The historic racing festival, which takes place on 20-22 July, will for the first time showcase recent contenders from the British, German and European Touring Car Championship series.

The popularity of touring car racing has spiralled in recent decades and this year’s Silverstone Classic will feature two unique races – one on Saturday and one on Sunday – starring many of the famous cars that featured in the European, British and German touring car championships between 1975 and 1999.

Sierra RS500 Cosworth will provide the centrepiece to the new historic race.

Incorporating regulations for Group 2, Group A, Super Touring and DTM eras, the line-up will include Jaguar XJ-Cs, BMW CSLs, Rover SD1s – and, of course, Sierra Cosworth RS500s.

On top of this, ’90s BTCC cars from the SuperTouring era including the Mazda V6-engined Ford Mondeo will also be represented.

A grid of more than 50 machines is expected, and the races will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the RS500 which was launched in August 1987. Several RS500s are already on the provisional entry list and more are expected to join in the build-up to the event.

More modern SuperTouring machinery, led by the successful Mondeo, will also feature at the Silverstone Classic.

Event organiser Nick Wigley said: “Though firmly established as the world’s biggest classic motor racing festival we are always looking to provide both racers and fans with innovations and evolutions.

“The special touring car race will be the first of its kind, highlighting the huge success of tin-top competition in recent years. That 2012 marks the 25th birthday of the amazing Sierra RS500 just adds to what’s clearly going to be a very special occasion.”

Full details of the 2012 Silverstone Classic powered by the AA – including information on ‘Early Bird’ ticket offers and a comprehensive selection of on-site camping facilities – are available via the event’s official www.silverstoneclassic.com website.

It kicked off from Craig’s idea for our Greatest Fast Fords Ever issue (issue 304, May 2011) for the FF team to decide between pairs of fast Fords over the ages and give their views.

He then decided to find out what our readers think are the best performance Blue Ovals using the Poll function on Facebook – and it exploded from there!

Every fast Ford from the Lotus Cortina through rwd Escorts, Capris, even Orions to the latest Focuses and Fiestas were pitted against each other at random in a ‘World Cup’-style system, with our Facebook fans voting which is their favourite.

After over 50 Top Trumps-style head-to-heads and thousands of votes, it came down to a final pairing of the Escort Cosworth and Sierra RS500… and the winner is the RS500!

The EsCos got 40.1% of the vote, but the RS500 took the win with 59.9%.

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Be aware: this was first published in July 2008, so the guide prices will have changed.

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Our schizo cover this month features two Escort Cosworths, but how do you prefer yours?

Neil Belton’s ultra-clean and uniquely-detailed Escort.

Dave Jackson’s rwd 700bhp Time Attack contender.

Get hold of this month’s mag to read up on these awesome Cossies and make your mind up…

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Bathurst 1989

click on image for pdf download

Be aware: this was first published a few years ago, so the guide prices will have changed.

Click on image to download pdf

Click on image to download pdf

Be aware: this was first published a few years ago, so the guide prices will have changed.