this XR4Ti?

**chunterer** · 16 Oct 2018, 10:21 (Ref:3857103)

There was a road going XR4Ti ICS copy auctioned on ebay a few weeks back. I meant to post a link but never got round to it!!

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Andy Rouse 86 BTCC XR4Ti	Mikelee	Motorsport History	86	13 Aug 2009 07:17
Any info about Ford Sierra XR4Ti?	Zep	Motorsport History	17	1 Mar 2008 20:48
Found It!!!	Skam85	Formula One	4	3 Jun 2004 12:10
Whats happened/happening with Rouse's Superstars?	Sodemo	Touring Car Racing	7	1 Feb 2001 23:32