Yeah im pretty sure that bits wrong. farily sure it was never a sports sedan, in this country at least
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The 1987 Bathurst and Calder ANZ RS500 was a Rouse car easily identified by being Right Hand Drive. The following year Moffat bought an Eggenberger car out and contested a handful of ATCC races, the Sandown 500 (shown below) and Bathurst. I've read somewhere talk that this first car was originally a Texaco car with some indicating the black roll cage as evidence although I don't think anyone has really confirmed this. For 89, 90, 91 and 92 Moffat ran two full spec Eggenberger customer cars. One of the two cars was said to have only have 4 entries in it's CAMS log book - 4 Bathursts in a row.
1987 Bathurst - Rouse car;
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...e11_edited.jpg
1988 Sandown 500;
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...t16_edited.jpg
I've stolen a quote from another forum from what appears to be the owner of the 1988 car:
Greetings from Down Under guys. I'm on the hunt for any pics from the 1989 Intertec Fuji 500. In particular pics of the winning RS500 - the Allan Moffat Racing ANZ Sierra #39. This car was the very first Eggenberger 'customer' chassis, raced as #9 in Australia with Klaus Niedzwiedz employed as lead driver at Bathurst in 1988.
The 1989 Fuji 500 is significant as it was Moffat's last race & was done on his 50th Birthday but little, if anything of the race was reported in oz. I'm fortunate to know Allan personally & he speaks fondly of this race, even explaining the choice of race #39 (born 1939) & that he always told himself he would not be "one of those 50 year old race drivers"........he stuck to his word & went out a winner!
I think this is that #9 car;
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...x/sierra22.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...x/sierra21.jpg
and this is the #10 car;
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...x/SDC11596.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...x/SDC11595.jpg
The #10 car has been doing laps as recently as the 2012 Melborne F1 support races. I don't think the #9 car has been out since the Group A days. The #9 Rouse ANZ car is also in Aussie and is regularly seen doing the Group A races at classic events.
That's about as much as I know - but I'm sure there are others out there that know a whole lot more!!!
More car info and some good period pics:
http://www.ten-tenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114111
Hi Superford,
The white RS500 seen photographed inside a house is in fact the ANZ 10 car and the same car that you mention had 4 Bathurst entries in its CAMS book, I think the ANZ 9 car the Fuji 500 race winner is still owner by B Miles???.
See photos FYI.
Cheers.
Thanks for that zakspeed65 - I wasn't really sure. You suggest that #9 may be owned by B Miles of NZ fame?? Regardless I hope to see this car in action again one day soon.
I had the pleasure of having a good look over the Texaco RS500 when passing through Pahiatua last year when it was on display in the Hoffman Ford Showroom. Oh to be able to take it for a squirt!!!
Here is another of that series of snaps of ANZ #10;
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...x/sierra20.jpg
From memory Moffat didn't race his Sierras much at all, he mostly focused on the big events, Bathurst, and a couple of the lead-up races.
Here are a couple of publicity pics from the 2012 Silverstone Classic http://www.silverstoneclassic.com/ where there will be a big celebration of the BTCC during the 1980s and early '90s. I always thought the Tim Harvey Labatts colour scheme was the nicest looking of all the Sierras. Note the number of Australian cars in these pics; One of the DJR cars, and an ex-Brock car, which itself was possibly ex-Rouse. Was the Chris Hodgetts car ex-DJR?
Attachment 8940
Attachment 8941
Hi Steve, the Hodgetts car was built by Brooklyn Ford I believe. Def. not a DJR car. I might be over there at end of July, so will try to get to that race meeting if I am. Apparently 1200 entrants there last year - it is HUGE!
Conrad
http://www.silverstoneclassic.com/Content/Event-Info/2/
Thanks for that info Conrad. Good to know. Who was Brooklyn Ford.
Just out of interest, did DJR supply all the Sierras raced by Rob Gravett, or did Gravett end up building his own at some stage? I seem to recall he may have built his own prior to buying his first DJR car?
heres a few more I took at the 87 street race.
Attachment 9081
Attachment 9082
Attachment 9083
Does anyone know if any of the current RS500's that race in NZ are based in Canterbury?
