GROUP A SIERRA
The Sierra Cosworth may bet better known for its success in touring cars, especially in dominant RS500 guise, but from 1987 to 1990 the iconic whale-tail Cossie had a compelling career in Group A rallying too…
Looking back at the rally career of the Sierra Cosworth.
It is perhaps understandable that those rally cars homologated in the immediate aftermath of Group B’s sudden, premature cancellation at the end of the 1986 are often overlooked, lacking in both technical sophistication and drama as they doubtless were – certainly in comparison to what had immediately preceded them. Cars like the DF HF AWD, the Renault 11 Turbo and Mazda 323 Turbo, none could hope to
match the likes of an RS200 for drama, let alone stage presence and pace – at least not to begin with.
Yet it really didn’t take long for the early Group A cars to develop a cult following all of their own, one lent further charm and credence through the sheer variety of machinery shoved to the fore in the wake of Group B’s demise. Front, rear and fourwheel drive cars were all well represented, as were cars fed through natural aspiration and forced induction, either by way of a turbo or, in the case of the VW Golf Rallye, a supercharger.
One of the most compelling if not necessarily successful was the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth, specifically the three-door, two-wheel drive version campaigned by Boreham from 1987 to 1990. Ford had more reason than most to rue the demise of Group B, what with its ground-breaking RS200 having emerged mere months
into the final season run under those regulations, and therefore given scant opportunity to showcase its undoubted potential.
CIRCUIT TO SPECIAL STAGE
It didn’t matter, not once the FIA had spoken, and Ford was forced to once more peruse its model line-up with one eye on rallying and the other firmly on racing. It was therefore only sensible that the company would land upon the Sierra Cosworth: after all, it had already proved itself to be a cripplingly dominant touring car racer in championships as diverse as the BTCC, the ETCC and even ‘down under.’ How hard could it be to take the same, essentially brilliant race car and turn it into a rally winner?
In a word, very. The most daunting obstacle facing Boreham was an insurmountable one, the Sierra’s rear-wheel drive layout, a configuration that had been all but routed from rallying’s top tier by the Quattro and its imitators. But it was also true that the World Rally Championship of 1987 was vastly different from the one of 12 months previously, the banning of the Group B supercars having left the sport in a state of flux. Not unreasonably, Ford reasoned that there was time and space for its two-wheel drive racer to steal a march on the all-wheel drive opposition, so a Group A rally programme was duly given the goahead.
Boreham could at least count upon adequate forward momentum on top in the form of the Cosworth YB. As we all know this engine proved to be a staggeringly effective proposition in anything it was placed in, and the Sierra rally car was no exception. It’s worth pointing out that while Group A cars were nominally supposed to put out no more than 300bhp, this was far from the case. Indeed, while the FIA did mandate a 40mm restrictor from 1990 in an attempt to limit peak power, it was pretty much open season as far as boost was concerned in the preceding seasons.
‘REAR GUNNER’
Not that power was any substitute for traction, not when the majority of the rallies which comprised the WRC were held on gravel. This meant that the Sierra was destined to be nowt but a beloved also-ran on anything other than tarmac, so rounds like Corsica, Sanremo and the Monte became far more important to Boreham
than they might otherwise have been.
Things didn’t begin especially positively in the Sierra’s first season, 1987. The WRC landscape might’ve been remodelled by the demise of Group B but one thing had remained the same - Lancia’s potency.
Turin had campaigned a Group A variant of the Delta throughout the previous season and could therefore count upon a fully developed, fully reliable rally car. Ford, on the other hand, had two variants of the Sierra on its books: the Cosworth for faster, sealed surface events, and the XR4x4 for gravel work. The latter was of course allwheel drive, though its big, lazy V6 was no match for the Delta’s boosted four-pot. It didn’t take long before the four-wheel drive car was quietly retired for good.
