Absolutely fascinating listening to these stories by Paul - (from the ones with Adam Smith, where they chopped the corner off the battery tray, the back to front stamping of the chassis number, the race cars started off as a standard 1.3L body shell ? ) to these differences we learned about today - well done, perfect. 👍
What a great insight into both cars ! Really detailed - A load of BS chat that circled both cars for years has been well and truly blown full of holes. Paul really knows his stuff on the Cossie ! Great video and an education ! Cheers
I can tell you this as Gospel there are many, many people who would have liked this knowledge in the past as they've been suckered into buying a none 500 cosy, and for some strange reason people in the no didn't want to tell people this kind of information.
Brilliant video, thanks for the taking us through the history of, and differences between, these iconic cars. I'm from the States and in '87 I spent a couple of weeks in Southern Ireland where I kept hoping that I would see a 3dr Cosworth but no dice. I've still got a Summer '87 mix tape out in my garage, just need a Cosworth to play it in. LOL
Thanks for a very interresting walkthrough on differences between these two "Cossies".. WHAT an absolutely stunning example of the RS500🤩 right there🤩👍💯%🇩🇰
I remember when you could get a 4-door Sierra Cosworth 4 under 1500 quid in quite good condition with probably 100 thousand miles on the clock or maybe just under the nightmare of your life you wake up in the morning and your Sierra Cosworth is missing and now you got that dreaded phone call to the insurance company and you know they're going to try and stripe you up anyway these was the last of the great Ford RS cars you could put your foot down and the engine would never blow up I work for torque developments in Barking owned by Ray and Mark Amazon young men but I worked a lot of Cosworth mostly servicing MOT fail stuff why do they not make engines like this no more you can read the engine up all day long and it would just keep going and going and going I see a video of a man driving a brand new Lamborghini unfortunately he put his foot down too hard the traction control stability control did not seem to work properly any ended up in a crash barrier with £75,000 worth of damage on one side and £45,000 with a damage on the other side classy had to pay for the crash barrier I mean his insurance company
Excellent video, I remember these cars from the age of 17 being a mechanic. They were kings of the road and everybody wanted 1 including me. Was fairly knowledgeable about the differences, however not knowledgeable enough as I learnt a lot from this fantastic video. Was never sure about the block thickness until today. 11 out of 10 for your information. Thank you
Hi Paul and Steve, guy's a brilliant 40 mins of Cozzie information. Like a lot of people watching, I new most of the differences but learnt more today. Really enjoy your video's, always fascinating. Alex.
Dan Gurney was indeed American and the flap was used on the GT40’s in the 24hrs of Le-man’s yep the ones where Ford handed Enzo his Arse, aswell as on the NASCAR’s
Paul, thank you for this video. Maybe sometime you could talk a little about the corrosion issues with these cars. Those of us buying one of these as an investment should be aware that a lot of these cars that have been on the road, will have, or will have had extensive corrosion to their undersides. It would be nice to hear your opinion on this.
Remember the days back then when these were around Cosy rs Cosy rs 500 Cosy rs sapphire Pure pullers to easy to pinch and insurance companies didn't want to know anyone who was young or had even 1 point on the driving licence Still looking nice Prices have gone up crazy on these 👍
@@RWL2012 Yes the only fords I have REALLY WANTED However I would much prefer The vauxhall lotus Carlton They are all beasts of their day A real drivers car But the Carlton just wins I'm looks for me Possibly because of my age in quite young to like most of the cars I do
I think the general concensus is anything before the year 2000, nut sacks were firmer, and considerably larger, granted, cars today have more power, but with all the little gizzmos, to keep you safe, you'll not get the full sphincter contraction, for the few of us that drive genuine 500hp + analogue cars... only we know the truth... good vid boys.
One of my mates had a black Genuine RS500 back in the early 90’s, im guessing it’s still around now? although i can’t remember the reg, but to say it had/has a chequered past would be an understatement 😂 It had already had a n/s rear 1/4 and a door when he got it, and then the back end caught fire on his ramp when his brother was welding something unrelated near it, which also then set his UR Quattro on fire as well 😂 At the time the insurers paid him something around 12k for the sierra and he fixed it and sold it on, so it’s out there somewhere, a double Cat C 😂
Got to be the best explanation of the differing aspects of a performance car and manufacture. I have learnt a lot from this and can be used as a reference. I have never even looked at these cars, appreciated them for what they were, was never able to afford them, even if I could have, was put off by the stats for being stolen. Btw my Triumph Tr7 had bonnet slots ;) on both sides too!!! Absolutely enjoyed this, I have bookmarked this video for reference as I think others should too, oh & sub'd of course!
