Sierra Cosworth transmission - AlanGowdy
I was at Goodwood watching punters lapping the circuit in their road cars the other day, and quite entertaining it was. As they sped down the straight they each had cause to change gear once or twice.

I noticed that a Sierra Cosworth caused its tyres to momentarily lose traction and squeal on each change.

Then yesterday I noted another Cosworth doing exactly the same thing leaving a roundabout. Is there some problem inherent in the car's 4WD system that causes the transmission to wind-up?
Sierra Cosworth transmission - Dynamic Dave

Could they have been 2WD Sierra's? Not all of them were 4WD.

www.turbocharger.co.uk/rs-cosworth-2wd.html

Sierra Cosworth transmission - AlanGowdy
The one at Goodwood seemed race-prepared, being stripped of trim and with a roll cage, so I expect it had 4WD too. Don't know about the other one.

Even dropping the clutch abruptly would require an awful lot of torque to break traction in that way in high gear.

However, it seemed as though the squeal was one of deceleration rather than acceleration as it appeared to co-incide with the power dip just before the gear change rather than the re-application of power afterwards. It was almost as though the wheel (or wheels) was momentarily locking up. Very odd.
Sierra Cosworth transmission - frostbite
(a wild guess)

Could it have been caused by clutchless gearchanges?
Sierra Cosworth transmission - jc
Most if not all racing ones were 2wd;with 4wd it would be hard to get slip at all wheels;Ford used a viscous coupling between front & rear which should eliminate wind-up;you were possibly hearing squeal from the rear tyres caused by a LSD or Torq-lok diff. stopping the wheels rotating at different speeds.