Jamais restauree, la plus originale Sierra GR A Usine dans le monde
Regarded as the best Portuguese rally co-driver, nicknamed as 'The Doctor' or 'Gentleman Co-Driver', Miguel Oliveira was also a successful team owner. Born in 1938, he was a rally enthusiast since a young age.
Miguel Oliveira never wanted to be a rally driver and started competing as a navigator. During his long career he guided different drivers, including José Gonçalves, Carlos Torres, Mário Silva, Rafael Cid and, above all Joaquím Santos. The pair raced together between 1981 and 1990, developing a firm friendship.
In the late 1970s Oliveira established his own team Diabolique Motorsport which soon became one of the best professional rally teams ever created in Portugal. The team played a key role in the season of Antonio Zanini who captured the 1980 European Rally Championship, by providing him a Ford Escort MkII RS 1800 for the penultimate round of the season, the Rali Urbibel Algarve in Portugal. The Spanish driver managed to win outright the rally, co-driven by Miguel Oliveira himself and went on to win the title, having mainly driven a Porsche 911 SC during the rest of the season, with Jordi Sabater as co-driver.
The next year, Joaquím Santos joined Diabolique Motorsport and, with 14-year-older Miguel Oliveira as co-driver, won a number of rallies, driving that same Ford Escort MkII RS 1800, tuned in England by David Sutton. The pair won three Portuguese Rally Championship titles in a row, in 1982, 1983 and 1984, finishing second in 1985.
In sight of 1986, Ford Motor Co. hired Diabolique Motorsport to enter a semi-works Ford RS200 Group B for Santos-Oliveira, in the Portuguese Rally Championship. Sadly, the season was marked by the fatal crash which happened on the first stage, Lagoa Azul, of the 1986 Rallye de Portugal - Vinho do Porto, then a round of the 1986 World Rally Championship.
Then they switched to a Group A Ford Sierra RS Cosworth for Santos and Oliveira, who finished first in the National championship in 1988.With 14 Overall Victories, 7 second places, 5 third places and 291 special stages victories, the Cosworth Sierra GR A became the most succesfull rallye Ford in the world
