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  1. #1
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    Default The Ford Sierra ???.

    Hi to you all,
    I was watching a bit of old Motor Sport, where those Sierra's cleaned up everyone, back those few years ago.
    Question is,
    where have they all gone. Don't hear one word or even see them at Car Shows.
    So are they all in the junk yards, as I have certainly no idea where they have all gone.
    What say you.
    Regards,
    issatree.
    Have Lathe, Wood Travel.

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  3. #2
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    Opps there was more than I remembered. but they are not in wrecking yards.. IF I ever saw one for sale AND had the $$$ Id buy it in a snap.

    The first of an eventual six Sierras built by DJR, the first car (DJR1) was built from a shell sourced from Europe as a right-hand drive car to RS Cosworth specifications for Johnson to drive as #17.

    A left-hand drive version was also prepared (DJR2) and driven by the late Gregg Hansford as the #18 entry.

    Johnson’s car debuted in the opening round of the 1987 Shell Australian Touring Car Championship at Calder and finished ninth before repeating the result in the next round in Tasmania.

    A sparkling run at Lakeside – where he charged to the lead – all came to naught when a turbo popped and both Shell Sierras were pinged for what were deemed illegal turbo wheels.

    For the endurance season, the Sierra was upgraded to the evolution edition RS500 – in essence it meant an uprated Cosworth engine with a larger turbo and intercooler as well as a range of other changes including re-designed front bumper and rear spoiler.

    The endurance races were simply miserable for DJR1 – Johnson qualified it on pole for the Castrol 500 at Sandown but it suffered an engine failure in the warm-up, forcing he and Hansford into the #18 car.

    At Bathurst both cars were excluded from the Top 10 Shootout for irregular fuel and Johnson’s car lasted just three laps with differential problems.

    The Calder round of the World Touring Car Championship a week later was no kinder as oil pump problems took out the #17 Ford and the trip over to New Zealand for the Nissan Mobil 500 at Wellington also resulted in a failure to finish.

    One shining light though was Johnson’s win in the non-Championship touring car race in Adelaide supporting the Australian Formula One Grand Prix.

    But for all of the pain of the ’87 season, Johnson and Shell struck back in 1988.

    DJR1 became new signing John Bowe’s car for his first year with the team – he won the Winton and Amaroo Park rounds and finished second to Johnson in the Championship as the Shell cars claimed victory in eight of the nine rounds.

    The car stayed with the #18 plate for the Sandown and Bathurst enduros, though in the hands of open wheeler aces John Smith and Alfredo Costanzo.

    At the Enzed 500 at Sandown it finished a delayed sixth after losing many laps replacing an axle and at Bathurst it was the third of three DJR Shell entries.

    In fact, it was the last Shell Sierra left standing and after the failure of the #17 and #28 cars earlier in the race, Johnson and Bowe took over #18 after Smith had driven the first stint and brought it home in second place.

    At the end of the season this car was sold to Trakstar Racing in the UK and competed in the British Touring Car Championship in the hands of Brit Robb Gravett in 1989 and then Graham Hathaway in 1990.

    Hathaway then competed in touring car events in Malaysia in the car for a few years before it returned to compete in England.

    Current owner Andy Lloyd (who raced a V8 Supercar at Bathurst in 1998) bought the car in 1996 from Lester Stacey and raced it in the Ford Saloon Car Championship in the UK, which he won in 1997.

    He’s owned it ever since (even running it at Goodwood’s Festival of Speed in 2006 and 2010!) and is a mad-keen DJR enthusiast, even visiting the team’s workshop and meeting Dick himself in 2006.

    “I first met Dick at Lakeside in 1998 when I was testing for Bathurst and told him the story of why I was there, in short, him!” Lloyd told our V8 Sleuth this week from England.

    “He remembered the car well. It was a big part of his career along with the other Sierras. He made us so welcome and took us around the workshop himself. It was obvious he was so proud of what he had achieved. It was Indy week at Surfers and I knew he was very busy but he insisted we went and saw him.”

    The car now sits in #17 Shell livery and remains in RS500 specification. Lloyd says it was 99 percent as built by DJR when he purchased it, but he’s since returned it to original and it has all the unique components of the DJR Sierras.

    “The only items non-original are the seat and harnesses (safety spec changes), exhaust (noise regulation changes) and fire extinguisher system (again, safety spec changes).

