1987 Ford Sierra Cosworth Gr. A « Usine » - Ex Didier Auriol

Lot 12
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Estimation :
180000 - 240000 EUR
1987 Ford Sierra Cosworth Gr. A « Usine » - Ex Didier Auriol
French registration title Chassis n° WFOEXXGBBEGG303113 Factory" car developed by RED for Ford France French Rally Champion in 1987 and 1988 with Didier Auriol Clear and perfectly documented history Amazing performance, ready to drive In the small world of motoring, the two initials RS − for Renn Sport − attached to the Sierra made this car a super star in the late 1980s. With its bad-boy looks, it immediately caught the public's and drivers' fancy as it became the “black beast” of the roads and circuits against its best enemies, the BMW M3 e30 and Mercedes 190E 2.3-16. It is particularly the one that illustrates these pages that excited the fans when it was in the hands of a young prodigy who had just won the French Rally Championship title... Didier Auriol! We are in 1987, having won the previous year at the wheel of his Metro 6R4 of the RED Racing Team (Rally Engineering Development), the rising star of rallying swapped his Gr. B, now banned from competition, for a Sierra Cosworth entrusted by Ford France at the beginning of the 1987 season. This Gr. A in the 33 Export colours, sponsored by the Union des Brasseries and always impeccably prepared by RED Racing, quickly scored a number of successes and won a first national title in its first season. In 1988, this time under the colours of the Panach' drink belonging to the same sponsor, Didier Auriol was truly assert himself as the boss by winning the French Championship once again at the end of a battle that pitted him against Francois Chatriot and Bernard Béguin, both driving BMW M3s. Even stronger, this season marked his first world victory in the Tour de Corse, which of course marked his accession to the supreme crown six years later. Introduced in 1986 to comply with the Gr. A regulations which required a production of 5,000 cars in one year, our Ford Sierra received its FIA homologation in January 1987 and was registered for the first time in the name of "Ford France" on 7 January 1987 with the number 6985 PM 92. It was one of the two cars (the second being the 7857 PM 92) used by Didier Auriol to win the highly competitive French Rally Championship in 1987 and 1988. Its comprehensive file allows us to trace its history from its beginnings in competition to its six consecutive owners, all of whom are well-known in the world of motor racing. Didier Auriol drove it successfully on the 1987 Antibes Rally (2nd), the 1988 Alpine Rally (DNF), the 1988 Rouergue Rally (1st), the Cevennes Rally - Accident (new bodywork) and the 1988 Var Rally (1st)... He was well advised to refuse the requests of the Snobeck team by relying on the support of Stuart Turner, the head of Ford Motorsport, and Peter Cattanach, head of RED, who had developed his 1986 victorious Metro Gr. B car that won in 1986 but also Jimmy McRae's cars in the British championship! Didier Auriol was then the best hope of the French rally scene. At the wheel of this Sierra, he won his place as a Lancia factory driver in 1989 and gave this car its letters of nobility by making it one of the most important of his career. It is amusing to go back into the archives and bring out a teste drive by the late Raymond Bochet for the magazine Sport-Auto. Imagine, in the middle of the championship after the Antibes rally and with two races to go, a journalist taking the wheel on the Grand Sambuc circuit of the two "Queens of the asphalt" then competing for the title! As the test driver of the day likes to remind us, "despite the drastic Gr. A regulations and their two-wheel drive, his two cars still managed to beat the times of some Gr. B cars during the last Antibes Rally! Let's leave it to Didier Auriol himself: "The Sierra did literally everything I wanted it to do, it was super easy. The way I drove it was to give it a push on the entry of the curves and to control a reasonable drift. There was no point in giving it too much angle, driven like that it was extremely efficient." In 1989, Ford France entrusted the car to Pierre-César Baroni, another talented rally driver who had finished 3rd in the 1988 CFR at the wheel of a Sierra Gr. N. At his wheel, he added to the car's record of achievements with a 3rd place in the Rallye du Rouergue, a 4th place in the Rallye des Garrigues and an overall victory in the Rallye Alsace Vosges! The car then went into private hands in January 1990. While in the south of France, the car received engraved windows with its new registration number (3600 XC 06), which are still present today and attest to the car's originality. The latter sold it four years later to Mr. Trimatis who sold it in January 1998 to Mr. Aguzzi before it arrived in August 2009 at the home of Roman Bielan, a German Ford rally car collector and historic racing driver who restored the chassis in the emblematic colours of the original 1988 livery. Two participations in the renowned Eiffel Rally will ensure its perfect condition. Exceptionally for a factory car that has now passed into private ownership, we are in possession of all its period documents. The car's registration document and bill of sale in the name of Ford France, old registration documents in the names of the previous owners, original technical passport showing its homologation but also its successive owners, its races, the correspondence between different owners and the Ford Motor Company. Invoices, dyno sheets, period photos... all of which reinforce the historical importance of this car. In the hands of its current owner since 2012, the car has been kept in impeccable condition and used for a few high-level demonstrations, such as in Spain in 2018. In an increasingly demanding market for rare and authentic historic cars, this Sierra stil retains the latest Boreham-developed components such as the magnesium rear arms, the latest version of the front suspension, the refocused gearbox, the suspended Terry Hoyle engine and of course its original Ford Motorsport bodywork replaced after the 1988 Cevennes Rally. The only deviations from the original bodywork are the white interior (Roman Bielan's wish to track down possible fluid leaks) and the 17" wheels (instead of the 16" of 1988, but note that Baroni drove this car with 17" tyres from 1989). A set of original Tecnomagnesio wheels also comes with the car. At the streering wheel, if I cannot claim to be a good driver enough for the limits of the car, I was appalled by the performance of the engine and the breath of the turbo. Tared to 1.2 bar of pressure on the day of my test, the turbo increased the engine's power to nearly 300 hp... I can't imagine the car's capacities when the "factory" teams supported by Ford Boreham were blowing at 1.6 bar, or even more! For the gentlemen drivers who love thrills... this is without a doubt one of the most important and successful rally cars.
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