As a kid growing up and being obsessed with RS fords, ive heard virtually all the theorys that paul mentioned here. Thankfully ive worked on a few now and have all official books etc that debunked all the bs. Great hearing it from the great man himself. Another point is that Paul is giving this advice if we were to buy a cossie, which almost seems daft to me because if you are in the market, and you DONT approach Paul for advice prior to the purchase, you are daft in the head 😂. Loved this video.
Best video i have watched in a very long time. Might have something something to do with growing up when these car came out. Still can not afford one unfortunately.
It saddens me that I wasted so much money building replicas, rs turbos back in the day when rs500’s were relatively cheap, now I can only dream of owning 1.
Being north east lads I wonder if you could do a video on the Sapphire Cossies and maybe touch on the Spender cars from the 90s tv show based in Newcastle??? Would make for another great collab with Adam.....
I know 1 went recently , v v , low mileage, for £600,000. 😵💫 agree with 90% of what chap said , but, I think cars go to people that wanted /remembered / from their youth ,, like cars now that are 1930”s & 40s etc , arnt worth as much as when people had / wanted in their youth.
Given the road going RS500's all came with the parts to run at 550BHP, what work was actually required to activate these parts to run at 550BHP on the road?
Love a duck, who would have thought there would have ever been a £1M Cozza!!!! Remember well seeing the tell tale whale tail in the distance on motorways when they were new on the road back in 86, 87', then seeing them disappear into the distance! I actually test drove a Sapphire 4x4 when they came out, as a possible company car. However, I was disappointed with it's performance, so I didn't bother with it. The salesman went white as a sheet during my efforts to discover how fast it was! Coincidentally, arround the same time, a very wealthy friend had the extremely good fortune to own a brand new Ferrari F40, now that really was quick! Thing was, he was always wanting the latest thing, so after just 2 years with it he told me he was selling it to buy a 348!!!! I told him he was mad and that he F40 was going to be one of the most collectable and iconic Ferraris ever made, and that it would be worth millions in 15 or 20 years. He said I was delusional and that it was too raw and crude for anyone to want one in 10 years. Seems he should have listened!!
Cheers Paul there isn't an authority on RS Cosworth's that I would spend the time to listen to other than yours. I'm 57 and originally from Cheadle in Cheshire and a fan of your channel its simply magic mate, pure inspiration for my Merkur XR4ti tribute car I'm converting in to a RS500 here in the USA. BIG THANK YOU for the video I've often wondered about all of the differences between a 3 door and a RS500 and now I know. Cheers Romano
I dont know whether many of the younger viewers will remember this, but in the late '80 / early '90's it was almost impossible to get car insurance (this was a time pre computer), so insurance was based on open any driver policies using look up tables!, it got so bad that ford were selling the escort RS2000 (MK5 - around 1990ish) less than the base 1.3l model, the cosworth as i noted was almost uninsurable in urban areas.
Apparently they done a triple spoiler yes originally it was designed to be 3 flat spoilers individually and connected together to make one big giant spoiler on the escort Cosworth I believe Wheeler Dealers try to recreate the triple spoiler on the escort Cosworth and they even spoke to the main man who designed it in the first place but my question is why do they not make good engines no more a Ford engine would do a quarter of a million miles no problem going up to half a million miles no problem and then somewhere in between 750 and 1 million miles with regular servicing and about 4 clutches dear Ford Motor Company will it be possible for you to start making good engines again because the ones you've been creating over the last 10..15 years are total pants 3-cylinder do we really need to talk about it I actually feel physically sick at the mention of a rubber belt submerged in oil from the engine oil you have been telling us for years do not get oil on your timing belt made of rubber I'm getting lost for words I'm getting confused and I wish I never see that engine that small 3-cylinder thing with a rubber timing belt submerged in engine oil I mean even I alien Nation that's 200 million years ahead of us would not even try this stupidity rubber and oil do not mix rubber gets to a certain temperature it gets very stretchy a bit like Maureen the local brass down the road when she drops her cacts even a massive big company called Durex will only submerge their rubber into anal lube maybe we should run or engines on anal lube because it it seems to work well for Durex now we could try this out by getting Jeremy Shorty and the thing to put a Durex over their head and then put engine oil over their heads this will make a perfect test obviously the winner would get a free packet of Durex now he can ever have extra large or extra tiny I think that would have Hammond's name on it anyway let the experiment roll
