Rare Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500 from private collection up for auction for eye-watering amount
A RARE Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500 is going under the hammer and is expected to fetch an eye-watering amount of money.
The 1987 model is just one of 500 built and has a guide price of £100,000 to £120,000 – and that doesn’t even include VAT.
There’s just more than 23,000 miles on the clock and it comes with a comprehensive history.
The original Ford Sierra RS Cosworth was the first Ford to display the Cosworth badge and first revealed to the public at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1985.
It was introduced so the Sierra model was eligible for Group A Touring Car racing – which required that 5,000 cars were built and sold.
The sporty car was based on the three-door Sierra body-shell which was designed by Ford’s Special Vehicle Engineering (SVE) and powered by a Cosworth-designed, 2.0-litre turbocharged engine.
It went on sale in July 1986.
At the time, the Sierra Cosworth was seen as a new kind of performance car – a “blue-collar hero”.
While it could still give true sports cars a run for their money it was also approachable and just about affordable for the ordinary family man.
In all, 5,545 cars were produced with 500 of those going to Aston Martin Tickford for conversion to the Sierra ‘RS500 Cosworth’.
Once Ford had built the requisite 5,000 RS Cosworths, Group A rules allowed an upgraded ‘Evolution’ model to be launched which featured further developments focused on improving its racing potential, provided Ford sold 10 per cent of the original number as road cars, hence the 500.
The car features some serious “street cred” and power, producing 224bhp.
It also has upgraded brakes, modified bodywork, dramatic spoilers and the cachet of being hand-assembled.
E321 EPD is number 215 of the 500 cars built and was supplied new by Hartford Motors of Oxford and first registered on August 3, 1987.
It was previously part of a large private Ford collection before going up for sale with Silverstone Auctions.
The car’s interior appears to be the original and it comes with the original Ford stereo unit with its matching amplifier and is in good working order.
It also has its original Ford exhaust pipe.
The Ford also has a comprehensive report carried out by renowned RS specialist Paul Linfoot in October 2021.
The car goes under the hammer on May 20.
Last month, a Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500 sold at auction for nearly £600,000 at auction – smashing all estimates and setting a new world record in the process.
Back in 1987 an original model would have set you back around £20,000, but another RS500 recently went for £135,700 in 2022 – and prices have been rising steadily since.