Mark, there used to be a few of them in Canterbury. I know several years ago there was a DJR and Brock car there, but not sure whats there now.
These are awesome photos Brett. Man I just loved those cars! Its amazing how standard looking the interiors are. I took a look inside one of the Eggenberger cars a couple of years ago at a historic event. For some reason I expected it to look like the inside of the space shuttle, but it was extremely basic, save for a few additional knobs. I was almost disappointed! These cars just seemed SO high-tech when they first appeared.
Couple of great shots here by Warwick Clayton of the Rouse XR4i. What a pretty car this was. I believe this was its debut NZ race, the 1986 Wellington Street Race.
Attachment 14079
Attachment 14080
Making some progress.....decals next.
http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/s...t/P1010009.jpg
Wow! What is the history of this car?
Some time around 1987/88 I was at my desk at Cars and Car Conversions magazine when I fielded a phone call from a former colleague who had crossed to the dark side and was working as a public relations consultant. "I have a client", he explained, "who has the fastest Sierra in Europe!" My heart sank. This was the height of the Sierra Cosworth tuning era, and every tuner in Britain was claiming that his latest effort was the fastest and most powerful yet. Because of Ford's commendably strict durability requirements for all of its production vehicles (from memory, every vehicle had to be capable of driving for a minimum of 24 hours at full throttle, regardless of whether it was a 150mph Sierra RS Cosworth or a 950cc Fiesta), the Cossie was under-stressed in standard form and could easily accept substantial performance upgrades, often achieved with little more than a modified 'chip' in the ECU. By such means 240bhp was achieved with some ease, a substantial increase on the standard car's 204bhp (sorry guys, I am not very good at these new-fangled kW thingies). With some mechanical upgrades: better head gaskets; bigger turbocharger; bigger intercoolers; higher-flowing injectors etc, even greater outputs were achievable, still with impressive durability and reliability. But this lead to a horsepower race, such that in time it seemed that every tuning company and BTCC race team in the UK, and many more in Europe, were offering performance upgrades for the Cossie. And every week it seemed that one or other was trying to top the others with more and more (advertised) horsepower.
Without the ability to verify every claim we - the editorial staff at CCC - had become skeptical and frankly, a little tired of these claims as more and more preposterous figures were bandied about. Hence my rather 'ho hum, not another one' response to my former colleague's invitation to feature his client's car. However when he explained that this was no ordinary tuned Sierra but a Pro Stock dragster, I took a somewhat keener interest. "It's got 1800 horsepower", he averred. "It does the standing quarter mile in under 9 seconds. It is the fastest Door Slammer in Europe, and he wants you to test it!"
That's how I came to be at Santa Pod with a staff photographer a few days later when a huge vehicle transporter bearing a Hauser Race Cars logo rolled in. The two crew team members with the car proceeded to open up the rear of the transporter and unload the vehicle within. When it was still on the tail lift I looked up at it, and as it was slowly lowered to ground level it started to dawn on me that I might have bitten off a bit more than I could chew.
I should explain here that while I wasn't over-endowed with self-confidence, by that time I had done quite a bit of racing in the UK and had enjoyed a bit of success. I had also track tested a number of pretty quick cars, and when it came to a driving challenge I was pretty much up for anything. Or thought I was. But I was definitely having second thoughts about this. This was clearly a serious and highly specialized bit of kit, and not the sort of thing you just grab the keys for with a cheerful "Gizza go, mister', jump in and tear up the road. Hey, I wasn't scared right? Just a little… well, apprehensive…
Then the owner/driver Geoff Hauser arrived, and after we had exchanged the usual pleasantries, it quickly became apparent that he was of much the same opinion! It seemed that my erstwhile colleague had been a little economical with the truth, and that there was no possibility of anyone other than Geoff himself, a hugely experienced drag racer and professional car builder (and a hell of a nice guy too, I came to realize), taking the wheel. However, a track test is not a track test unless you actually get to drive, right? And as always, we were under pressure to deliver a feature for the next issue of the magazine, with no time to reschedule or tee up an alternative. I had been stitched up.
I sought out the PR man and gave him the benefit of my opinion.
