Stolen ford cosworth stories...

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Discussion

Dave Hedgehog

14,555 posts

204 months

Friday 31st March 2017
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Bradley1500 said:
S11EPS said:
However, the tail doesn't end there; the guy who bought dad's original 3 door (D89PTM if anyone knows it) traded through a number of cossies to arrive (after a pools win) at the pinnacle - an RS500. Because of the spate of thefts the only insurance he could get was TP - not even TPF&T.

So, he took security very seriously, and used multiple wheel clamps of a nighttime to secure the beast. One night a theft attempt was made on the car and, presumably because they couldn't move it, they torched it outside his house - not knowing (or not caring) that he had no fire theft. Needless to say the guy was distraught.

Years later this guy bought an Escort Cossie and still has it - it comes out on highdays and holidays.
The majority of the stories regaled in this thread have amused me for the sheer tenacity of the thieves to steal these cars, and of course insurance will pay out. However, the above story genuinely made me sad and annoyed. The fact the thieves were so spiteful that if they couldn’t have the car, no one could.

Glad to hear he’s now enjoying a Cossie again though (or was when you originally posted).
the thieves know the police have zero interest in catching them (like now with bike thieves)

when one of mine was stolen i had just polished it that afternoon so it had zero finger prints on it, it was found stripped in a farmers field covered in rape pollen and 100s of finger prints all over it, i told the police this and the answer was "get it moved or we will prosecute you for obstructing the field"

there is some logic to burning the cars out as it destroys any finger print or DNA evidence, not that the police would ever check it thou lol


s m

23,229 posts

203 months

Friday 31st March 2017
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Khaki Suit said:
smokeey said:
Between '88 and about 2010 my dad had an RS500.

1) he was stabbed outside the house after confronting 2 scum bags trying to steal it. They actually got him in the bks!!


2) came out of his factory to find it being rammed down the road by a Mk 2 Golf (they couldn't get it started so tried pushing it away with the golf). Maybe more to it than that as it doesn't seem to make sense, I was young at the time though and can't really remember.

3) The one time it was successfully taken it was found in a storage container ready to be shipped off a couple of days later

He also got an Escort (Cossie) when they came out and had that until around the same time. As far as I remember nobody ever tried stealing it, even when it was parked on the un-gated driveway for 3-4 years.
They did have a go at my mums Sapphy once while she was in the swimming baths with me though
FLY??
FLY was the Aladdin car ( Mark's ) where he hung onto the reer wing

AndyClockwise

687 posts

162 months

Friday 31st March 2017
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I seem to remember A&S Police had three Sierra Cosworths nicked from Bryan Brothers on College Green, Bristol that were never recovered.

I used to work with a former car salesman who worked during the 90's; he had a few people coming in to sell Escort Cosworths that were just under a year old.
At one stage Ford had offered a year of insurance with each new Cosworth; when that insurance expired they were quoted silly money to insure the car (£9k+) and so they had to sell it

AndStilliRise

2,295 posts

116 months

Friday 31st March 2017
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Sorry to all those who have their cars stolen. It has been a sobering read.

thenortherner

1,502 posts

163 months

Friday 31st March 2017
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I remember watching 'X Cars' as lad, in awe of the undercover cops smashing around Manchester in the early 90s in unmarked Sierra Cosworths.

Google [bot]

6,682 posts

181 months

Friday 31st March 2017
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Back in the day a bloke didn't start the RAC Rally, his Group N Cossie was nicked from his Chester hotel the night before and used in a ram raid somewhere far away.

supersarbs

61 posts

153 months

Saturday 1st April 2017
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I had a magenta 4x4 Sapphire in the late 90's. Never had it pinched although someone did chisel off the badge with a screwdriver. Being 21/22 are the time insurance was high, around £1250 from memory.

As it was my daily, I used it for work, parked it all day down the road from a young scrote rehabilitation centre - I must have been lucky or that centre was strong on their ability to de-scrote.

However, in the days leading up to buying the cosworth, a couple of young lads did try stealing the escort rs turbo I had before. Screwdrivers through locks, trim ripped up, wires chopped to disarm the immobiliser.

They nearly had it away when my mum came home. Mum is a quiet, polite, peaceful lady who is usually the meekest of people, but not that day. She came flying into the drive, vigilante style, horn blaring, jumped out of her car (Citroen 2cv of all things) and made a grab for the nearest scrote, calling them both f's and c's at the top of her voice. They both ran off in different directions and in full terminator mode she went after one in the 2cv. To this day she had got one of their baseball caps as a momento.

