WHEN TURBOS RULED TIN-TOPS
FORD RS500
More than any other car, Ford’s turbo saloon comes to mind when talking about the BTCC’S most spectacular machines. With over 500bhp and limited tyre sizes, the RS500 always had more power than grip, something that tended to get more pronounced as the car voraciously ate its rubber during races. That, along with regular flame-spitting, made the car memorable to watch even if it wasn’t battling wheel to wheel.
Having already scored success with the Xr4ti and RS Cosworth, Andy Rouse brought the RS500 – complete with a bigger intercooler and twin injectors – to the BTCC at the end of 1987. He took the car’s first series victory at Donington Park in September and the RS500 immediately made all other Class A cars obsolete. No other car would win a BTCC round until the move to the single-class two-litre era in 1991.
Tim Harvey, who won two races in the RS500’S heyday, remains a fan. “As a racing car, probably the Rover SD1 was better, but in terms of fun the RS500 was unparalleled – 560bhp and 175mph was pretty exciting,” says the 1992 champion. “The balance of the car was totally dominated by the power and the turbo lag. You’re not talking about a finely honed handling machine – it was a hammer to crack a nut, but immense fun.
“Everybody was fixated with power in the late 1980s. I remember, on the old Grand Prix circuit at Silverstone, going
36 AUGUST 16 2018 through the fast version of Club in fifth gear and having wheelspin. Tyres made more difference than anything else because no tyre was going to handle that sort of power easily. You had to have a lot of talent to pedal one of those quickly.”
This one was raced by Chris Hodgetts in 1989. Current owner Craig Davies was a Production Saloons racer when the RS500S were in the BTCC and always admired them: “I was looking at the RS500 guys and would have loved to get in there with them.”
Davies stopped racing, but then the Hodgetts car came up for sale, having lived in a Brooklyn showroom. It still had (and has) some of its original BTCC decals, and Davies went for it. He has successfully campaigned it since and the 550+bhp machine is one of the fastest examples still competing.
As a young lad, I grew up being ferried around by my parents in a (later) Ford Sierra Sapphire Cosworth. They ultimately persisted with the 4WD version, after the 2WD’S turbo lag helped my mum into a ditch with kids in the back on an icy winter’s day. Because of that personal history, this is the car I’m most looking forward to.
It’s clear that Davies and his crew have put a lot of TLC into this machine. Everything looks right, and the fact that he has raced it
‘I ABSOLUTELY LOVE DRIVING THIS CAR, BUT EVENTUALLY IT BITES BACK AND I SPIN UNDER BRAKING’
successfully suggests it will be well-sorted. “It handles well in the wet,” he tells me as I gear up for my run, and he’s right – it is phenomenally sure-footed and smothered in grip in a way the SD1 wasn’t in these conditions. That’s helped by a ‘wet’ engine map that detunes it to around 450bhp, which makes it very driveable.
But it’s still a seriously quick bit of kit, able to reach fifth gear at 7000rpm just before Paddock Hill Bend. I absolutely love driving this car – the handling and power just inspire you to keep trying to go quicker and quicker. Eventually it starts to bite back. I have a big moment at Paddock, then a spin under braking for Druids, so I decide to call it a day and head back to the pits. I’m getting carried away and having too much fun…
It almost feels like the SD1 and RS500 have switched places compared to what Harvey remembers of them – but that’s probably a function of modern understanding and tyres.
Many formulas eventually reach a point where everything starts to get out of control and must be reined in. That’s not always for the better, but in the case of the BTCC the end of the fire-breathing RS500 sparked the category’s greatest era – effectively turning it into a Super Touring world championship on British soil. The legacy of that, and everything that came before, is why the BTCC remains so significant. Our thanks to Brands Hatch, Julius Thurgood, Guy Harman, Henry Mann, John Young, Ken Clarke and Craig Davies