Then the magic begun, Ford approached Rouse in 1984 to run their latest UK motorsport programme with the Sierra.
“Ford obviously wanted to race it,” Andy says, “we got involved with Ford in Germany who were working on the Merkur. Boreham wanted it to be a learning year for this Sierra Cosworth.”
The Merkur became the Cosworth guinea pig, entered into the BTCC in 1985 with little expectations. The package was good with a smart turbo charged engine and a perfected chassis, drive train and gearbox that would be used on the RS Cosworth.
“Our brief was to develop a car and win as many races as we could in preparation for the following year”, he says, “The Merkur was very much a stopgap because it was only sold in Germany.”
But it was so much more. Rouse took the Sierra to the 1985 championship and another season of development led to the RS Cosworth