Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500: The Ugliest Car in Racing History

Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500: The Ugliest Car in Racing History

In the mid-1980s, Ford had a massive problem: their radical, aerodynamically obsessed family sedan—the Sierra—was a sales disaster. Desperate to change its public image, they decided the only way to sell the "Jellymould" commuter car was to turn it into an unbeatable racer. By teaming up with legendary engine builder Cosworth and aero-specialists Tickford, they took a mundane chassis and bolted on a massive turbocharger and a physics-defying rear wing. The result was the Sierra RS500 Cosworth. It was an uncompromising homologation special built for exactly one purpose: the absolute annihilation of Group A touring car racing. It was so fast, so dominant, and so aggressive that it completely broke the rulebook, forcing entire racing series to change their regulations just to stop it.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📚 ORDER MY NEW BOOK "History Written by Losers" — out now.The true story of global power has been whitewashed by the victors and the fixers. This book tells the side of history they tried to bury.👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GP9TKPBH━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🏁 IN THIS EPISODEIn the 1980s, Group A touring car racing was an all-out war between manufacturers, and Ford decided to bring a nuclear weapon. Guided by motorsport boss Stuart Turner, they bypassed traditional displacement and embraced lightweight aerodynamics and massive turbo boost. In this video, we dive into the brilliant, incredibly dominant story of the Ford Sierra RS500.From Cosworth's genius YB engine to the absurd "whale tail" aerodynamics, we explore how a family hatchback became a track monster. When the RS500 hit the grid, it didn't just win—it rendered every other car obsolete, ruling the BTCC, DTM, and Bathurst. And when it hit the streets, it became a working-class hero, a getaway driver's dream, and ultimately, a modern legend.What’s inside:The Cosworth Heartplant:How Ford convinced Cosworth to transform a mundane Pinto block into the legendary YB engine. They engineered a 16-valve, twin-cam masterpiece bolted to a Garrett turbocharger. For the RS500 evolution, they added a thicker block, a massive intercooler, and a secret second set of fuel injectors that were disconnected for the street but unleashed 500+ horsepower on the track.The Aerodynamic Weapon:The relentless wind-tunnel development that turned the slippery Sierra into a high-speed downforce machine. Unlike primitive spoilers of the era, the RS500 featured a deeper front splitter and a massive "whale tail" rear wing with an added Gurney flap, forcing the rear wheels into the tarmac and making the car an unstoppable force on high-speed circuits.Group A Annihilation:The absolute carnage the RS500 unleashed on global touring car racing. We explore how this homologation weapon made a mockery of BMWs and Holdens across the globe, scoring back-to-back championships in the BTCC, dominating the DTM, and conquering Bathurst. It was so overwhelmingly superior that it essentially forced the death of the Group A regulations.The Blue-Collar Supercar:The Sierra's bizarre afterlife on the streets of Britain. Because Ford had to sell 500 of these road-legal race cars to the public, it sparked a "Fast Ford" frenzy. We tell the story of how this working-class hero became the ultimate status symbol, one of the most stolen cars in the UK, and eventually, a six-figure collector's holy grail.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 LINKS & SUPPORT📚 The book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GP9TKPBH📺 Documentary channel: https://youtube.com/@thatjasonhassett🔔 Subscribe for weekly post-mortems on the cars, companies, and engineering decisions that shaped modern motoring.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Chapters:0:00 Intro2:57 Why Ford Built the Sierra9:49 The Public Hated It.14:28 Time to Go Racing20:22 Introducing the RS50028:37 Sapphires & Success#FordSierra #RS500 #GroupA #AutomotiveHistory #Cosworth #80sCars #Motorsport #TheCarNerd #FastFord #TouringCars

