MODEL HISTORY
The situation in the rally in the second half of the 80's was more complicated - after the end of Sk.B with the 1986 season, many carmakers did not have a substitution for the current program, including Ford, where it was necessary to find a replacement for RS200, that would meet Sk.A. Their Sierra looked like an excellent candidate, but it had a catch - the XR4x4 variant had a perfect chassis and 4x4 drive, but it had a weak engine. On the contrary, the Cosworth variant had an excellent supercharged engine, but it had only a rear-wheel drive. So, in 1987, the team jumped into the World Cup with both the Sierra XR4x4 and the Sierra RS Cosworth.
The XR4x4 had an output of around 200 hp, which meant a handicap of around 100 hp compared to the modern Lancia Delta Sk.A. In the end, only the Cosworth variant proved successful, so Ford decided to only continue with it. In the same year, factory-backed drivers Ari Vatanen and Stig Blomqvist managed to win their Sierra Cosworth silver and bronze medal from the Finnish Rally, with Blomqvist adding one more silver medal from the British RAC Rally.
Ford deployed the three-door Sierra in the hands of Didier Auriol, Stig Blomqvist and Carlos Sainz until 1990, when the four-door 4x4 version arrived. In 1988, Auriol even won the Tour de Corse and finished 3rd in Finland, while Blomqvist finished 2nd in Sweden with a private XR4x4. As in the case of the BMW M3, Sierra had great potential for success on winding, technical tarmac stages with good traction, where, thanks to its advantage in the form of lower weight, it was able to beat the competition with a still untuned 4x4 drive. This feature played to their cards especially in the fights in national championships on the old continent.
OUR CAR
The Sierra Cosworth with registration number FND 618 is a factory-built car originating in the RAS team, with which Robert Droogmans won the title of Champion (1988) and Vice-Champion (1989) in the Belgian Rally Championship and completed selected events of the European Championship in 1987-1989. The car was sold to Greece in 1990, where it was piloted by Kalemtzakis until 1992. The last Greek owner was Fotis Brozos. He bought the car as a 17-year-old only because he liked the car, but he never drove it. For many years, Sierra stood in the backyard of his house - completed, but very damaged by the hot Greek climate. Before 2010, the car reappeared in Belgium with the registration number 949 BN, the car was owned by Gerard Fabian at that time. In 2013, thanks to Philip Olczyk, Sierra was sold through the VDV Grant trader, where our company acquired it. It is now completely restored, including the original Robert Droogmans livery of 1989, and is fully operational.
