Sports cars

Nostalgic value can drive the price of some cars to unexpected heights. The record price of the Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth set last year was more than quadrupled at this year’s auction.

The homologation special Sierra RS500 Cosworth is one of the desirable cars that people attribute a high emotional value to. In recent years, we have therefore written about several specimens (see here, here and here) which were auctioned for around three million crowns, or a similar sale amount was expected at the time of writing the article. In short, you won’t get a cheap specimen. But now the prices have soared to a new level, and one special Sierra has been auctioned for a record sum.

In order to participate in Group A touring car races, Ford needed to produce and sell at least 5,000 units of the so-called homologation car. The automaker used the Sierra model as the basis and presented the Sierra RS Cosworth at the Geneva Motor Show in 1985. The rules for group A made it possible to prepare a further improved version of the model after the construction of the required number of pieces had been completed. Again there was a requirement to sell a minimum number of pieces for road traffic, this time only a tenth of the original quantity, i.e. 500 copies.

The result was the introduction of the Sierra RS500 Cosworth in mid-1987. While the racing version of the car was able to produce more than double that, the road version had to settle for 167kW. Nevertheless, due to the racing success of the Sierra, it was sold out in a short time. The black car in the photos in the gallery was purchased by its current owner fourteen years ago, when, with the help of an expert, he managed to find what he believed to be the most perfect specimen. The original condition of the car was said to be unattainable at the time and the mileage was minimal.

The car’s low mileage and perfect condition remained until the time of the Silverstone Auctions auction, when its odometer showed just 5,192 miles, or roughly 8,355 kilometers. Although the car has been used very minimally, it has received above-standard care and has recently passed a technical inspection. A good foundation and subsequent maintenance in perfect condition is worth a record sale price.

The auction house described the car as probably the most perfect specimen of the rare Sierra RS Cosworth that has survived to this day. After a bidding war with a rival, the new owner paid 596,250 British pounds for her, i.e. almost 16 million crowns! This clearly beat the previous record from last year, when another specimen was auctioned for 132,750 pounds (over 3.5 million crowns). The auction house also points out that this is almost thirty times the original price of a new car (£19,950 in 1987).

As part of the same auction, the Sierra in a different version – the Sapphire RS Cosworth 4×4 from 1990 – was also sold for a record sum. The original estimated selling price was 50,000 pounds, but as a result, the new owner bought it for a record 109,125 pounds (over 2.9 million crowns ).