Porsche 959: The Greatest Rally Car That Never Raced

In the mid-1980s, Porsche set out to build a Group B rally car, but accidentally ended up creating a technological spaceship that redefined the modern supercar. By taking the iconic 911 silhouette and stuffing it with sequential twin-turbos, an aerospace-grade Kevlar composite body, and the most advanced computer-controlled all-wheel-drive system the world had ever seen, Porsche created an absolute weapon: the 959. It was a relentless, uncompromising engineering marvel meant for the dirt, but the WRC Group B class collapsed before it could ever turn a wheel in anger. Left without a racing series, this 200-mph laboratory went on to conquer the Sahara Desert, spark a bitter rivalry with Ferrari, and was deemed so illegal in the United States that a billionaire had to alter federal law just to drive one.Group B Video: https://youtu.be/2KJNhIRrrhgPorsche 928 Video: https://youtu.be/1p3oURcvnAg━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📚 ORDER MY NEW BOOK "History Written by Losers" — out now.The true story of global power has been whitewashed by the victors and the fixers. This book tells the side of history they tried to bury.👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GP9TKPBH━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🏁 IN THIS EPISODEIn the 1980s, the supercar world was an unregulated arms race, and Porsche decided to out-spend and out-engineer everyone. Guided by chief engineer Helmut Bott, they bypassed traditional rear-wheel-drive limitations and built a perfectly balanced, all-weather giant-killer. In this video, we dive into the brilliant, incredibly expensive story of the Porsche 959.From pioneering sequential turbocharging to developing the revolutionary PSK all-wheel-drive system, we explore how a heavily mutated 911 beat the world to the future. When the rulemakers took their sport away, Porsche simply pointed their masterpiece at the grueling Paris-Dakar Rally. And when the U.S. government refused to let it cross the border, one of the world's richest men went to war with the Department of Transportation.What’s inside:The Group B Spaceship:How Porsche ingeniously used aerospace materials like Kevlar, Nomex, and aluminum to keep weight down while packing in unprecedented technology. They engineered a complex sequential twin-turbo flat-six to eliminate turbo lag, setting the blueprint for the next thirty years of performance cars.The AWD Revolution:The relentless development of the Porsche-Steuer Kupplung (PSK) system. Unlike primitive 4WD systems of the era, this computer-controlled marvel could dynamically shift power to the wheels with the most grip in real-time, making the 959 an unstoppable force on any surface.Desert Domination:The tragic 1986 fatalities that forced the FIA to suddenly abolish Group B rallying left the 959 without a natural home. We explore Porsche's audacious pivot to the 8,000-mile Paris-Dakar Rally, culminating in a historic 1-2 finish in 1986 that proved this hypercar wasn't just a delicate garage queen.The Billionaire’s Contraband:The 959's bizarre afterlife in America. Because Porsche refused to crash-test four multi-million dollar cars for the DOT, it was strictly banned in the US. We tell the unbelievable true story of how Bill Gates and Paul Allen bought them anyway, sparking a 13-year legal battle that ultimately birthed the federal "Show and Display" exemption law.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 LINKS & SUPPORT📚 The book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GP9TKPBH📺 Documentary channel: https://youtube.com/@thatjasonhassett🔔 Subscribe for weekly post-mortems on the cars, companies, and engineering decisions that shaped modern motoring.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#Porsche959 #GroupB #AutomotiveHistory #ParisDakar #80sCars #Motorsport #TheCarNerd #PorscheClassic #Supercars #BillGates

