NOSTALGIA!

[Lancerlot]

Met up with an old friend of mine recently and took a trip down memory lane (as you do at my time of life)!
He then rather took the wind out of my sails by producing photos of a couple of cars I used to drive.
Although not Porsches, I thought there may be some interest here.

No prizes, but I wonder how many are able to name the cars and the years they were produced - just for fun of course! []Regards, Clive

 

[unclewinks]

Rs200
rs cosworth sierra
mid eighty's

 

[Rodney Naghar]

I covet both of those cars!

 

[Robin M]

Wish I had had chance to drive them both ????????

 

[Lancerlot]

There are a couple of stories attached to these two vehicles and I'll elaborate after the coming weekend and when I have a little more time. []
Regards,

Clive.

 

[MattDC2]

Love the RS200. Look forward to hearing your stories

 

[Lancerlot]

[FONT=calibri"]Paul correctly identified both cars and the era (being a rallying fan clearly helped!). Well done. []
[FONT=calibri"]The first photo is indeed a 1987 Ford RS 200. The model was designed to be Ford’s answer to the all-conquering 4WD Audi Quattros, the Metro 6R4’s, Peugeot T16’s etc. It was commissioned by Ford’s Motorsport Division to compete in the World Rally Championship. RS stood for "Rally Sport” and "200” equated to the number of units needed for homologation into Group B for the WRC. The GRP body shells were actually built by Reliant, of Reliant Robin fame, in Tamworth. The cars used a 1.8 litre, single turbocharged Ford/Cosworth BDT engine producing 250 HP in standard form with 350- 450 BHP available for competition. It was mid-engine, had 4WD and a 5 speed manual gearbox.

[FONT=calibri"]I was commissioned by a regional newspaper to raise funds for a local hospice to drive an exotic car around the charity’s various sites one weekend in 1987, with people invited to guess the distance and time . Bob Jones from Exeter, who was my regular co-driver at the time, accompanied me and the finish was arranged to take place in a blaze of publicity at Television Centre in Plymouth, where the winner was to be announced live on-air.

[FONT=calibri"]We didn't have a suitable car, but a friend of mine, Mark Lovell from Axminster, who was a Ford works driver, brokered the deal to borrow a car from Ford and I duly collected it in Taunton from a journalist, who had been using it for an article he was writing. I brought it back to North Devon, where it was quickly stickered up with all the sponsors names, ready for the off depicted in the photo. Unfortunately, as a competition car, the RS200 failed to reach its full potential with its best result being in the hands of Kalle Grundel on the 1986 Swedish Rally, where it finished 3^rd.

[FONT=calibri"]Due to some fatal accidents, Group B was banned from the series at the end of 1986, leaving the RS200 obsolete and it was a sad sight to see rows of half built cars standing beside the old landing strip of Boreham airfield, which was the location of Ford’s competition department, when I returned it to them there the following week. Of course, these cars are now very rare and as collectors’ pieces, fetch a commensurately high price tag.

[FONT=calibri"]I’ll tell you all about the Cossy very soon too.
[FONT=calibri"]Regards,

Clive

 

[Rodney Naghar]

Brilliant, love it!

 

[zeb]

Wonderful pictures and memories clive. Ex rallyman myself but never reached the heady heights of an RS200, I 'peaked' with a V reg MK2 !!

Remember seeing Lovell on the manx in the sierra, a wonderful driver and a sad loss in 2003.

 

[garyw]

Great story Clive, shame we didn't have time over the weekend to sit and have a listen - maybe a register talk for you to do []

Reliant took on people to help build the RS200 but they were sadly laid off at the end of that build, one of my friends was such a person and then used his skills to go on to build electric milkfloats (fibreglass cabins) for those of you that can remember them []

 

[unclewinks]

"Ernie " the fastest milk float in the west ??

 

[MattDC2]

Great story Clive. what were your impressions of it, from behind the wheel?

 

[vitesse]

Our milk is still delivered by one-who needs nostalgia when you can have the real thing!-the milk of course!

 

[Lancerlot]

[FONT=calibri"]So, continuing with the stories of these photographs, this particular Ford Sierra Cosworth was reputedly the first ever used in motorsport. It was originally purchased by wealthy publisher, Ron Hudson from the Ford Main Dealer on the Isle of Man - hence its registration number. I retained this during my tenure, since the VED was only £25pa with no MOT or emission testing being needed either! It also didn’t figure in the UK vehicle database which proved quite handy in certain circumstances! []

[FONT=calibri"]Ford’s intention was to produce the Sierra Cosworth RS for saloon car racing and its cousin, the Sierra XR4x4 for rallying. But the latter’s 6 cylinder engine lacked grunt against the Mazda and Lancia opposition and it came as something of a surprise to Ford when the 2WD Cosworth started producing rally results in the hands of privateer teams.

[FONT=calibri"]Ron Hudson apparently took the car straight out of its Douglas showroom and gave it to a guy on the mainland to convert into rallycross trim. He tackled the European Rallycross Championship with it in 1988, but soon found the car’s 2wd to be uncompetitive on the slippery circuit surfaces and forsook it in favour of an Audi Quattro.

[FONT=calibri"]At this time, I was driving an Opel Manta 400 – one of my favourite rally cars – however it was a Group B car and therefore no longer eligible for FIA events. I started looking around for Group A vehicle and the Cossy was a consummate barn-find. Ron’s mechanic had left it, abandoned in an open barn here on the mainland, amidst an accumulation of hay bales and binder twine. It had no passenger seat and only plastic windows, so it was far from being suitable as a Group A rally car, but it did have a decent welded-in roll cage, a good Terry Hoyle engine and the correct Getrag competition gearbox.

[FONT=calibri"]We set about converting it right away as we were entered in The Manx National Rally. We had to replace the seats, the glass and the windscreen and install all the cabin equipment. It was all a bit of a rush and my recollection of the event was that the car handled beautifully into right hand turns, but was diabolical in left handers. Previously it had only ever had to negotiate clockwise circuits and we later discovered the rear main suspension beam was badly bent!! Also it had only ever needed to last 3 laps, not 200 miles so things like the petrol pumps, wired up just using radio speaker cable, had to be resolved. [&:]

[FONT=calibri"]The other major problem was lack of fuel. We had been unable to source a proper 80lt bag tank in time and consequently had to compete using the original 5 gal. rallycross tank - just about enough for a single special stage. Servicing on the event was banned other than in designated areas and there were usually 3 or 4 special stages to traverse before each service. The penalty for unauthorised servicing was exclusion!
[FONT=calibri"]So how did we manage? Well at the end of each stage – and I know not from where - a jerry-can would mysteriously appear at the side of the road and we were able to fill up with sufficient fuel to get us through the next stage. Someone must truly have been looking down on us from above!

[FONT=calibri"]We ran the Cossy successfully for a couple of years before our main sponsor, the local Ford Main Dealer withdrew due to a recession and we were rather left high and dry. As a further matter of interest, this car was the first ever branded by my old mate, Andy Bell, from Sign Design in North Devon, who now stickers up most of the British Touring Cars as well as the Hass Formula 1 Team. So you could say, I started him out on his current career path.

[FONT=calibri"]Subsequently, I went on to drive a Lancia Delta HF and several Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions. But that, as they say, is a story for another day! []

Regards,

Clive

 

[Kevin Frost]

RS200 "Pre EVO"