1987 Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth sells for eye-watering record price at auction

An ultra-rare 1987 Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth has broken records after selling for an astonishing £596,250 – or more than $AU1 million – at auction in the UK.

Silverstone Auctions in the UK estimated the low-mileage, near-showroom example of Ford's 1980s race car for the road would sell for between £150,000 and £180,000 ($AU266,544 to $319,853), which would have set a new benchmark for the model.

The previous record price for an RS500 Cosworth stood at £135,700 ($AUD240,995) set in 2022 – less than a quarter of the new record of $AU1,058,907.

One of just 500 cars hand-built to RS500 specification, the black Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth has a meagre 5192 miles (8355km) on the odometer.

Power comes via a Cosworth-designed 2.0-litre turbocharged engine making 167kW and 277Nm, up on the tamer (and more common) RS Cosworth’s 154kW/276Nm.

Developed by Ford in 1985 to allow the Blue Oval to enter the Group A touring car racing category, some 5000 cars had to be built and sold to make it eligible for competition under the category’s homologation regulations.

In response Ford produced a total of 5545 Sierra RS Cosworths. Of those, 500 (which gave the RS500 its name) were subsequently shipped to Aston Martin Tickford to be turned into the even more powerful RS500.

Hand-built by Aston Martin, the RS500 was fitted with a more powerful engine with a larger turbocharger as well as a swathe of external styling and aerodynamic elements. It quickly became the poster child for fast-four-cylinder enthusiast the world over.

Owned and professionally and fastidiously maintained by the vendor for the past 14 years, the record-breaking RS500 Cosworth could arguably, according to Silverstone Auctions, “turn out to be the best and most original RS500 to come to market”.

The stunningly original car has been maintained with period correct new-old stock consumables including fuel and oil filters, spark plugs, cam belts and batteries.