GENESIS

First a press car, then one of the original ‘Magnificent Seven’ Sierra Challenge cars, this RS Cosworth was also driven in anger by no less than Ayrton Senna — and it’s survived to tell many a tale.

Jamie Arkle

It’s an image as iconic as it is grainy, and it features a young Ayrton Senna, at that point in time a fresh-faced Lotus F1 driver with plenty to prove and precious little experience behind the wheel of any competition car without a set of slicks, perched before five different rally cars. The cars in question — a Nova Sport, a Mk2 Golf GTi, a home-brew all-wheel-drive, V6-powered Mk3 Escort, a Clubman-spec Metro 6R4, and a Sierra Cosworth — constituted an ascending ladder of difficulty for any would-be rally driver, each a daunting challenge for any mere mortal. In the image, Senna stands between the Sierra and the Metro, the faintest trace of a grin playing across his face and looking every inch the schoolboy savouring the prospect of a…

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Classic Ford (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2025

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