‘CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR’
Even with the XR4x4 programme shuttered and the Cosworth one thrust to the fore, headline results remained hard to come by, though Ford’s roster of world class drivers did manage to grind out some deeply impressive podiums. Case in point, the 1000 Lakes. Here, Ford put in something of a masterclass, with Sierras occupying 2nd and 3rd, Ari Vatanen and Blomqvist keeping the winning Delta of Marku Alen more than honest. The team would repeat the result on the RAC some months later, this time with Blomqvist in 2nd and Jimmy McRae 3rd.
The following year was just as tough, not least as the Delta had become an even more complete proposition and could now put up stiff resistance to Ford’s tarmac challenge. There was also Toyota’s much vaunted Celica ST165 project, a car slated to compete with one of Xtrac’s most sophisticated allwheel drive systems and due to debut in the year. It all added up to a worrying picture from Boreham’s perspective and meant that the Sierra was running out of time to earn its place in the annals of WRC history.
That the Sierra was finally able to etch its place in history was largely down to the roster of up and coming drivers given the chance to shine at its wheel. One Colin McRae cut his Group A teeth in the family’s RS, as did his future sparring partner and team mate, Carlos Sainz, so you could make the case that the Sierra played a small but significant role in forming the rallying landscape of the ‘90s too.
TOUR DE FORCE
Yet it was the incomparable Didier Auriol who really made his mark on the WRC with the three-door Cosworth, and his did it on ‘home’ turf on the 1988 running of the Tour de Corse. Now, it should be noted that it was not unknown for a two-wheel drive car to cause an upset on tarmac at this time, with Bernard Beguin having taken an E30 M3 to a popular victory on Corsica 12 months beforehand, but such was the pace with which the all-wheel drive opposition was maturing that many deemed the days of the rear-wheel drive Group A winner numbered.
In that, they were correct, but Auriol’s drive that year would at least give the powered back axle brigade something to celebrate, and in some style. On the pace
from the off, Auriol set about building a commanding lead in the opening leg of the rally, using the superior tarmac pace (not to mention his spellbinding pace on Corsica’s off-camber crests and countless corners) to put the chasing Deltas of Bruno Saby and Yves Loubet on the back foot.
Auriol also had local knowledge on his side – or as ‘local’ as someone from the opposite end of France could ever be! He’d eventually be confirmed as the most successful driver in the history of the Tour de Corse and retire with a staggering 6 outright wins to his name, but in 1988 he had his first - indeed his first ever WRC victory - in his sights.
Auriol’s closest challenge came from Beguin’s M3, plus his team mate and fellow Frenchman Francois Chatriot. All three were faster than the established opposition from Lancia and, making its debut, the Celica GT4s of Kenneth Erikkson and Juha Kankkunen.
A minor ‘off’ on stage 12 put Auriol on the back foot but he fought on valiantly, eventually winning by 3 minutes and 5 seconds. In doing so he ended Ford’s WRC drought, one that had stretched right back to the days of the David Sutton prepared Mk2 Escort RS, and also netted his own, maiden victory.
Very nearly as impressive was Auriol’s Sierra drive in Finland some months later when the Frenchman came home a battling 3rd overall on this, the most specialised event on the WRC calendar and one which had (at that point in time) eluded the grasp of all non-Finns. Auriol would go two better in 1992 by becoming only the second nonScandinavian to win the 1000 Lakes, but his drive from behind 4 years earlier was every bit as impressive.
There was no sugaring the truth any longer come 1989, that being the Sierra’s ineffectiveness as a WRC car. Lancia had finally developed the Delta Integrale into a viable tarmac rally car and it was able to win anywhere, and on all surfaces. Toyota had also unveiled its Group A car, the Xtracshod ST165 Celica towards the end of the previous year, and both of these machines effectively overwhelmed the Sierra and forced its retirement. In any case, Ford had already switched focus to the Sierra Sapphire Cosworth 4x4 as we entered the ‘90s…