Peugeot 205 T16: The Greatest "Diesel" in Racing History

In the mid-1980s, the fastest rally car on earth hid its monstrous capability inside the shell of an everyday French supermini. By taking the heavy cast-iron block of a workhorse diesel, fitting a 16-valve head and a turbocharger, and mounting it mid-ship in a custom four-wheel-drive chassis, Peugeot created an absolute weapon: the 205 Turbo 16. It was a ruthless, pragmatic engineering marvel that conquered the wild Group B era and won two world titles before the sport was abruptly outlawed. Driven into exile, it went on to conquer the desert, right up until the moment one of the cars was literally stolen for a multi-million franc ransom. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📚 ORDER MY NEW BOOK "History Written by Losers" — out now. The true story of global power has been whitewashed by the victors and the fixers. This book tells the side of history they tried to bury. 👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GP9TKPBH━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🏁 IN THIS EPISODEIn the 1980s, international rallying was an unregulated arms race, and Peugeot decided to out-spend and out-engineer everyone. Guided by Jean Todt and backed by a staggering budget of up to fifteen million dollars a year, they bypassed the nose-heavy designs of their rivals and built a perfectly balanced, mid-engined giant-killer. In this video, we dive into the brilliant, often chaotic story of the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16.From exploiting rulebook displacement loopholes to surviving the tragic fatalities that ended the Group B era, we explore how a little French hatchback beat the world. When the rulemakers took their sport away, Peugeot simply pointed their masterpiece at the Sahara Desert and the towering peaks of Colorado. What’s inside:The Diesel Foundation: How Peugeot ingeniously used a tough diesel block to withstand massive turbo boost. They also worked FIA mathematical multipliers backward to drop the car into a highly advantageous, lightweight class. Group B Domination: The relentless winning streak led by drivers like Ari Vatanen, Timo Salonen, and Juha Kankkunen. The 205 T16 proved more complete and balanced across all surfaces than brutal rivals like the Audi Sport Quattro and Lancia Delta S4. The Reckoning: The tragic 1986 fatalities that forced the FIA to suddenly abolish Group B rallying. This abrupt cancellation sparked a bitter, high-stakes legal war between Peugeot and FIA leadership. Desert Exile and Ransom: The 205's bizarre second life conquering the Paris-Dakar Rally. This era includes the unbelievable true story of Ari Vatanen's leading car being stolen from a service area in Mali for a 25-million franc ransom. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 LINKS & SUPPORT📚 The book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GP9TKPBH📺 Documentary channel: https://youtube.com/@thatjasonhassett🔔 Subscribe for weekly post-mortems on the cars, companies, and engineering decisions that shaped modern motoring.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#peugeot205gti #GroupB #RallyHistory #AutomotiveHistory #ParisDakar #80sCars #Motorsport #TheCarNerd #PikesPeak #WRC

Ford Probe: The Failed Front-Wheel Drive Ford Mustang

The Ford Mustang is an American automotive icon, but in the mid-1980s, Ford was quietly preparing to kill it off. Facing lingering anxieties from the oil crises and a massive surge in popularity for efficient, front-wheel-drive Japanese imports, Ford executives made a controversial decision: the next-generation Mustang would be a front-wheel-drive, four-cylinder sports coupe built on a Mazda platform. It was a radical, pragmatic shift that made perfect sense on paper—and it ignited one of the fiercest consumer revolts in automotive history.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📚 ORDER MY NEW BOOK "History Written by Losers" — out now. The true story of global power has been whitewashed by the victors and the fixers. This book tells the side of history they tried to bury. 👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GP9TKPBH━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🏁 IN THIS EPISODEIn the late 1980s, the automotive landscape was rapidly changing, and Ford believed the thirsty, rear-wheel-drive V8 was a relic of the past. Partnering with Mazda, they spent years and millions of dollars engineering a sleek, aerodynamic, and technologically advanced replacement for the aging Fox Body Mustang. But when word leaked to the motoring press, Mustang purists went absolutely nuclear. In this video, we dive into the fascinating, dramatic story of the car that almost ruined a legacy. From the boardroom panic to the last-minute scramble, we explore how a massive public relations crisis saved the V8 Mustang and birthed an entirely new 90s staple: the Ford Probe.What’s inside:The FWD Revolution: Why the gas crises of the 1970s and the dominance of Japanese imports convinced Ford’s top brass that traditional rear-wheel-drive muscle cars were destined for the scrapyard.Project ST-16: Inside the joint venture with Mazda that engineered a futuristic, wedge-shaped, front-wheel-drive platform fully intended to wear the iconic galloping pony badge.The Enthusiast Revolt: How an explosive AutoWeek magazine cover story sparked a massive, coordinated letter-writing campaign from fans that forced Ford executives into a corner.A Compromise is Born: The scramble to find the budget to keep the aging Fox Body Mustang in production while rushing to rebrand the ST-16 project into a brand new modelline: the Ford Probe.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 LINKS & SUPPORT📚 The book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GP9TKPBH📺 Documentary channel: https://youtube.com/@thatjasonhassett🔔 Subscribe for weekly post-mortems on the cars, companies, and engineering decisions that shaped modern motoring.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#FordProbe #FordMustang #CarHistory #AutomotiveHistory #FoxBody #80sCars #Radwood #MotorTrend #TheCarNerd #MazdaMX6