    “It’s still the original shell, stamped DJR1, with many battle scars and features. You can find the welds on various areas of the shell and relate them to individual accidents and incidents through its career.”

    Lloyd may have raced at Bathurst in the 1998 V8 race (finishing 19th outright and sixth privateer) as well as the 1999 500-kilometre Super Tourer enduro, but he’d love nothing more than to bring the Shell Sierra back to Australia some day and take it to the Mountain.

    “I only wish I could have driven my Sierra around the Mountain to get that ‘this is what they felt like’ experience,” Lloyd said.

    “Maybe one day if it comes back to the big country I would do a deal that made that dream come true.”


    REUNITED!

    The lines that crease his instantly recognisable 68-year-old face are deeper these days, carved by a frenetically busy life, well-lived. A life spent toting the dual weights of orchestrating a professional racing team along with the expectations of a demanding racing public – a public that has watched him rise from loved underdog to high-flying front-runner and settle back to somewhere in-between.

    What hasn’t changed is that slightly hang-dog look and the knowing smile. It starts in one corner of his mouth and quickly defines his entire face. He’s smart, dry as a Dubai dusk, and just a little suspicious when meeting people for the first time. Until he reckons you are alright. Pass that test and he’s engaging, brutally honest, and happy to talk. Fail it, and you’ll get very little.

    He’s Dick Johnson.

    With us is Dick’s celebrated offsider, John Bowe. He’s energetic, charismatic and whip-smart. He’s 59, but could pass for 50. He looks as though he still belongs in a race car. Because he does. Bowe is a career racing driver, as excited by the thrill of competition as ever.

    He openly suggests he "lives to race". He’s the reigning Touring Car Masters champion in his wild ’69 Mustang (his second consecutive title), he races all sorts of things and is the man to beat almost every time he pulls on his race suit. He’s fast, determined and hungry. His manner is calm and friendly, but he’s not a man to cross.

    Different personalities, different career paths, but there is clearly a great friendship here. Forged in success, case-hardened in the heat of the fever-pitched world of top end motor racing and tempered by the years. They are glad to be in each other’s company. They like each other.

    And so does history. This formidable duo placed itself at the very top of the Australian motorsport tree. It was a pairing that endured as the on-track component of the Dick Johnson Racing team for 11 full years, representing a partnership that is by far the longest lasting of any in the top echelon of Australian motor racing.

    It sits proudly in Bowe’s psyche. "In all the time I was with Dick we never had an argument, and there were no team orders. I was simply told to race," he says.

    Johnson notes fairness as a cornerstone of the respect he has for Bowe. "We ran a two-car team from Day One and there was never, ever any favouritism from one car to the other. The cars were then and to this very day, identical," he adds.

    But wait, there’s more. Today, there is an all-important third player in our story. We’ve brought the Dick and John show to Queensland’s car-destroying Lakeside Park (formerly carrying the much sexier title of Lakeside International Raceway) to reunite them with the very car that defined the Dick Johnson dynasty. In anger too.

    Indeed, as the sun wakes there is that unmistakeable cackle on overrun as Johnson goes down two cogs before setting up to come down the hill and back on the straight at full noise, setting the local waterfowl aflight. An uncompromising four-pot yowl rings through the mid-morning air in Lakeside’s slightly scruffy, but very authentic grounds. Magnificent.

    Yes, we are talking about the incredible Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth. In fact, a brace of them – the 1989 Bathurst-winning car and Dick’s Australian Touring Car Championship victor from the same year. A year the Shell Sierras nailed one-two championship honours.

    Those that drove them remember the Sierra with unsmiling respect. Those that didn’t remember the blokes that did with equal respect, because the Sierra took no prisoners. Frantic, demanding, angry, unforgiving. Step into that steam room of a cockpit and you better have your A-Game well and truly intact.

    Most of that could be sheeted home to the back-snapping and instant nature of the powerband, induced by the pretty crude, but wildly effective, turbocharging fitted to its 1993cc DOHC 16-valve Cosworth engine. "We used to run them in on the dyno without the turbo hooked up and flat out they made 90 horsepower. I kid you not. Put a turbo on it with 2.4bar of boost and it made 680 horsepower. And it used to come on like a light switch," says Johnson.

    The cars were also renowned for momentous turbo lag, calling for a great deal of bravery and many acquainting laps. "Many good drivers would jump into one of these things, and they wouldn’t get around a lap before spinning it. They’d put their boot into it and it would go from nothing to 600-plus horsepower in a nanosecond and they’d be backwards somewhere," says Johnson.

