For sale: showroom-condition, delivery-mileage 1987 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth – one careful owner. Erm, not quite.

But then again, what we have here gets us far more excited than any garage queen ever could. This is a well-used, four-owner, 84,000-mile (135,000km), dust-covered Cossie which was parked up in a garage back in 1998, only to be discovered and released from its slumber in March this year.

It’s heading to auction too. It’ll go under the hammer at Silverstone Auctions’ online-only sale in mid-May, with an estimate of between £30,000 and £35,000.

Yeah it might not be an RS500, but that also means it doesn’t come with an RS500 price tag. Plus, the dust won’t be cleaned off, so the new owner will get all the pleasure of that first wash in 22 years – although they’ll have to resist the temptation to just give the windscreen a wipe and go for a drive first.

Since being awoken, the Sierra was serviced at Performance Paddock in Kent, where it was treated to fresh oil along with a new oil filter, air filter, spark plugs, cambelt kit, water pump, fuel tank, fuel pump and crankshaft sensor. Oh, and the seized brake calipers were freed.

That means the wonderful 204bhp Cosworth YBD turbocharged four-pot is ready to go, but it retains all the cool-factor that comes with shabby paintwork and loose interior trim. Might want to clean up the cloth and that gearstick a tad, though.

Someone just please buy this thing and get it back on the roads…

STORY Greg Potts
PHOTOS Silverstone Auctions