My XR4i. 30yrs old today via Southways Automotive.
Discussion
The story starts in 1982, i was a young engineer in the Royal Navy and had just come back from the Falklands with money to spend on my next car.
I was posted to Faslane while waiting for my Submariners course, and set about car hunting, i knew what i wanted, spec and colour, it was just a matter of finding it.
A visit to the local Ford Dealership in early 1983 to view my eventual purchase (a Sunburst Red Escort XR3)was interrupted by the sight of a transporter with a couple of the new Sierra XR4i`s being unloaded, they looked stunning and so futuristic with the Bi-Plane wings, one day i said to myself.
A year later the XR3 is in for a service at the same dealer, there is a fully loaded 6 month old Nimbus Grey XR4i for sale in the showroom, i just had to have a look, WoW,want, want, want, this was the first time i set eyes on.... A915NOO.
There was no way i could afford the car, but one day i said to my self, again.
Fast forward another year i had just finished paying for the Escort, finance in those days normally meant a 30% deposit and payments over 2/3 years max!
Off we went (the Mrs and me) car hunting again, over the next month or two we looked at all sorts of different metal,(Astra GTE,Golf GTi, 205 GTi,a new XR2,) but deep down, again, i knew what i wanted. Believe it or not used XR4s were thin on the ground,then by chance i spotted a car at a slightly dodgy looking Glasgow used car dealer, that was worth a look i thought.......It was NOO!!
The mileage was above average, a company sales manager had put over 25k miles on it in a year!But the good news? It was in my price bracket, and a deal was done.
That was over 28 years ago, and the car has probably been stored or off the road as long as it been on.
The car was taken out for a little run to day and a few birthday photos were taken, hopefully the photobucket file comes up for you
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/fortyone/slideshow...
The car has recently completed a minor restoration/recommissioning at our PH friends Southways Automotive.
The work took around 15 months, with most of the work taking place on Thursday evenings known as "Sierra Night"
A big thank you to Rich, Steve, and the rest of the team for getting the car ready in time for its 30th.
A Facebook blog of the work can be found here, feel free to comment on the work, i know they would appreciate any feed back.
Click on the first photo and scroll through for information on the work.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.30257135...
So there we go, i hope you enjoyed the story and photos,the body work is original, and good for its age, the interior is very tidy,the power train is to be treated to a 200bhp Turbo Technics conversation, possibly over the winter, its all here waiting, lads........lads don`t run off
Please feel free to ask any questions about the project.
Oh and Happy Birthday "NOO"
I was posted to Faslane while waiting for my Submariners course, and set about car hunting, i knew what i wanted, spec and colour, it was just a matter of finding it.
A visit to the local Ford Dealership in early 1983 to view my eventual purchase (a Sunburst Red Escort XR3)was interrupted by the sight of a transporter with a couple of the new Sierra XR4i`s being unloaded, they looked stunning and so futuristic with the Bi-Plane wings, one day i said to myself.
A year later the XR3 is in for a service at the same dealer, there is a fully loaded 6 month old Nimbus Grey XR4i for sale in the showroom, i just had to have a look, WoW,want, want, want, this was the first time i set eyes on.... A915NOO.
There was no way i could afford the car, but one day i said to my self, again.
Fast forward another year i had just finished paying for the Escort, finance in those days normally meant a 30% deposit and payments over 2/3 years max!
Off we went (the Mrs and me) car hunting again, over the next month or two we looked at all sorts of different metal,(Astra GTE,Golf GTi, 205 GTi,a new XR2,) but deep down, again, i knew what i wanted. Believe it or not used XR4s were thin on the ground,then by chance i spotted a car at a slightly dodgy looking Glasgow used car dealer, that was worth a look i thought.......It was NOO!!
The mileage was above average, a company sales manager had put over 25k miles on it in a year!But the good news? It was in my price bracket, and a deal was done.
That was over 28 years ago, and the car has probably been stored or off the road as long as it been on.
The car was taken out for a little run to day and a few birthday photos were taken, hopefully the photobucket file comes up for you
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/fortyone/slideshow...
The car has recently completed a minor restoration/recommissioning at our PH friends Southways Automotive.
The work took around 15 months, with most of the work taking place on Thursday evenings known as "Sierra Night"
A big thank you to Rich, Steve, and the rest of the team for getting the car ready in time for its 30th.
A Facebook blog of the work can be found here, feel free to comment on the work, i know they would appreciate any feed back.
Click on the first photo and scroll through for information on the work.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.30257135...
So there we go, i hope you enjoyed the story and photos,the body work is original, and good for its age, the interior is very tidy,the power train is to be treated to a 200bhp Turbo Technics conversation, possibly over the winter, its all here waiting, lads........lads don`t run off
Please feel free to ask any questions about the project.
Oh and Happy Birthday "NOO"
![](http://thumbsnap.com/sc/7Wty393R.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/ZEmVML8G" Target="_blank">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/ZEmVML8G.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/cRIFDLxh" Target="_blank">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/cRIFDLxh.jpg)
Having owned the car for so long, and knowing a fair bit about them, i did a XR4i history thread a few months back.
If you are interested and missed it?
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
If you are interested and missed it?
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
DSLiverpool said:
I had A931 NOO White one in 1994 - ill get a pic up
Not sure if you are aware of the back ground on the "NOO`s" but to bolster XR4i sales in Aug/Sept 83 they registered, around 50/60 cars for mostly for middle management with a high spec, the majority of these car were registered on the 27th Sept 83 and were ran for around 6 months. It looks likely that yours was such a car.Died in 2002 though. 
