Towed Vehicles : Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth

The car that I will be posting today is car that has been passed on to my by my older brother. According to my mom my brother had a couple of die cast car before he started asking for G.I. Joe action figures. I really don't know what happened to the cars that my brother had for a while, luckily my mom was able to keep this one, and so far this is my favorite non 1/64 scale die cast car that I have in my collection.

This car was released, according the base, in 1989. I believe the series is Matchbox Elite Super Kings, unfortunately It does not say what is the scale of the car, but I believe it is around the same size of the 1/43 scale die cast cars. On it's base it says that it is made in Macau. other than that I don't have any more information regarding this series. However, if you can drop me a comment with more information regarding the series or this car, I would really appreciate it.

As you can see in the pictures, the car's condition is not mint at all. I have played with the car when I was a kid and I am planning to restore and modify this car. I love the livery of this car but I have better things in mind for the car. Since I mentioned that I will be working on this car, let me take this time to share with you a little addition to my Blog page. If you can look on the upper right side of my page, there are several Hyperlinks showing. It is still a work in progress but once done, there will be buttons or links placed there that will redirect you to my project's page. On that page, I will be posting updates and photo documentation of my restoration and mod projects.  I am just waiting for my rotary tool, once I have that you will be seeing a lot of projects here in my Blog.

Going back to the car, as you can see on the next pictures, the car doors can be opened and the details of the dashboard and interior is fair enough. A little paint detailing will greatly help the overall impact of the car. Just thinking of it makes me excited. 

It's sad that the hood cannot be opened, but other than that everything about this car is just perfect. One issue that I have for restoring this car is the windows. I am really not sure how I can properly restore it other than looking for a donor car. Help is needed on this one, let me know if you know a process for restoring clear plastic parts for die cast. Please... :D

Manufacturer

Ford Motor Company

Production

30,932 (total):

5,042 (3d, 1986)

500 (RS500, 1987)

13,140 (4d 2wd, 1988-1989)

12,250 (4d 4WD 1990-1992)

Body Style

3-door hatchback (1986-1987)

4-door notchback (1988-1992)

Layout

front engine,

rear wheel drive (1986-1989)

four wheel drive (1990-1992)

Engine

Cosworth YBB, 204 hp (1986)

Cosworth YBD, 224 hp (1987)

Cosworth YBB, 204 hp (1988-1989)

Cosworth YBG/YBJ, 220 hp (1990-1992)

Transmission

5-speed

Borg Warner T5 (1986-1989)

Borg Warner MT75 (1990-1992)

Length

446 cm (1986-1987)

449 cm (1988-1992)

Width

173 cm (1986-1987)

170 cm (1988-1992)

Height

138 cm (1986-1992)

Curb Weight

1217 kg (1986-1987)

1206 kg (1988-1989)

1305 kg (1990-1992)

Yes, the information about the car listed above is from Wikipedia and I Have decided that moving forward I will try to add more details regarding the cars that I am posting. Well, that is it for now, thanks for looking and keep on over haulin! 

Lucky Seven Indeed!

Buggies.

Ever since I was a kid I have always loved buggies. However almost all buggies that I consider my favorites are off road buggies, Nikko buggies when I was a kid, Tamiya buggies when I was a teen and all sorts of buggies during my college years. I really love how they look, open wheeled, aggressive body, huge shocks and a wicked spoiler. If you are familiar with Team Associated's RC8 print advertisement in most of the RC magazines during its first year of release, the one where the buggy looks like its floating in mid air, with AE's blue - white - black color scheme, every time I see that ad, I always fall in love with that buggy.  And that is exactly what I felt when I first saw the Caterham cars. For me it is basically a buggy for road use (you may disagree with me on this one, but that is how I see the Caterham :D).

I was never aware that Matchbox had castings for the Caterham R500 until I saw it on the pegs of my local toy shop last year. I was not that into die cast yet during that time. I bought the white 2010 R500 Superlight, went home and researched about it and I found out that there was also a casting for the Lotus Super 7 from matchbox. On that same day I have decided that I will try to hunt down all the variations of the R500 and try to get me at least one Super 7.

A year had passed and I have discovered several more castings that I love and hunted down. The hunt for the R500 and Super 7 was put aside. Nevertheless I was able to get several 2010 R500 and a couple of 2011 Red and Yellow variations of the R500. Up until now I am still looking for a loose Metallic Blue R500 from the gift pack. However I did manage to buy a couple of the 2012 R500. I already gave up on the Lotus 7 because I always thought that my only chance of getting one is through an online store. 

However, last month, a member of the forum that I am a member of posted several Matchbox Lesney and one of those cars posted was the Lotus 7, I immediately messaged the seller but because I was short on budget I was not able to get the car, but the seller and I did agree that I will contact him if ever the car is still available and I have enough extra money to purchase the car. 

To tell you the truth, I gave on the car already, thinking that someone already bought it from the seller. So just imagine my surprise and delight when the seller messaged me and informed me that he is willing to trade the Lotus 7 to one of my for sale items (an opened Hotwheels gift pack with mix cars). I immediately agreed and a meet up was set and scheduled. 

The Lotus 7 is loose and is not mint but what the heck it is hard enough to get hold of a loose not mint. Anyhow, the only car that I am missing is the Metallic Blue one, and I have already sent out messages that I am looking for one, so it just a matter of time. And when the time comes that I was able to get, rest assured I will let you know. :D

I am not yet sure if I will be restoring this one, considering it's really hard to get one, but right now I am happy and satisfied with what I have so far. Drop me a comment if you think I should restore or just leave it at it's condition. But I will be modding some of the extra R500 that I have and I will be posting it here as well.