I always like to think getting chased by an enraged middle aged lady in a Citroen dolly is probably the single best deterrent said scrotes could receive, after which they hung up their coat hangers and screwdrivers for a more sedate hobby. Good old ma biggrin


Buster73

5,061 posts

153 months

Saturday 1st April 2017
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Legend has it that a well known Newcastle underworld character called Viv Graham had his Cosworth stolen and put the word out that it might be beneficial if he got it back pdq.

Apparently two stolen Cosworths were left near his house .

True or not but I think it's quite a believable story , you may or may not want to search YouTube for his name ...

s m

23,229 posts

203 months

Saturday 1st April 2017
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Buster73 said:
Legend has it that a well known Newcastle underworld character called Viv Graham had his Cosworth stolen and put the word out that it might be beneficial if he got it back pdq.

Apparently two stolen Cosworths were left near his house .

True or not but I think it's quite a believable story , you may or may not want to search YouTube for his name ...
It was 3 cars a couple of years ago smile ( earlier in thread )

I guess one of them got stolen!

Plinth

713 posts

88 months

Saturday 1st April 2017
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I lived in the North East during the 80’s and 90’s and heard many stories of Cossies going missing – including the ones mentioned by previous posters.

I will offer one that I haven’t seen on this thread – it may be the usual embellished story, total BS or something else – but I was told versions of it by several (unconnected) people, one of them was a BiB, so possibly some truth in it?

Apparently a guy who was in the construction business owned a white 3-door Cosworth and he used to leave it parked on site – unlocked, because it is said, he was a “known person” and nicking it would not be an option for those of sound mind.
(The building trade may or may not have been a front for other activities.)
Well, some idiot nicked it and the owner made some inquiries and found out where the pillock lived.

A “full and frank interview” was conducted by the owner, leaving the thief needing a long lie down in hospital while reflecting on his deeds.
The BiB became involved as they had the thief on their radar for possible involvement in other car thefts.

Despite being somewhat uncomfortable with his injuries he refused to disclose any details of his attacker – even though the police knew pretty much what had happened.

I do remember seeing on a couple of occasions a white Cosworth parked near construction sites (Longbenton and Wallsend) but other than that I have no idea if there is any truth in this story.

dickieboy28

30 posts

147 months

Thursday 3rd August 2017
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My dad had a 4x4 Sapphire circa 91, it was nicked around 6months into ownership. He replaced it with a Subaru Legacy RS - and never had any problems for the two years he owned it. Oddly the Legacy just seemed to fly under the radar of the car crim's, this despite being broadly similar to a 4x4 Sapphire Cosworth. Apparently the insurance on the Legacy was also significantly less versus the Cossie.

lucido grigio

44,044 posts

163 months

Thursday 3rd August 2017
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Hardly anyone knew what a Legacy was in early 90s.

Subaru entered the WRC around that time and Colin was in the BRC also .

On Cos thefts,read just last week that 3 Sierras have gone missing from a unit in Aberdeen.

Harvey Mushman00

271 posts

133 months

Thursday 3rd August 2017
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Bradley1500 said:
The majority of the stories regaled in this thread have amused me for the sheer tenacity of the thieves to steal these cars, and of course insurance will pay out. However, the above story genuinely made me sad and annoyed. The fact the thieves were so spiteful that if they couldn’t have the car, no one could.

Glad to hear he’s now enjoying a Cossie again though (or was when you originally posted).
Not a Cosworth, but back in the 90s I had a Mk2 Lotus Cortina and a 3.0S Capri, I had spent a fortune having a ground up rebuild on the Cortina, I was living with my parents at the time and the cars were parked at the side of the house, they took the Lotus Cortina first, managed to get into it, not difficult and then pushed it away from the house where they tried to start it, it had a very well hidden switch to prevent the car from starting, so they trashed it, absolutely trashed, even tore out the headlining, slashed the seats and tore off the Lotus badges and then came back for the Capri, the alarm alerted us and they legged it. I was speechless, I couldn't get my head round the sheer spite the aholes had shown, took me a year to get the car back to how it was and then sold it. It was a while before I could bring myself to own something "desirable".