I would just like to say this back in those days when all these cars were new before the first MOT 97% of all cars on the road was clocked meaning the mileage was tampered with David by the car dealer the cellar even by the car dealer buyer is they were so easy to clock is ironic really that they even easier to Clock now and you don't even get your hands dirty is the older cars you had to take out part of the dashboard take out the clocks etc it was all mechanical and you could roll it back in a few different ways me personally I can spot a car I'm a million miles away if it's been cooked because the sequence of digits Honda speedo they should be exactly the same height sitting in the Square H digit should be exactly the same height as the next one all the way across if any of them are out of sequence I guarantee you that car has been clocked once twice and even three times yes everyone was clocking their cars every car was clocked and I know this as fat because I work in the motor trade for some 24 years we used to get around £50 to clock a car very mind back in those days forward as one of the most popular cars ever back from the 70s 80s 90s 2000 you can clock that car in 1-hour and less even today's cars I don't think you can trust them either
From aged 17, I drove Mk1 and Mk2 escorts, which were the ultimate Fords, winning almost every WRC and national rally event event for 10 years. It also won hundreds of other motorsport events. As far as I can tell, the Sierra only had 3 years of success, and it wasn't actually that great, more like rose tinted spectacles by ford fanboys. Series wins World Touring Car Championship - 1987 (entrants' title) Australian Touring Car Championship - 1988, 1989 Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft - 1988 Japanese Touring Car Championship - 1988, 1989 AMSCAR series - 1988, 1989, 1990 Nissan Mobil 500 Series - 1989, 1990 New Zealand Touring Car Championship - 1989, 1990, 1992 British Touring Car Championship - 1990 Australian Endurance Championship - 1990 Race wins Wellington 500 - 1987 Fuji InterTEC 500 - 1987, 1988, 1989 RAC Tourist Trophy - 1988 Sandown 500 - 1988, 1990 Bathurst 1000 - 1988, 1989 Pukekohe 500 - 1988, 1989, 1990 Spa 24 Hours - 1989 Guia Race of Macau - 1989
I’ve known of Paul and everything he does with Fords for a very long time now so I can’t believe I’ve only just found your channel! Absolutely stellar and informative video chaps the internet needed this!!
great video ,wonder how many of these are left knowing that ford bought their sheet metal from fiat/lancia old 1970,s stock ,but ford really did good with this car, tanks
The guy who designed the 500 fuel system, moved from Ford, had his own agency / Ferrari etc. He now lives on a mates farm in the back of a van. Don't do drugs......
Great stuff, I thought I knew a bit but I've learned a lot more there. Always been my dream car, I'll keep buying a lottery ticket, at the moment I'd struggle to afford a 1.3L...
Superb video your knowledge is second to none. I was fortunate to have a look around your workshop last year when you was selling your friends Moonstone Blue (l should have bought it)👍
good video showing the difference. surprised they are worth so much. thing with classic cars is they fall apart if you don't drive them or don't store them properly in a heated garage
Great video, One thing I learnt from a previous video was you mention was regarding engine numbers not matching the cars V5 and how this happened. Keep up the great work.
Excellent Video - I still really like this car, and hearing how it came in to being, and the engineering changes needed was facinating ...I learnt a lot - especially about homologation. Went to watch them race at Silverstone, where Mike Smith of DJ & TV fame was also competing. I was lucky enough to get a drive a lovely black RS500 belonging to a friend - it was a great civilised drive. I guess I perhaps expected too much; I was expecting it to be a beast to drive, granted I was not driving it hard, but at normal road speeds I remember feeling that my Peugeot 205 1.9GTI felt more nippy (perhaps Turbo lag?) - but the RS is so beautiful, practical and so desirable.
I saw M Smith driving his Cossie at Silverstone last year, it was at the CSCC event. He raced in the super saloon event. He qualified 1st but had engine issues while racing so finished around 4th if I remember correctly. He's a great guy, chatted with him in the paddock and got a couple cracking photos of his car, he'd brought a red E30 M3 also that his friend drove.
I’m still gutted that I looked at a white 3 door in Canvey island for 5k in the 90’s. And then bought a saph cosworth with cloth upholstery. Who would of ever thought what happened next???
What a great informative RS500 vs 3 door cosworth video. My old man had a 89 sierra 2.8i 4×4 back when i was a kid so i appreciate you lads doing these videos.
Same goes for the rover sd1 vitesse, single plenum and twin plenum they said no difference in performance etc but why homoligate 500 or so twin plenums?
You missed off about the engine numbers being different in a rs500 due to them removing original engine and putting the smaller cored engines in. And that none of the 500's came with build plaques from factory. Love your videos could listen for hours.
Steve & Paul, are my new goto channel (before Rob & Chris @ salvage rebuilds & Mat Armstrong & Barum Engines) - so its a thumbs up from me to your hubby! - really enjoyed tonights episode.