Look at those bucket seats! Can't wait to paint em!

The 2012 R500 is riveted on a plastic base. (>.<)

Like what I have said earlier, I will be modding some of my extra R500, I am seeing some neon green! ^_^ And I will be posting them here as well. However, that is it now. I really appreciate you dropping by. See you later and keep on over haulin!

Lateral Transfer, Car, Flood, Car, Hospital and Car...

Yup, that is how I would summarize what had happened while I was gone. And boy I was gone for a long time! But looking at the brighter side of things, I have more cars to post this coming weeks. My post today would be about what had happened so that you would know why I was gone for a long time.

Rewind! 

Lateral Transfer.

The office has been undergoing a lot of changes lately and one of the changes that they were having is staff re-shuffling. I was lucky enough to be one of the several agents that was picked to undergo a track training program for a Real Time Analyst post. That was the first reason I was not able to update the blog, I was so busy at work trying to learn everything that I need, to be certified. 

Flood.

Several weeks into my training a monsoon passed by the Philippine Area of Responsibility that brought lots of rain water that caused my town to flood. My area usually gets flooded when it rains hard, but for some reason this particular instance, it felt that it caused more trouble compared to the infamous Typhoon "Ondoy" (international name Ketsana), this is maybe because during the flood my mom got really sick and we were stranded for almost two days at home and we needed to rush my mom to the hospital. Anyways, here are some pictures during the flood before the camera went down in the flood water, with me, almost drowning. Yes I almost drowned.

These pictures were taken during the first night of the flood. It was not that deep yet.

The following day, my cousin and I decided to go out and get some food and supplies because we just realized that the situation was bad. Outside, I saw this sweet Toyota Celica.

On our way home my cousin was able to pull out the camera and take a picture.

And then I almost drowned. A couple of feet away from the safety of our house, the current of the flood water was very strong, and my cousin and I were having a very hard time staying on our feet because of the strong current and waist deep water, the slippery road added to the trouble. We were in front of our house already and I can see that we would not be able to just walk towards the gate because the current was really really strong at this point, I saw my cousin having a hard time as well. I saw the post of our convenient store and asked my cousin to try and jump, grab and hold onto the post. As soon as I finished my instruction the current pulled me down, together with the groceries, my bag that contains my cellphone, camera and other personal belongings. It was so fast but I saw everything, I saw my cousin turning back realizing that I had gone under the water, while he was turning around I saw a huge spider clinging on to his shoulder (I don't know what happened to the spider, good thing my cousin did not see it because he might have jumped into the water just to remove it from his shirt.), I hear him shout my name, then I saw the second post of the store, I reached out and grabbed the post. Simultaneously the umbrella that you see me holding on the picture above was cut clean off the handle and I felt my cousin's hand holding on to me.  Denial sets in and I ran inside the house worried that the grilled chicken I bought was soaked with flood water. 

While taking a bath and thinking about what had happened, I realized that I could have died. Just so you know, our street  is on an decline and the water goes deeper the farther you go. At the far end the water is about 7 foot deep. Just imagine being in a 7 foot pool size washing machine. But hey I am still here! :D

But it did not end there That night my mom got really sick and we were stuck in the house, my uncle's tried to rush her to the hospital but all the vehicles that were stranded in the main highway was blocking the way. We had no choice but to wait for the highway to be cleared out and just tend to our mom the best that we can do with no clues with what is happening to her. After a day and a half passed and the roads were already passable. We went to the hospital and there were several possible diagnosis that the doctors were giving out and they need several examinations to narrow it down and determine the root cause of my mom being sick. We had no choice but to stay in the hospital and leave the house unattended after being under the flood water. I initially thought that we will be staying in the hospital for just less than a week but we end up staying in the hospital for almost two weeks! After all the examination that the doctors did they were able to give out a proper diagnosis and we were given a list of several medicines that my mom would need to take for her to feel much better. My mom feels much better now and I really hope she would eventually feel much much better. 

Back to work. I really thought that I would not be getting the lateral transfer because of my absenteeism, and because of that I pushed my self to work harder to compensate with the time that was lost during the days that I was out. Several days passed by and I was already thinking that I would not be getting the certification, and then one shift, I was finishing my reports with my colleague who is my mentor as well, I heard my boss say "Yes! Dave (my mentor), congratulate them.". We shook hands and all of my hard work paid out, I was certified! :D

And now I am back! 

You might be wondering what happened to my collection during the flood. Well, they were all placed high on  my work in progress display cabinet. And this is how they looked during and after the flood. 

My car magazines and a sneak preview of my latest RC haul.

My kits and RC's (Transformers and Star Wars not mine)

After the flood I have decided to tidy up and check out my collection to see if some where damaged or if there are some missing parts. 

My main line.

My loose die cast.

Here is my Ed Roth - Rat Fink Bobble Head. :D

During my day off, I was also able to finish (well 90% done) my D.I.Y. Hobby Lamps for taking pictures of my collections. I got this idea from sir Iceberg of DCPH.

And because of that, expect a lot of pictures of my car collection soon! And this time, hopefully, the pictures are much better. Well that is it for now, see you next time and keep on over haulin!