RE: Ford Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth: PH Heroes
Discussion
I used to ogle my mum and dad's neighbour's Sapphire Cosworth. Until it had the door ripped off by a Metro. Happily a few months later it reappeared and they still have it. It has always been my favourite big Ford and I would love to tick it off the list when I have a garage. And the money. And no commute. And some mechanical skill... 
Edited by Pantherfocus on Thursday 23 October 17:40
dukebox9reg said:
Surprised nobody has mentioned the Cavalier turbo. Saw one on the way to work earlier which surprised me and my first thought was how much better the cav's look than the Sierra's.
The Cavalier Turbo is a nice car indeed, particularly the one which the lad on PH had (or has - photo below). It's best feature is that letterbox grille with the slim, wraparound headlights. Nice interior too. The Sierra is the better looking car though, with that rising curve on the bonnet giving it some visual drama against the shoulder line and just as pretty a grille area. To drive, I've never driven a Cavalier Turbo but a friend of mine has extensive experience of both, having used both as police cars in the late 80's/early 90's period. He reckons the Cavalier was nearly as good to drive as the Cosworth, but suffered from reliability issues with the driveline, IIRC he cited issues with gearboxes and transfers. Both very special cars, but the Cavalier doesn't seem to be held in the same reverence.
Steven_RW said:
IMO Cosworth isn't always about utilising it's power perfectly. Half the fun is the lag followed by the insane burnout and the flailing arms trying to catch whatever situation it throws you into. I owned a TME evo 6 and whilst more lag free and much better at deploying it's power missed the total madness of a proper fast cossie. Plus once rolling the lighter cossie usually flatened my Evo (I had 320bhp in the evo).
Ace cars and what legends are made of. Cosworth paranoia about it breaking was amusing too...
Rgds,
Steven_RW
Blimey, a name I haven't seen for many a year from the days when Passionford was busy.Ace cars and what legends are made of. Cosworth paranoia about it breaking was amusing too...
Rgds,
Steven_RW
405dogvan said:
I think the market has shrunk to the point very few are really 'worth more in parts' - which is means the only parts which will appear come from cars which go bang perhaps.
It's also a slow market - it can take months or even years to sell a nice car because, as I said, most people who want one have owned or still own it ;0
I was taking about 2006, not today.It's also a slow market - it can take months or even years to sell a nice car because, as I said, most people who want one have owned or still own it ;0
iloveboost said:
Sad for you but £4K seems right at the time as I think an E36 3 M3 was about £5K then. If you own an E39 M5 in 2016 that will probably start to go up in value like your Sierra Cosworth would have done. E39 M5 prices have been holding for a couple of years and the best E39 M5s are about the same as the worst E60 M5s already.
Oh I agree, back then it was a cossie, but people were moving to M3's etc. I was responding to 405dogvans post about the values.I hope M5 prices do go up, but I doubt mine will be classed as a good one as it doesn't have fsh, even though it'll have had lots of new parts fitted and new paint, but I didn't buy it as an investment.
I remember waiting excitedly for my dad to get back from Birmingham with his k-plate sapphire cosworth. I seem to remember there was a very substantial discount on list price and despite him having a succession of jags and porches it was the cosworth that got driven most. Great car. It was replaced with an Impreza wagon which being a turbo 2 litre 4x4 had some similar characteristics.
TWPC said:
Wasn't the 21 one of the only ordinary cars manufactured with two different lengths of wheelbase? I seem to remember the smaller engined models had a transverse engine and a longer wheelbase than the larger engined ones, whose engines were longitudinal.
Didn't the Quadra have the bigger engine hanging out the front like an Audi Quattro and the shorter wheelbase?
Reasons explainedDidn't the Quadra have the bigger engine hanging out the front like an Audi Quattro and the shorter wheelbase?
Had a 4x4, bought it at 18 months old for £12k as hardly anyone would insure them, except for the good old Co-Op who I was lucky enough to be with.
For its time this is the best car I have owned, fast, comfortable, great handling/grip, and surprisingly cheap to run, did over 50k in it with nothing other than brakes, tyres and a cambelt change. Had a Mark 1 Focus RS a few years later and wondered where the progress was.
For its time this is the best car I have owned, fast, comfortable, great handling/grip, and surprisingly cheap to run, did over 50k in it with nothing other than brakes, tyres and a cambelt change. Had a Mark 1 Focus RS a few years later and wondered where the progress was.
I used to own a 2.9i XR4x4 and used that as chase car on rallies back in the early/mid 90's to a Manta forest rally car. We eventually moved up to running a Sierra Sapphire Cosworth 4x4 and then an Escort Cosworth in the forests, with my XR4x4 doing the business as chase car again. I then decided it would be a great idea to get myself a RWD Sapphire Cosworth, pop a T34B turbo and Ahmed 375BHP conversion on it as use that as a chase car and daily driver, absolutely hilarious thing to drive with all the spares kit in the boot in mid wales.
I used the RWD Cossie every day, took it up to nearly 100K miles, drove it on trackdays at the weekend then did 400 mile round trips for work, petrol paid for by the company. It was just such a fantastic piece of kit, huge fun to drive sideways, totally predictable handling, just a dab of oppo and a busy right foot had you doing perfect drifts long before drifting was considered a sport. It had fantastic leather seats made by Recaro, probably the best seats I've ever had in a road car.