    Starts were also a Sierra bugbear. The dubious choice was bogging down or frying tyres, but there was a way. "There was a technique to getting the thing off the line. I was having terrible starts and Dick eventually told me – took him around six months to get around to it, I might add! – you had to bounce the throttle as fast as you could move your foot, and pop the clutch. If you just revved it up and dropped the clutch it would just smoke the tyres and if you didn’t it would just stop," remembers Bowe.

    Wind back the clock to 1987. That year Bathurst represented a round of the World Touring Car Championship and some world-renowned teams made the long journey Down Under. "The big European teams came out with all the factory backing and the big bucks. And they came out here and they made us look stupid," suggests Dick. "We needed to improve, in a big way," he says.

    Enter John Bowe, the talented Tasmanian getting the nod to join the Shell outfit for the 1988 ATCC season. Johnson claims that, were it not for a festive courtesy, the famed Johnson/Bowe combination may never have come about. "It was Christmas 1987 and I get this Christmas card from a bloke from Tasmania. I thought to myself ‘who is this bloke?’" Bowe interjects: "I used to do a good Christmas card – in fact it kept me employed for 11 years!"

    So, in 1988 Dick went to work and roduced the fastest Sierras on the planet. The fact they came from DJR’s pretty compact operation in suburban Brisbane’s Acacia Ridge is even more profound. He is one very smart engine man, and he knew how to bring an engineering team together to take on the world. In fact, that’s just what he did – took his cars to the other side of the globe and proved that his were the very best Sierras there were.

    "We went to Silverstone for the Tourist Trophy in 1988 – you have to remember that this was a world championship touring car race – and Dick came past on the first lap so far in the lead that we thought he must have jumped the start," recalls Bowe. "I remember following one of the Eggenberger cars through one of the fast corners, Klaus Ludwig or someone – and they were like heroes – and I just drove past him and disappeared. It was awesome. Really awesome," he adds.

    Yes, the lads from Down Under had taken pole and led by a substantial margin when a water pump let go. While not winning was disappointing, the point had been made. Johnson’s outfit, making use of the talented DJR team manager Neal Lowe and his expertise, built the fastest Sierra money could buy.

    Success continued for the Shell team in the 1989 Australian Touring Car Championship, with Dick winning his fifth championship and Bowe again finishing second. The Shell Sierra also claimed an emphatic victory, leading every lap of the race and going on to win DJR’s second Bathurst 1000.

    "Dick started the race at Bathurst in 1989, says Bowe. "In fact, I liked him starting the race. I just happened to be in it at the end. The only time he made me start the race was when it rained. I used to go and hide and he’d come and find me. I hated these things in the wet…" "They were awesome" Dick interrupts. Bowe counters, "Well, if I had a dog, I wouldn’t bark either!"

    Jim Richards took ATCC honours in the Skyline HR31 GTS-R in 1990 from Peter Brock in another Sierra RS500 with Johnson in third. The following year saw the Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R begin its incredible dominance. Richards took another title ahead of new star Mark Skaife, with Bowe seventh and Johnson ninth in the championship standings.

    The dominance of the Nissans continued, a period that didn’t please Bowe. "The Nissan basically destroyed Group A racing. It did it here [in Australia] and everywhere else."

    In 1992 Bowe become the lead Shell Sierra driver, finishing a hugely creditable fourth in the championship, probably well after the Sierra’s use-by date had passed. "In 1992 I got the updated car and Dick was very involved in the formation of TIGA and all that entailed. I think Dick was happy for me to concentrate on the driving."

    Johnson clearly hadn’t read the script however, putting the car on pole at Bathurst with an incredible 2:12.898 lap, impressively beating the GT-R of Mark Skaife into third place (Larry Perkins joined Johnson on the front row). Johnson is too wry to play that number up, but when Bathurst 1992 is brought up, it’s him who can quote the time. The exact time.

    While the cars were still as brutal as ever, 1992’s Bathurst highlighted a small but serious issue with the Shell RS500 as Bowe relates. "They took the door rubbers out and rain used to just pour into it and slosh around the floor, which was boiling hot and the windows steamed up. At Bathurst in 1992, I was going up Mountain Straight, removing my belts, getting my hanky out and wiping a little gap in the fogged up window just so I had some clue as to where I was going!"