I felt a little better, but my dilemma remained: how the hell were we supposed to do a track test when the owner of the vehicle has no intention of allowing anyone other than himself to drive it? Never mind that: I wasn't too sure I was prepared to drive it myself anyway, at least not without a good deal of instruction, supervision, and practice, for which we had simply had not planned. Anyway, there was no passenger seat and no seat belts, nor any provision for fitting either. So I went back to Geoff and explained the problem. We had pages to fill and deadlines to meet. I told him that I felt we had been misled, through no fault of his, and asked if he could suggest any way out of the mess. "Well, there is something we could do" he replied. "If you are prepared to wedge yourself into the passenger side, we'll do a burnout and a launch and half-pass. It will at least give you a feel for the acceleration and speed". Ulp!
Half an hour later, Geoff having completed a couple of solo test runs, I found myself worming my way in among the tubes of the substantial roll cage in search of a suitable place to sit. Like any serious racing saloon, the roll age is the chassis, so in fact it was proving difficult simply to find a person-sized gap to squeeze in to.
The multiplicity of tubes meant there were plenty of things to hold on to, but equally, plenty of stuff to whack an unrestrained limb in to too. I was especially nervous of the weight of my crash helmet, and the possibility of sustaining whiplash if the acceleration was indeed as fierce as expected.
After a bit of wriggling about, I found a position propped up against the rear bulkhead where I felt I couldn't be hurled backwards, where I had something to hold on to, and where I could use my free arm to provide some support for my helmet. "I must be fucking mad" I thought as I gave Geoff the thumbs-up. He fired up the motor, which set off an incredible racket. But even more noticeable was the vibration, which excited every internal panel and seemed to add to the din. You could feel the torque of that giant bellowing 9-litre V8, the whole vehicle rocking gently on its rear tyres, squidgy as under-inflated balloons, every time he blipped the throttle.
We rolled up to the start-line and Geoff performed the obligatory burnout to warm the tyres, filling the cockpit with acrid smoke. Backing up with the door open largely cleared the cockpit of smoke, but not before I had suffered a coughing fit and streaming eyes. Then creeping forward in tiny increments, in the process known to drag racers as "staging", we were ready.
We had access to all of Santa Pod's facilities, so we used the 'Christmas Tree" as though we were in a proper drag race: pre-stage, stage, watch for the amber lights and GO! Although I was prepared to be amazed (and holding on for dear life!) nothing could prepare me for the sheer violence of the launch. Even though I was braced, my back slammed in to the bulkhead behind me knocking some of the wind out of me, and I was glad of the restraining arm behind my head taking the additional weight of my helmet. With no discernible wheelspin, and no clutch slip, it was like being launched by a giant invisible rubber band. One moment we were sitting on the start line and the next second we were flying down the strip at rapidly-increasing speed. At half-track and about 130mph, Geoff lifted off and we coasted the rest of the way, braking gently to a halt without needing to deploy the parachute required when slowing from 190-odd mph.
An amazing experience. A Boeing 737 in take-off mode has enough acceleration to pin you back in your seat, but the initial launch is distinctly leisurely as the tremendous thrust developed by the jet engines strives to overcome the inertia of all that weight at rest. In a similar way, almost everything else I have driven or ridden in is traction-limited, and takes a little coaxing to get off the line . This thing seemed to defy the normal laws of physics.
As we rolled to a halt I was very glad to unravel myself from all those tubes and set foot on terra firma again; glad to have had the experience; glad to have survived. And to be honest, I was glad not to have had to drive the Sierra myself! It was without a doubt the riskiest thing I did in my time with CCC, but (having survived!) it remains a memory to treasure. Curious isn't it: the life-experiences where you've overcome obstacles, confronted fears… and survived… are the ones that remain in the memory longest.
Wow, awesome story! I don't really know what the rules are in Pro Stock, but obviously he was allowed to fit a V8 in place of the turbo 4, or was he using the South African V8 Sierra as his reasoning for the repower? Did the car still look like a Sierra Cosworth, or had the outer shell been so severely massaged it was hard to tell?