GC8

19,910 posts

190 months

Thursday 3rd August 2017
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rallycross said:
GC8 said:
Probably a Dipol, which I think was the original. Mul-T-Lock was less common.
I had a mul-T lock on my Escort Cosworth - a wise investment on any Cossie (although not much good if they are going to lift it with a truck anyway).
Ive recently bought a one owner MG ZS with an original Mul-T-Lock fitted. biggrin

Jimmy Recard

17,540 posts

179 months

Thursday 3rd August 2017
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supersarbs said:
As it was my daily, I used it for work, parked it all day down the road from a young scrote rehabilitation centre - I must have been lucky or that centre was strong on their ability to de-scrote.
laugh

ToothbrushMan

1,770 posts

125 months

Thursday 3rd August 2017
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the injected Cavaliers were indeed fast cars back in the day. most other stuff was stodge. its fair to say that about them. You needed turbo power really to shame a cav off the lights. I had a 1.8GLi on an early D plate so pre-face lift and I think it was rated at about 112bhp and a good lump of torque at 4000rpm. a good car and comfy. probably weighed the same as a mars bar.

A friends bro in law had a new cav as a company car a face lift Mk2 1988 on a E plate but just the 1.6 with 90bhp but that shifted. We took that out for a whole night of thrashing using up a full paid for tank of unleaded and it would beat loads of the crap that was still about back then including a Mk4/maybe Mk5 ford cortina 2.3-think for all the capacity they only had 5bhp more than the cav with half that cc.

great memories of the cavs......only posted as an earlier poster mentioned the 130 sri. i never got to the heady heights of SRi territory but if you had one back in the day you were the man. the rare Mk2 88 on GLSi was a contender too as I think the run out cars had 2 litres.

s m

23,229 posts

203 months

Thursday 3rd August 2017
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ToothbrushMan said:
the injected Cavaliers were indeed fast cars back in the day. most other stuff was stodge. its fair to say that about them. You needed turbo power really to shame a cav off the lights. I had a 1.8GLi on an early D plate so pre-face lift and I think it was rated at about 112bhp and a good lump of torque at 4000rpm. a good car and comfy. probably weighed the same as a mars bar.

A friends bro in law had a new cav as a company car a face lift Mk2 1988 on a E plate but just the 1.6 with 90bhp but that shifted. We took that out for a whole night of thrashing using up a full paid for tank of unleaded and it would beat loads of the crap that was still about back then including a Mk4/maybe Mk5 ford cortina 2.3-think for all the capacity they only had 5bhp more than the cav with half that cc.

great memories of the cavs......only posted as an earlier poster mentioned the 130 sri. i never got to the heady heights of SRi territory but if you had one back in the day you were the man. the rare Mk2 88 on GLSi was a contender too as I think the run out cars had 2 litres.
The Vauxhalls always had strong engines but you didn't necessarily need turbo power if you had the right lump in a Sierra.
My dad had a few of the Mk2 Cavaliers, the Y reg was night and day over the old W-reg Cortina


Re the Cosworths, notice one was stolen from a local garage recently

s m

23,229 posts

203 months

Thursday 3rd August 2017
quotequote all
GC8 said:
Ive recently bought a one owner MG ZS with an original Mul-T-Lock fitted. biggrin
Is it a 180?

Jimmy Recard

17,540 posts

179 months

Thursday 3rd August 2017
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s m said:
Is it a 180?
It's an optimistic owner who puts a Mul-T-Lock on a 120

downthepub

1,373 posts

206 months

Thursday 3rd August 2017
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lucido grigio said:
On Cos thefts,read just last week that 3 Sierras have gone missing from a unit in Aberdeen.
A Sapphire and two 3-drs. One of the 3-drs is heavily modified and the other is pretty standard. Judging by the appeals from the plod, don't think they have had too much success tracking them down. Bearing in mind it's 30 years since the first Cossies hit the road, I'd imagine the chassis numbers of the remaining cars would be well known by now.


My own story, when I was a lad, our neighbour had an RS2000 Escort and then whale tail Cosworth. Bought new and cherished. Whilst all these lurid stories went on about cars down south, next door's Cossie was safe and sound. Anyway, D841 VSA, If I remember right. He had it for many years, one owner, totally standard RS Cosworth. He sold it in anticipation of getting an Escort Cosworth. Apparently poor old D841 was nicked from the new owner within a week. Never seen again. Crying shame. Moonshine blue it was.