Ford Telstar-Australian built or remarketed Sierra

[Campbelltown busboy]

In the 1980s and 1990s ford Australia had a car called the Telstar while around this time ford in Europe had a Telstar look alike witch was called the Sierra. Was the Telstar built in Australia or did ford import the Sierra from Europe and rebadge and remarket them as the Telstar

[scott]

I think they were locally built for a time at Broadmeadows from Mazda supplied kits, then around the time of the EA Falcon, they went to being imported fully built from Mazda in Japan,then the sedans were dropped when Ford jumped into bed with Nissan to create the Corsair, leaving the TX5 hatches, then when Nissan shut up shop, Telstar sedans returned until the Mondeo came out.

[boronia]

I think the Telstar may have also been built at Homebush at one stage?

[homer9000]

nope.the sierra was too odd ball looking for australia in the eighties so ford australia for reliability and distance reasons decided to go with the second generation mazda 626 badged as a telstar/tx5 as a cortina replacement with the mazda 323 sedan based meteor filling in as a stop gap from late 1981 to June 1983.we did see sierras at bathurst though late eighties though.

[Swift]

The story in a nutshell. Telstar = Mazwreck 626.
Meteor and Laser = Mazwreck 323 sedan and hatch respectively.
Meteor name dropped with the 1987 release of the KE series of Mazwreck 323 based line up of cars, all badged as Laser. I liked the Meteor name.

[Campbelltown busboy]

we did see sierras at bathurst though late eighties though.

Between 1986 and 1992 the Sierra RS500 Cosworth was the car of choice for touring car racing in group A witch was the official FIA touring car regulations witch were adopted by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport between round 1 of the 1985 Australian touring car championship and the touring car support races at the 1992 Australian F1 Gand Prix

[Swift]

What was the point if the Australian market didn't sell the Sierra? The idea was to race a car that could be bought.

[Campbelltown busboy]

What was the point if the Australian market didn't sell the Sierra? The idea was to race a car that could be bought.

Ford Australia didn't want to deal with building group A homologated XF and EA falcons or Telstars for racing and then building another 500 group A homologated specials of that same car for the road built per year as stated in the FIA's group A touring car regulations

[Swift]

Ford Sierras were British and had no place in our racing scene. That would be like having a Charger E49 it XC coupe in the British racing circuit. NGH : never (was) gonna happen!!
Shoulda been declared multiple crimes.

[Campbelltown busboy]

Ford Sierras were British and had no place in our racing scene. That would be like having a Charger E49 it XC coupe in the British racing circuit. NGH : never (was) gonna happen!!
Shoulda been declared multiple crimes.

I don't get why Ford Australia just stayed out of motorsports until 1993 when CAMS adopted the 5 litre formula that was to become V8 Supercars then into what is today known as Supercars

[Swift]

I don't get why Ford Australia just stayed out of motorsports until 1993 when CAMS adopted the 5 litre formula that was to become V8 Supercars then into what is today known as Supercars

Might have had something to do with the XF and EA Falcons and their Fairmont, Fairlane and and LTD derivatives not having a V8 option. They couldn't be associated with a performer image with an old push rod EFI six and later a SOHC mpi 3.9l six as their most powerful choices.

[Campbelltown busboy]

I don't get why Ford Australia just stayed out of motorsports until 1993 when CAMS adopted the 5 litre formula that was to become V8 Supercars then into what is today known as Supercars

Might have had something to do with the XF and EA Falcons and their Fairmont, Fairlane and and LTD derivatives not having a V8 option. They couldn't be associated with a performer image with an old push rod EFI six and later a SOHC mpi 3.9l six as their most powerful choices.

They could have built some group A compliant TX5 Telstars and got there hands on the same 550 horsepower turbo powered Cosworth race engine that was being used in the Sierra RS500

[Swift]

Why didn't they? I would be happy if all video tape footage from the Sierra years were destroyed forever.
It was criminal activity in my eyes.

[Campbelltown busboy]

Why didn't they? I would be happy if all video tape footage from the Sierra years were destroyed forever.
It was criminal activity in my eyes.

CAMS should have stuck with the group C rules instead of signing up to the group A rules if the FIA group A rules weren't in Australia then the Sierra would not have raced in Australia and there would still be a full length conrod straight at Mount Panorama

[Derwent]

They could have built some group A compliant TX5 Telstars and got there hands on the same 550 horsepower turbo powered Cosworth race engine that was being used in the Sierra RS500

Sierra engine is completely different to the Telstar engine.
Sierra was RWD and had a Cosworth YB twin cam turbo, while the Telstar was FWD with a Mazda engine.