Great story Art! That brings back some memories for me. I was 20 years old at that time,an avid reader of CCC,(it was a great read back then) and you could say a bit of a Ford nut:) I loved the Cossies, and can remember the horsepower claims getting bigger and bigger all the time , BBR always seemed to be there or thereabouts in the "wild claims dept." In the early 1990's I ended up working in the UK for about 3 years on Cossies (building rally and race cars at Spooner Engineering) and that time holds many good memories for me:)
Conrad
When I was living in London in the early 1990s, I was desperately trying to save up enough money to buy a Sierra Cosworth (I was 21 when I arrived in London in 1992) with which to ship back to New Zealand when I left, and sell it for a huge profit back home. When new in 1987, Cosworths were few and far between in NZ, with asking prices of approx NZ$120,000, which was insane money at the time.
But when I was in the UK, 3 door Cosworths could be had for as little as 5 thousand quid then, and a 4 door Saphire Cosworth was even cheaper. I couldn't quite muster enough to both buy the car and bring it home, so gave up on the idea. But by the time I'd returned to NZ in late 1994, it appeared everyone else had had the same idea. There were heaps of them. The fact I couldn't ship one home was probably a blessing in disguise. But I still think sometimes I'd like to own one.
I can remember the $120K being asked for the Cossies here! And in the UK they were paying £15995 for a new one! Bring back the bad old days!
I had a similar story to you Steve. Looks like I am only a couple of years older than you, and back then the Escort Cosworth had just been released (1992) I saw a way of buying one cheaply, and did manage to get it back to NZ. I also built a mental spec. 400hp+ 2.3 engine while over there and shipped that back too. I sold it many years later, and still at a small profit (after blowing the big engine up and going back to a "small" 2.0) I think I have owned 4 or 5 Cossies since, and still think they are great cars. If I was in the market again I would try to find a nice unmolested 3 door, either an original Cosworth or an RS500, I think they will be the ones to put away under a cover and watch the value skyrocket:)
Conrad
Hi Steve,
Good question. It really had me scratching my head, and I'm embarrassed to say I can't remember the body style with absolute certainty. However the picture that comes into my mind is actually the six-light body of the XR4Ti, sold as the Merkur in the States ( so that another thing the PR guy lied about!). I have a vague recollection that the rules required the body to be based on a four-door 'shell. The bodyshell was a reasonably accurate facsimile, albeit looking rather odd due to the very different stance: skinny little front wheels tucked way up into the front arches, and monster rear tyres on a narrowed Ford 9-inch axle so the tyres appeared to be almost meeting in the middle, the combination giving the car a pronounced rake.
The car also had the giant air box perched on the bonnet which is typical of the breed. Again from (dodgy) memory, the engine was a modern (at the time) interpretation of a Chrysler Hemi based on a Milodon block; the rules obviously were pretty liberal, as the V8 swap was perfectly legit. I could probably check most of these details, as I kept sample copies of most issues of CCC, albeit with a few gaps, and we brought them with us when we returned to NZ in 2004, but they have never been unpacked. Maybe one day...
Wracking my brains to remember all this stuff made me realize that hey… it was about 25 year ago. The prodigious feats of memory and recall of many of the Roaring Season's contributors blows me away. My respects, guys. Love reading everyones' stories.
Art Markus
Thanks Art, I don't really know what the rules are for this class, but obviously the big Hemi was legal. It may very well be that the cars only have to retain their outer silhouette and wheelbase, and everything else is free. A very cool story. I wonder where the car is now?
Yep, I totally agree Conrad. I've watched the prices creep back up again in the UK. It was really the crippling insurance costs that had pushed the prices so low when I was living there. Cossie's were huge favourites among joy riders at the time. I recall a Topgear tv episode many years ago when the Escort Cossie was still new, and Jeremy Clarkson had one as his personal transport. He said the car cost 19K to buy, and annual insurance was 20K!
Conrod, here's a story you, as a devoted Escort Cosworth fan, might like. We usually had road test cars for a week at a time, and the three full-time staff members would take turns at taking them home, going on assignments etc. Over the years CCC had given a huge amount of coverage to Fords of all descriptions, and although we didn't do formal road tests like Autocar or Motor, say, we were always in good standing with Ford's Press Office, often obtaining vehicles for test before most of the other comics.