    So, how was driving the old beasties after more than 20 years for the men that changed the Australian motor racing landscape in these very cars? "I haven’t done anything with the Sierra since we raced it, but it all feels the same. Pretty simple when I look at it now," says Johnson.

    "We look back with affection because we had a lot of success with them, but it’s a bit like an old girlfriend. You look her up nowadays and she’s not what she used to be," Bowe laughs through that trademark wide smile.
    I would love to grow my own food, but I can not find bacon seeds

  4. #3
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    Default

    Luckily $$$ are in short supply for me..


    FORD SIERRA RS500 COSWORTH.
    BUILD NUMBER 326/500
    41000 MILES FROM NEW
    MASSIVE FOLDER OF SERVICE RECORDS FROM NEW
    ORIGINAL & UN-RESTORED CAR, NO REPLACEMENT PANELS AT ALL
    SUPPLIED WITH ORIGINAL WHEELS ALL COMPLETE WITH DELIVERY DUNLOP D40 TYRES, SPARE WHEEL HAS NEVER BEEN FITTED & AGAIN HAS A D40 TYRE.
    ENGINE IS TOTALLY STANDARD & HAS NEVER BEEN REMOVED/RE-BUILT/MESSED WITH.
    IMMACULATE TRIM, NO BOLSTER WEAR AT ALL, MINT REAR SEAT & HEAD CLOTH, AGAIN TOTALLY ORIGINAL.
    NO SPEAKER HOLES CUT INTO THE IMMACULATE PARCEL SHELF, WHICH STILL HOUSES THE ORIGINAL FIRST AID KIT
    DASH BOARD, GEAR KNOB ETC ALL MINT & ORIGINAL.
    STEREO IS STANDARD & WORKING PERFECTLY.
    FORD SUPPLIED FOG LIGHTS ARE STILL IN THEIR BOXES SEALED WITH FORD TAPE
    STANDARD EXHAUST STILL WITH THE FORD STICKER ENTACT.
    ALL GLASS IS ORIGINAL & UNDAMAGED/NEVER REMOVED.
    98% ORIGINAL PAINT FROM WHAT I CAN SEE, ORIGINAL DATE STAMP ETC ON INNER FRONT GUARDS.
    THE ENGINE IS THE QUIETEST COSWORTH I HAVE HEARD FROM COLD, NO NASTY RATTLES, DOESNT USE OIL (OR LEAK IT).
    A CHANCE TO PURCHASE A PIECE OF MOTORING HISTORY, BETTER THAN MONEY IN THE BANK.
    VERY RARELY DO 500'S COME UP FOR SALE & DARE I SAY NEVER AS GOOD AS THIS ONE?
    I HAVE OWNED THE CAR FOR A VERY LONG TIME, I WILL BE SAD TO SEE IT GO. I AM NOT DESPERATE TO SELL & DO NOT NEED THE MONEY SO NO SILLY OFFERS PLEASE.
    ALL GENUINE ENQUIRES WILL BE ACCEPTED, CONTACT BY EMAIL TXT OR PHONE IS FINE.
    INTERSTAE SHIPPING CAN BE ASSISTED WITH.
    THANKS FOR LOOKING.

    Read more...
    Details
    Specifications
    Last Modified 31/10/2015
    Vehicle Cosworth Coupe
    Price
    $135,000*
    Cost to Insure Get your car insurance estimate now
    Kilometres 41,000
    Colour Black
    Interior Colour STANDARD
    Transmission speed
    Body doors seat Coupe
    Drive Type
    Registration Plate RSC500
    Registration Expiry 1 Month - January 2016
    Release Date The date this model was first available for purchase. January 1986
    Build Date The date this car was built. Check with seller
    Compliance Date The date this car was complianced to the Australian Design Rules (ADRs). Check with seller
    Roadworthy/Safety Certificate Yes
    Carsales Network ID SSE-AD-2931416
    Fuel Economy Combined
    I would love to grow my own food, but I can not find bacon seeds

  5. #4
    crowie's Avatar
    crowie is offline Life's Good, Enjoy each new day & try to encourage
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tonto View Post
    Luckily $$$ are in short supply for me..