It eventually had to go, I think I spent £7K in one year just keeping it on the road, and sold it for £7K to one of the organisers of the RSOC oop north. I replaced it with an Impreza Sport company car, which was a very underrated car, but to get back some of the weekend fun I bought a Westfield ZEi220, the Escort Cosworth turbo equipped factory built nutter mobile, that had a 330BHP upgrade and the cossie powered fun continued.
I was very lucky to own and cover big miles in a great RWD Sapphire Cosworth, hopefully its still being well looked after oop north.
I used the RWD Cossie every day, took it up to nearly 100K miles, drove it on trackdays at the weekend then did 400 mile round trips for work, petrol paid for by the company. It was just such a fantastic piece of kit, huge fun to drive sideways, totally predictable handling, just a dab of oppo and a busy right foot had you doing perfect drifts long before drifting was considered a sport. It had fantastic leather seats made by Recaro, probably the best seats I've ever had in a road car.
It eventually had to go, I think I spent £7K in one year just keeping it on the road, and sold it for £7K to one of the organisers of the RSOC oop north. I replaced it with an Impreza Sport company car, which was a very underrated car, but to get back some of the weekend fun I bought a Westfield ZEi220, the Escort Cosworth turbo equipped factory built nutter mobile, that had a 330BHP upgrade and the cossie powered fun continued.
I was very lucky to own and cover big miles in a great RWD Sapphire Cosworth, hopefully its still being well looked after oop north.
Really wanted one of these back in the day (Swinton wanted £3600 third party...), drove a standard F reg car and was a bit underwhelmed, drove my bosses K reg Rental 4x4 Sapphire and thought it was alright. In hindsight my view was probably distorted by my friends Sapphire 4x4 rally car that I worked on and drove to Wales that had 400+bhp from a very trick BBR ecu, lots of boost/low compression,water injection and was geared to max out at 130mph.....
Had a 93 K plate, had wanted one for ages, then forgot about them, til I got pushed off the road by one in my Series 2 RS Turbo.
Best memory was being able to take it to 70 mph, in first gear, worst memory was having to take the dealer to court as it was totally bent.
Put me off Fords for life.
Best memory was being able to take it to 70 mph, in first gear, worst memory was having to take the dealer to court as it was totally bent.
Put me off Fords for life.
I started doing trackdays in the mid-late '90s at Knockhill, and big-boost Sapphire Cosworths were the car (if having a roof was essential and stuff like Westfield SEIGHTs were out). I remember being overtaken out of the hairpin in my puny Scirocco GTX, slick-shod Sierras spitting flames on each upshift, back stepping out when they came on-boost.
Always liked them, and seriously considered one about 10 years ago before prices hardened. Never driven one, and I suspect it would be a 'never meet your heroes' exercise today.
Always liked them, and seriously considered one about 10 years ago before prices hardened. Never driven one, and I suspect it would be a 'never meet your heroes' exercise today.
Nice to see a good review of the 4x4 Sapphire Cosworth, and looks good in red which very few were made.
Prices are starting to go up now but the 4x4 has always been the bargain of them and to me the nicest to use (having owned 3 door, 2 wd and 4 wd sapphires and escort cosworths). Not much good in standard trim but you will struggle to find one as it's so easy to have 300 plus bhp at which point they come alive and the 4 wd copes with it far better than the early cars.
The escort Cossie never made sense to me having previously owned a really good 4x4 sapphire the huge extra cost was hard to justify, plus the escort was horrible inside (seats and dash) plus you looked like an idiot in an Escort Cosworth whereas not many people took notice of a Sapphire.
Looking back now it's funny to think it seemed ok to have 205 50 15 tyres with over 330 bhp!
Prices are starting to go up now but the 4x4 has always been the bargain of them and to me the nicest to use (having owned 3 door, 2 wd and 4 wd sapphires and escort cosworths). Not much good in standard trim but you will struggle to find one as it's so easy to have 300 plus bhp at which point they come alive and the 4 wd copes with it far better than the early cars.
The escort Cossie never made sense to me having previously owned a really good 4x4 sapphire the huge extra cost was hard to justify, plus the escort was horrible inside (seats and dash) plus you looked like an idiot in an Escort Cosworth whereas not many people took notice of a Sapphire.
Looking back now it's funny to think it seemed ok to have 205 50 15 tyres with over 330 bhp!
Edited by rallycross on Thursday 23 October 23:10
The great thing about the Sierra, is that even the humble cars on which they were based were very good to drive.
I never had the chance to drive a Sierra Cosworth, but spent thousands of miles driving other Ford Sierra models. All the basics were right apart from the rubbish brakes.(discs always seemed to warp). It really was the last high volume rear drive family car, in Europe at least.
I never had the chance to drive a Sierra Cosworth, but spent thousands of miles driving other Ford Sierra models. All the basics were right apart from the rubbish brakes.(discs always seemed to warp). It really was the last high volume rear drive family car, in Europe at least.
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