Group B Rally: The Most Dangerous Era in Racing History

Group B Rally Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlRHygh59386nA5Cost2pUW4p3OkNMlK7Group B didn’t just push the limits of rally racing; it completely obliterated them with a fire-spitting, gravel-shredding intensity that the motorsport world had never seen—and will never see again. In the early 1980s, the FIA replaced predictable regulations with a formula that essentially tore up the rulebook. While other racing series prioritized safety and incremental gains, Group B demanded just 200 road-going examples for homologation, unleashing an era of unregulated, mid-engined, turbocharged monsters pushing 500+ horsepower on dirt roads lined with thousands of fearless fans.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📚 ORDER MY NEW BOOK "History Written by Losers" — out now. The true story of global power has been whitewashed by the victors and the fixers. This book tells the side of history they tried to bury. 👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GP9TKPBH━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🏁 IN THIS EPISODEIn 1982, the introduction of Group B birthed a terrifyingly brilliant golden age of rallying. It transformed the sport from a test of endurance into a high-speed technological arms race. But beneath the jaw-dropping spectacles and screaming turbochargers lay an unsustainable, ticking time bomb. In this video, we dive into the fascinating, tragic, and legendary story of rallying’s most dangerous era. From the all-wheel-drive revolution sparked by Audi to the lightweight, twin-charged insanity of Lancia, we explore how Group B created mythological cars, forged legendary drivers, and ultimately collapsed under the weight of its own unbridled speed.What’s inside:The Rulebook Revolution: How the FIA's transition to lax homologation rules ignited a "Wild West" of automotive engineering, allowing manufacturers to build bespoke space-frame race cars disguised as everyday hatchbacks.The 5 Legendary Monsters: Breaking down the iconic machines that defined the era—including the Audi Sport Quattro S1, the rear-wheel-drive Lancia 037, the dominant Peugeot 205 T16, the brutal Lancia Delta S4, and the futuristic Ford RS200.The Fearless Few: A look at the legendary drivers—like Walter Röhrl, Hannu Mikkola, Markku Alén, and Michèle Mouton—who possessed the superhuman reflexes required to pilot these untamable beasts.The Tragic Collapse: The undeniable spectator problem, the devastating accidents that forced the FIA’s hand, the abrupt cancellation of the class, and the fascinating story of Group S—the stillborn replacement that never saw the dirt.⏱️ CHAPTERS0:00 Intro & Some Paperwork3:27 Why Group B was Created7:25 The Rules of Group B8:57 The 5 Legendary Cars of Group B16:33 The Legendary Drivers19:12 The Spectator Problem21:03 The Death of Group B25:55 Group B Replacement Cancelled Too27:20 Group B’s Final Replacement━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 LINKS & SUPPORT📚 The book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GP9TKPBH📺 Documentary channel: https://youtube.com/@thatjasonhassett🔔 Subscribe for weekly post-mortems on the cars, companies, and engineering decisions that shaped modern motoring.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#GroupB #WRC #RallyRacing #AudiQuattro #Lancia037 #MotorsportHistory #CarHistory #AutomotiveHistory #80sCars #RallyLegends #TheCarNerd #GroupS