MWF
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,945
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Jan 28, 2005 18:28:47 GMT
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Yes there were about 500 road cars made to meet the regulations needed to enter competition. Most tend to be used for motorsport as there weren't that many good reasons to buy an RS500 over a normal 3dr. The power was only up marginally, I believe sunroofs weren't available. There were some odd changes like the arches on the body kit sat a little higher which doesn't quite look right.
These days they only really have cult appeal, from a performance point of view there's not a great deal of point buying a standard one over a properlly tuned normal 3dr. Unmolested examples fetch between 16-22k!
I've had a good nosy round an RS500 with 16miles on the clock. There is something special about them.
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GJM
Posted a lot
Alloy engines; like communism- great in theory.
Posts: 1,393
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Jan 28, 2005 19:48:04 GMT
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I'm sure I read in Fast Ford when they had a RS500 buying guide that the race RS500s had 500bhp which was scaled down for the road car
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Jan 28, 2005 22:05:21 GMT
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Nice cars, I've had loads of mates with them, some standard and others tuned to the point that the transmission just can't cope anymore, anything over 400bhp and you need to start looking at some serious gearsets and diffs etc... a good friend of mine had one of the quickest in the u.k and blew his gearbox, reardiff and ball bearing turbo all at once on the drag strip , I'll try and get some pics of it.
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MWF
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,945
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Jan 28, 2005 23:18:31 GMT
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I'm sure I read in Fast Ford when they had a RS500 buying guide that the race RS500s had 500bhp which was scaled down for the road car The touring cars did, but the engines were completely rebuilt to produce that kind of power. And the rest of the car was pretty much rebuilt too.
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chapel
Part of things
Posts: 264
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American importation laws require you to 'federalize' it that means making it US crash worthy, pass US emissions, outfit it with ugly sidemarkers and headlamps, etc... If you work for the military, they look away and let you just take it in Cars over 25 years are exempt from federalization To get a Sierra Cosworth federalized would mean making it look like this:
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MOGGY
Part of things
Posts: 272
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Jan 29, 2005 10:30:37 GMT
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HI. good to drive, horrible to own. too expensive when they go wrong, can't park them without worrying about scumbags. for what a cos costs to buy and run you can have a lot more fun in other stuff. I will never own another one.
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Total classic car pervert
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MWF
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,945
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Jan 29, 2005 11:13:57 GMT
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That's why I am sticking to a turbo'd 4i for now, I'd love a cossie but can't see it lasting long outside my house.
That said buying a decent 2wd saph might be a good investment at the moment. They are only fetching around 5k and bound to become more desirable as time goes on.
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Jan 29, 2005 14:32:20 GMT
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American importation laws require you to 'federalize' it that means making it US crash worthy, pass US emissions, outfit it with ugly sidemarkers and headlamps, etc... If you work for the military, they look away and let you just take it in Cars over 25 years are exempt from federalization I'm a bit miffed now, as how do all the US mekur owners who convert theirs to look like cossies/euro sierras get away with it !? as the shells are pretty much the same it can't be THAT difficult....!? can it ??
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Jan 29, 2005 14:34:19 GMT
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Maybe they have to be federalised to get registered in the first place, but they then convert them back to European style once they're already on the road?
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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MWF
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,945
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Jan 29, 2005 17:06:05 GMT
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Maybe they have to be federalised to get registered in the first place, but they then convert them back to European style once they're already on the road? Yeah I think that's the case. I never realised it was so bad to import cars until I hung out on some American Honda forums and they were complaining about trying to import JDM cars. Which is wierd because almost all Japanese cars get called 'imports' it seems.
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Jan 29, 2005 18:02:55 GMT
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I suppose it's because if it's an official import by the manucturer and it's dealers, then all the homologation and the federalisation can already have taken place before the cars even get out the factory, but a private 'grey import' ie not by any means illegal but not by any means an offical factory import is importing a car that was made for a foreign market, so a lot of red tape etc has to be gotten through before you can register it. Apparently it's a bit of a curse word to import a car into the UK from a number of non EU countries to the UK still, which is a bit of a curse word, especially from ex Soviet states that aren't in the EU, which is a shame because I've always thought that if I had the money and the time I'd love to get a rare soviet project that we didn't really see here and take it home with me to restore from somewhere in the former USSR, although it is more realistic now that Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are all EU states these days, which means I can always dream about going to one of the above and finding A Volga M21 or UAZ 469, and a GAZ Chaika's all alloy 5.5 litre V8 to put in it to take home in my hand luggage after a holiday! ;D ;D ;D ;D It'll have to wait until I'm not an impoverished student though! ;D ;D ;D
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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