Although the new four-wheel drive Sierra XR4x4 was a great success as a road car, it was never meant to be a competition machine. However, when Group B was abruptly cancelled in mid-1986, Boreham had several questions to ask themselves. Did they even want to continue and, if so, with what cars?
Faced with losing the RS200, for which Boreham’s evolutionary ‘100x100’ RS200E (100 kg lighter, 100 bhp more powerful) was well advanced and would have been homologated for 1987, Ford had literally nothing in immediate reserve, for they were totally committed to RS200Es.
It took only one face-to-face meeting between Stuart Turner and Peter Ashcroft, however, to face up to developing rear-drive Sierras and maybe four-wheel-drive Sierra XR4x4s as a stopgap measure until something purpose built could come along. These things, though, take time, and it would not be until mid-1990 that a four-wheel-drive Sierra Cosworth was ready.