    FORD SIERRA RS500 COSWORTH.
    BUILD NUMBER 326/500
    41000 MILES FROM NEW
    MASSIVE FOLDER OF SERVICE RECORDS FROM NEW
    ORIGINAL & UN-RESTORED CAR, NO REPLACEMENT PANELS AT ALL
    SUPPLIED WITH ORIGINAL WHEELS ALL COMPLETE WITH DELIVERY DUNLOP D40 TYRES, SPARE WHEEL HAS NEVER BEEN FITTED & AGAIN HAS A D40 TYRE.
    ENGINE IS TOTALLY STANDARD & HAS NEVER BEEN REMOVED/RE-BUILT/MESSED WITH.
    IMMACULATE TRIM, NO BOLSTER WEAR AT ALL, MINT REAR SEAT & HEAD CLOTH, AGAIN TOTALLY ORIGINAL.
    NO SPEAKER HOLES CUT INTO THE IMMACULATE PARCEL SHELF, WHICH STILL HOUSES THE ORIGINAL FIRST AID KIT
    DASH BOARD, GEAR KNOB ETC ALL MINT & ORIGINAL.
    STEREO IS STANDARD & WORKING PERFECTLY.
    FORD SUPPLIED FOG LIGHTS ARE STILL IN THEIR BOXES SEALED WITH FORD TAPE
    STANDARD EXHAUST STILL WITH THE FORD STICKER ENTACT.
    ALL GLASS IS ORIGINAL & UNDAMAGED/NEVER REMOVED.
    98% ORIGINAL PAINT FROM WHAT I CAN SEE, ORIGINAL DATE STAMP ETC ON INNER FRONT GUARDS.
    THE ENGINE IS THE QUIETEST COSWORTH I HAVE HEARD FROM COLD, NO NASTY RATTLES, DOESNT USE OIL (OR LEAK IT).
    A CHANCE TO PURCHASE A PIECE OF MOTORING HISTORY, BETTER THAN MONEY IN THE BANK.
    VERY RARELY DO 500'S COME UP FOR SALE & DARE I SAY NEVER AS GOOD AS THIS ONE?
    I HAVE OWNED THE CAR FOR A VERY LONG TIME, I WILL BE SAD TO SEE IT GO. I AM NOT DESPERATE TO SELL & DO NOT NEED THE MONEY SO NO SILLY OFFERS PLEASE.
    ALL GENUINE ENQUIRES WILL BE ACCEPTED, CONTACT BY EMAIL TXT OR PHONE IS FINE.
    INTERSTAE SHIPPING CAN BE ASSISTED WITH.
    THANKS FOR LOOKING.

    Read more...
    Details
    Specifications
    Last Modified 31/10/2015
    Vehicle Cosworth Coupe
    Price
    $135,000*
    Cost to Insure Get your car insurance estimate now
    Kilometres 41,000
    Colour Black
    Interior Colour STANDARD
    Transmission speed
    Body doors seat Coupe
    Drive Type
    Registration Plate RSC500
    Registration Expiry 1 Month - January 2016
    Release Date The date this model was first available for purchase. January 1986
    Build Date The date this car was built. Check with seller
    Compliance Date The date this car was complianced to the Australian Design Rules (ADRs). Check with seller
    Roadworthy/Safety Certificate Yes
    Carsales Network ID SSE-AD-2931416
    Fuel Economy Combined

    Now is the time one wishes one had a money tree to just pick and then buy one of these beautiful FORD's....

  6. #5
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    Default

    A thoroughly enjoyable read Tonto. Seems like you were involved in motor sport in some way. I was involved with the lap scoring of the long distance races throughout Australia in the seventies and early eighties, before computers became reliable, and loved the sounds of engines at their limits. I also remember the BDA Escorts used in rallies by guys such as Colin Bond in the Southern Cross rallies based around Port Macquarie. Those things used to idle at 2400 RPM, and spun up to 8000 RPM as long as the front suspension stayed in one piece.

    Great memories, racing sure has changed these days, but the Touring Car Masters at Eastern Creek on Fathers Day is a can't miss for anyone that loved the racing in the seventies.

    Alan...

  7. #6
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    In the olden days I used to throw a mini cooper around tracks in NZ, then graduated (?) to a Ford Anglia that was a looooong way off standard. but couldnt afford the repairs, but have been a Ford fan since a babe in nappies and a Dickie Johnstone fan for years, not as bad as some.
    I never idolised the ground he walked on, but I did bid on a seat out of one early falcon that his bum had been placed upon.

    These days Ive lost interest in V8holden cup sorry v8sc racing, but looking forward to the new GT3 racing and if I can find it on tele the european and british super tourers ( 2 litre cars) these guys not afraid to scratch the body work for a placing
    I would love to grow my own food, but I can not find bacon seeds

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