Ford Sierra RS Cosworth/RS500

[superford]

I'm sure this has probably been covered before, but what became of the Eggenberger Crichton XR4i that then became the Croft Cosworth Group A, then the Francevic Sports Sedan?

It showed up on Trademe a few years ago looking like this:






At this time I think it was sold to some fella named Conrod??

[superford]

Then only a few weeks back I saw it again on TradeMe - this time only the flared guards were for sale. It sounds like the resto back to Eggenberger spec is under way. It hadn't changed much;

[superford]

However, I liked it best looking like this;

Photo credit to the kind sole who uploaded it to Flickr - where I found it a few years back.

[conrod]

At this time I think it was sold to some fella named Conrod??

That would be me, but no I didn't buy it, a good friend of mine did. I advertised the panels on trademe, as they were not required and just taking up a lot of space. Over the few years my friend has owned it we have managed to find a lot of the original Gp.A parts that had become scattered to the wind. The long Getrag bellhousing, all of the original bumpers and mouldings (still with stickers from the Eggenberger/Crichton days!) and a race engine (one from the Rouse car I believe)We also paid a visit to Mark Petch's workshops, and rummaged through a lot of boxes and came up with a bunch of parts/spares for this car. We have nearly all of the major/hard to find parts for the car now, and we will strip the car to a bare bodyshell in the next few months, and the restoration can begin.
It will be restored back to Gp.A spec. and probably to this livery that it ran in Wellington/Pukekohe with. Hard to believe it is the same car as the pic above!

Conrad

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, this is great! So its being restored to the Crichton XR4i spec then, not the Croft Cosworth? Just out of interest, did this car race in Europe before being bought by Crichton? I seem to recall it first appeared in Crichton's hands just before the Cosworth's were due to arrive on the scene, which I found odd at the time. I wondered why Crichton didn't wait and buy a Cosworth.

[conrod]

HI Steve, yes it does seem odd, as when the Cosworth arrived in 1987 it pretty much made this car obsolete. One of the articles I read stated the Crichton was going to buy a Cossie in 1987, but that never happened.

This car was Steve Soper's car for the second half of the 1986 ETCC season as far as we can tell, the pic below is taken at Donington 1986.At this point Eggenberger were building and running the cars, with backing from Ford, so this was essentially a "works" entry. It was always intended as a development year, to sort the handling and chassis, for the arrival of the Cosworth engine in 1987. So although it played a significant part in the development of the Cossie, it was a particularly quick car in its own right towards the end of the 1986 season, winning the last round in Estoril, and was quickest in qually at Brno earlier in the season, Soper being clocked at 300kph!

It did not have a particularly successful history in NZ as an RS500, or Thundersaloon for that matter, and for us it was pretty much a no brainer to restore it back to the original Gp.A XR4Ti spec. This opens up all sorts of possibilities for racing the car here and overseas, and the car will probably retain the most value in this form.

Would anyone have a pic of the car when Garry Croft drove it? It was a Gp.A RS500 at this point (1988-89 NZ season) and I think Husqvarna colours, white with stripes I think.

Conrad

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[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Conrad, yes I think you and I must have read similar articles on the car when Crichton first bought it. He only intended that it be an interim car, until a new Cosworth arrived, but as you said, the Cosworth never did actually come. My recollection was that Crichton's plans were quite big at the time.

This is a grotty photo I snapped of the car with a cheap camera at Manfeild when raced by Croft. My scanner isn't up to much either, so you won't get much joy from this. Note the Wolf Racing wheels, which I assume were spares from the Francevic car. You're right, it didn't do a lot in either Crichton or Croft's hands, but at this Manfeild event, Croft pulled out and passed Francevic down the back straight and drove away. So it had the odd good performance.

One thing I do recall about it was that the nose sat much lower to the ground than the Francevic car, the ride height was more of a 'rake'.

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[conrod]

Thanks for the pic Steve, I think thats the first time I have ever seen it in that guise!