When the Escort Cosworth arrived, we were among the first to test one. Anyway, I drove it home one night, parked up, and was rummaging about getting my stuff out of the passenger seat when, unseen by me, a police car pulled alongside. When I went to get out, turned around and spotted the jam sandwich alongside I damn near had a cow. My mind was racing as I hastily rewound the last five miles of my drive home, trying to remember if I had inadvertently or deliberately done anything naughty. I couldn't think of a thing, but I was bricking it anyway!
Four coppers levered themselves out of their vehicle and formed a circle around the Cossie as I apprehensively wound down the window. "Is this your car sir? "Yes… er, no" I spluttered. "Well, what I mean is, I don't own it, but it is in my care for now. It belongs to Ford's Press Office, and is on test with a magazine". "Ah, we wondered about that", their spokesman replied. "We often see high performance cars parked here. We thought that might explain it. What's it like then?" he asked as the other three wandered around admiring the Cossie.
I had to explain that I had only driven it the few miles from the office and had not yet had a chance to stretch its legs. "Don't suppose there is any chance you could take us for ride?" "Sure, jump in". (Anything to oblige several of the Met's finest, eh). "Oh, we're on duty; we can't do it now. But we're off in about half-an-hour. Any chance we could come back?"
True to their word, three of the four came back a bit later, and so we went for a little ride down the A3 which passed close by my flat in Wandsworth. I was driving like a bloke who's got three coppers in the car with him when one of them said "We'd like you to forget the fact that you've got three coppers in the car with you". I didn't need any more encouragement. Probably it was just as well the A3 was busy as always, as it meant I couldn't go too crazy. But whenever the traffic allowed I gave it a mighty burst, handily exceeding 100mph a few times, then braking hard to check my speed when the gaps closed. My passengers were having a high old time, egging me on, laughing and shouting. We turned back about Surbiton and I gave it a bit of a squirt on the roundabout and tore back up the A3. By the time I delivered them back to their car we were all giggling like naughty schoolboys. We parted the best of friends. If it hadn't happened, I wouldn't have believed it...
Best wishes,
Art Markus
Hello Art,
great story that:) Those cars were getting stolen all the time, and sold for parts to the rallying and racing fraternity, and probably the reason they decided to check you out! We used to look after a lot of the cars for Boreham, the protoypes and press/test cars mainly. Back then I was so busy working, I didn't stop and take any time to take photos, and really wish I had now. One particular Escort Cossie we did some work on was a jam sandwich! I think it was for the Kent Constabulary, it looked fantastic! I think we fitted a Mountune upgrade to the engine, and a suspension kit if I recall correctly? As if that wasn't wild enough, the boys at Spooners told me that Kent Police had a pair of Gp.B RS200 police cars back in the 1980's! Now that is something you would get to work early for!
You say "returned to NZ" in an earlier post, are you from NZ, or living here?
cheers
Conrad Timms
I spotted one of the RS200s parked on one of those "spy spots" on the M25 while trundling along in the work van. I was hoping someone would do something naughty, there must have been someone who obliged as not many minutes later the RS came past, let's say energetically driven! (or was it just time for a thrash?)
A quick google search brought up this:
Attachment 20050
Pretty sure that is the one we had in at work there.
Conrad
In the Paddock at Lakeside
Attachment 20052
Yea remember it turning up to 'beat' all the Sports Sedans but after a couple of shots disappeared (with tail tucked between legs). It went pretty good but had reliability problems. Maybe a V8 stuck in it would have made it a Sports Sedan.
Wasn't long after that Mr Petch along with couple of others appeared with the Trans Am things and most wandered off or parked their Sports Sedans as the cheque book boys took over.
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?
The line up at Lakeside
http://i41.tinypic.com/104q26a.jpg
Hi Conrad,
Returned to NZ in 2004 after 25 years in the UK. Was Features Editor of CCC from '85 to '98. More detail in my profile if you're interested. Now living in the motorsports mecca of Wanaka haha. I say that tongue-in-cheek of course, but there is quite a fraternity of petrolheads in Central Otago, with some very interesting machinery tucked away in garages all over the place, and with Highlands Motorsport Park now operational things can only get better.
Best regards,
Art