I've scanned the comments so I don't think anyone has mentioned something you missed - the different turbo damper on the RS500. I guess the other comment worth making is they cars were only sold in the UK but now can be found all over the world.
Thoroughly enjoyed that guy’s what a well produced video 👍 I thought I knew what the differences were & now know I really had no idea 😂 I think I mentioned this before somewhere that when I purchased my F reg 2wd Sapphire Cosworth back in 1991 at a ripe old age of 23 there was a 500 next to mine in the showroom for not much more money, back then I didn’t like the look of the RS 500 as it was a bit to garish & in your face for me, how gutted am I now! I blame Jimmy Nail ie: “Spender” for my lack of wealth 😂 Keep the great content coming.
Great film, good to see all the differences. You touched on the extra 4 injectors with the plug behind the battery. I'm interested to know if the wiring loom and ecu were capable of running 8 injectors.? Keep the videos coming.
Great video lads, I’d be interested to know what needed to be done to release the extra nags. Sheer curiosity, I’d never be in a position to be able to afford either car barring a lottery win.
On the RS500, could you plug the second row of injectors in and get them to work with the standard ECU? Or would you have to use a different ecu, or program the standard ECU to work the 8 injectors?
I seem to remember the motorsports shells had thinner panels on them also. had it explained to me back in the day and you could physically feel the difference on the panels they pushed in with little resistance. back in the day very close to release day i saw a white rs500 ploughed through a set of barriers on stratford broadway london , it was monday morning about 6;30 am and this had obviously been stolen from a forecourt and wrecked almost instantly ....often wonder what happened to it given the rarity of them. looked repairable but quite shocked to see one having read about them weeks before
Hi guys, fantastic vid that - loved the insight Paul and it’s great to see it’s not being lost to the passage of time. Always had a soft spot for cossie’s and it difficult for those that didn’t experience that time period as a petrolhead for the status and power of the cosworth moniker at the time - something that only really sort of happened again with the scooby - as you mentioned. I also really like the 4x4 sapphire too - because - Spender. :-)
I liked the role play as a Ford dealer! I used to live around the corner from Vospers in Plymouth - a massive Ford dealer. They had an RS500 in there... It was there a loooong time. Later they had an RS200 in there, that was there even longer. The regular Cossies were selling like hot cakes. I also remember when the Cossies fell enough in value to fall into the hands of the chavs. I knew for sure the Cossies were destined to be big money classic. Here's a tidbit for you: £20,000 in 1987 money is around £50,000 in today's money. So if you bought an RS500 back in the day and used it well, you'd still have at least doubled your money. If you'd stored it and used it sparingly? Well that's big ROI!
It's actually 74k today! However, if you'd invested the 20k it would be worth more than 74k now. My dad had a white RS500, paid 25k in 1989, kept it a year, and then sold it at a loss. In 1993 Ford's of Winsford had a black rs500 for £9995. Dad laughed saying thank God he got shot of his.... His white 500 is still around, I see it occasionally in mags etc. He used to let me thrash around in it when I was 19 on my 3rd party insurance 🙈
Hi Paul, You mentioned the extra fuel injection system, that was not linked up. Could you make this work on the road car if you wanted the extra power.
I’m fascinated to listen to such an expert explanation on these cars. Not my thing and never have been really but I’m still fascinated and interested. My first car was a Mk2 Fiesta 1.3 ghia and I always wanted an XR2 variant but I suppose I became more of a Golf lover…plus my father never owned or liked Fords so no influence there. Superb video…thank you!
I remember being obsessed with everything group a as a kid, from RS500s, E30s, 190e, Integrales TME Evo VI ETC. Being autistic (didn't know that as a child) i was always reading about these things and what made them different. Dad telling me not to look underneath them etc. if we ever saw a homologation car on the road. And not to tell people their cars were fakes (fitting rs500 bumpers spoilers, M3 sport evo spoilers tme front bumpers, etc. To standard cars). The infuriating thing is no one else cared about some 10 year old sierra etc. (I was born in 93), "shut up going on its just an old car." Too young to have afforded to own a group a homologation special let alone the extra specials like the RS500. And there hasn't been a homologation car at all really in 15 plus years so have had no interest really in cars anymore. If it didn't win, it didn't win me over. Hated the WRC spec rules. Ended the golden era of interesting road cars. Everyone else seems happy with a good fast road car. I was only happy if it was a good fast race car. How good it was on the road is of secondary importance. Win on Sunday sell on Monday. Sorry, autistic monologue over.
In 88 in College I did a project on these. What always amazed me was even though the RS 500 had all those differences, it was only mildly better performing. I guess you got to have the fuel injectors active, otherwise the air box, turbo, hose diameters was all useless in a road car. Essentially that’s it