Looks pretty convincing too! At some point the ali cage was removed and Ron Mcmillan fitted a steel cage, which remains to this day. The mounting points for the original ali cage are still there though. We will have to replace the cage anyway, as the rules have changed, and all paperwork for the car is missing.

cheers Conrad

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah, it does look convincing. It wasn't until someone on here mentioned the car was the ex-Crichton Eggenberger XR4 that I had any idea it wasn't a Cosworth! And I was probably a little critical when I said it didn't do a lot in either Crichton or Croft's hands. As a Cossie, with Croft driving, it actually went pretty well. It wasn't usually as fast as the Francevic car, but then again, I assume it was 'Cosworthed' using spares that Petch had from running the other car.

[conrod]

I spoke to Mark Petch about it, he said that they had so many spares when they bought the car from Walter Wolf, it was easy to do. I don't think the car lacked for anything mechanically, it appears to have all of the RS500 updated parts such as the huge mag trailing arms with relocated mounting points, brakes, suspension, etc. So in theory at least, it should have been as good as the other car. The rest would come down to how well it was set up,how well it was driven, and how high the boost was wound up, such was the way of these old cars

The values of Gp.A RS500's have skyrocketed in recent years, and the XR4Ti was a way for my friend to get into a proper Gp.A car for sensible money. There is also the fun of discovering its history,"finding" missing parts and the rebuild itself, if you enjoy that sort of thing. (and we do!)

[Steve Holmes]

Conrad, when looking for this photo, I stumbled upon a couple I took of Andrew Bagnall's version, which I thought looked fantastic when it had its TV3 sponsorship. Who built this car? Was it Wolf? It wore Wolf wheels in the photo. And where is it now?

[conrod]

Do you mean Andrew Bagnall's RS500? I think it was built in Australia by Ross Stone from new parts, not sure where it ended up though, I think back in Aus? It got a bit beaten up at Wellington one year when it had a close encounter with a wall

[Steve Holmes]

Yes thats the one Conrod, his RS500. I think from memory he ran as team mate to Andrew Meidecke in the ATCC, maybe in 1989?

[conrod]

I think Miedecke drove it at Wellington with him too. I have it on one of my videos. White/dark blue with TV3 logo, and running either DJR wheels or Wolf/Ronals depending on what got bolted on Looked quite sharp!

just found it here:

I've also wondered what happened to the Andrew Bagnall Cossy; Anyone know?

[CAMD]

I don't know where you heard that story because it is not correct.
I work for DJR in those days and built all the engines, not turbo housings were ever cut in half and modified (No need).
These story's get around because people can't understand where our power came from.
At the Silverstone TT the water pump did fail (Only pump failure we ever had) but the car did finish the race after being delayed in the pits to have the water replenished. If we had had that problem whilst racing in Australia, we had the equipment to replenish the water in seconds, and would of still be able to win that race.
I Know because I was there

[conrod]

I don't know where you heard that story because it is not correct.
I work for DJR in those days and built all the engines, not turbo housings were ever cut in half and modified (No need).
These story's get around because people can't understand where our power came from.
At the Silverstone TT the water pump did fail (Only pump failure we ever had) but the car did finish the race after being delayed in the pits to have the water replenished. If we had had that problem whilst racing in Australia, we had the equipment to replenish the water in seconds, and would of still be able to win that race.
I Know because I was there

Thanks for that, although you didn't quote the message you were responding to, I suspect it was the comment I made sometime earlier. It was told to me by someone claiming he worked for DJR back then, obviously it was a load of BS!

[Haga]

Silverstone TT race:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ofV9WzPqz0&feature=share

[superford]

The Bagnall car within the Meidecke Motorsport prior to Bathurst 89; Photo credit unknown;



Crosby qualified the car for the top 10 shootout - Bagnall drove it in the shootout and crashed it.....



A shot I had of the Meidecke Sierra. Nice looking car this one. I think it was absorbed into the Brock Sierra team the following year and then wrecked when he rolled it at Mallala during the ATCC round.

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, these are great. The yellow RS500 looks like the Kevin Waldock car, which I think was built by Jim Stone?

[conrod]

Wow, these are great. The yellow RS500 looks like the Kevin Waldock car, which I think was built by Jim Stone?

Yes it is, that is the car now owned by Brett Stevens in Motueka. I think "Blast Dynamics" on the side of the transporter was Kevin Waldocks company.