Date of Liability 01 07 2002
Date of First Registration 27 09 1983
Year of Manufacture 1983
Cylinder Capacity (cc) 2792cc
CO₂ Emissions Not Available
Fuel Type PETROL
Export Marker N
Vehicle Status Unlicensed
Vehicle Colour WHITE
Vehicle Type Approval Not Available
that was very cheap!, IIRC mine was c7.5k when it was first for sale in the spring of 1984. OK it was a main stealer.TankRizzo said:
Great pics. Haslar sea wall? About 20 seconds walk from my front door.
Yes mate, always take photos of my cars there,not sure for how much longer though?I was based at Dolphin from time to time in the 80`s, live in Stubbington now.
Do you get much time out of the detention centre!
I Normally drive this.
Or this
Give me a wave if you see me out and about
craste said:
Anyways, the Sierra xr4i was my favorite car at the time,
Just had to share why I love this car too, in fact I think this was the first car I really lusted after!
Go and buy one, while you still get them for reasonable money.Just had to share why I love this car too, in fact I think this was the first car I really lusted after!
Run it to get it out of your system and then sell it on, probably for a profit
LanceRS said:
Impressed at how good the interior is after all these years, don't remember seeing one with rear head rests before. Is it the original dash?
Pretty rare with rear head restraints, a dealer fitted option, not factory fit i believe.No we fitted the dash as part of the rebuild, easier than i thought to be honest.
I have just modified the grille for the speaker to fit the MK2 dash.
Anyone who knows about the Sierra will tell you that a uncracked dash is one of the "Holy Grails" when talking about the MK1, this dash features the centre speaker grille, that all models had, whether there was speaker in there or not.
Its hard to believe today that base Sierras had one speaker and a radio only in 82/83.If you have a immaculate MK1 dash you can pretty much ask what you want for it.
The MK2 dash is a lot harder wearing, and fits the MK1 with little modification, the biggest problem for the purist (like me) is the lack of centre speaker grille, now we toyed with cutting up a decent MK2 dash and fitting a grille, but time, and the thought of wasting £50 the decent 2nd hand dash cost, went against the idea, so the alternative was to trim the lugs off a grille and stick it on the MK2.
I fitted this yesterday.
Well its not ideal, but from the outside it looks OK, although it a slightly different colour.
What do you think?
Its hard to believe today that base Sierras had one speaker and a radio only in 82/83.If you have a immaculate MK1 dash you can pretty much ask what you want for it.
The MK2 dash is a lot harder wearing, and fits the MK1 with little modification, the biggest problem for the purist (like me) is the lack of centre speaker grille, now we toyed with cutting up a decent MK2 dash and fitting a grille, but time, and the thought of wasting £50 the decent 2nd hand dash cost, went against the idea, so the alternative was to trim the lugs off a grille and stick it on the MK2.
I fitted this yesterday.
Well its not ideal, but from the outside it looks OK, although it a slightly different colour.
What do you think?
LanceRS said:
How's the grill stuck down?
Sorry mate only just seen this.As its just a "see what it looks like " exercise at the moment it just double sided taped it in the 4 corners were the original clips were.
Still trying to find some more Ghia rear lights for it as those fitted have a couple of bits broken off them.
Just a little update.
Well car was sat over winter and brought back out over Easter.The car refused to run properly resulting in a couple of days of fettling, the metering unit was always thought to have a sticky plunger, so when a reconditioned unit came up on E-Bay a few months ago i bid and "won". The unit was fitted over Easter to hopefully eradicate the rough running. Unfortunately after fitting it the car refused to start, and when it did you had to give the car 3/4 throttle to keep it alive! The mixture setting on the "reconned" head needed setting up, a couple of tweaks had the car running, but still rough!!! The Metering unit was not the fault this time.The fuel pump was original Bosch, i bought a couple of second hands ones as they came up, but the decision was made to treat the car to a new one, this improved things, but it wasn`t until the warm up regulator was stripped and cleaned that we finally had a decent running XR4i again. The constant starting took its toll on the starter motor, it packed in at the local Shell station on its way back to Southways for a mixture setup and rolling road tune.
A new old stock Lucas starter was bought and fitted a few days later and we were up and running again.
The new Metering unit was set up, and we decided to weld up a blowing down pipe to front section on the exhaust, as this was giving us a headache,XR4i centre sections are no longer available, and we have had to modify a MK3 Granada 4x4 item when completing the resto, this included some cutting and shutting.
So there we have it car running well,there is still some paint work to be carried out notability the rear spoiler which has been rubbed down in preparation.
The Turbo Technics conversion remains in the pipe line, but won`t be done this year.
Exhaust.
Back on the rollers
Too many toys!!!
Well car was sat over winter and brought back out over Easter.The car refused to run properly resulting in a couple of days of fettling, the metering unit was always thought to have a sticky plunger, so when a reconditioned unit came up on E-Bay a few months ago i bid and "won". The unit was fitted over Easter to hopefully eradicate the rough running. Unfortunately after fitting it the car refused to start, and when it did you had to give the car 3/4 throttle to keep it alive! The mixture setting on the "reconned" head needed setting up, a couple of tweaks had the car running, but still rough!!! The Metering unit was not the fault this time.The fuel pump was original Bosch, i bought a couple of second hands ones as they came up, but the decision was made to treat the car to a new one, this improved things, but it wasn`t until the warm up regulator was stripped and cleaned that we finally had a decent running XR4i again. The constant starting took its toll on the starter motor, it packed in at the local Shell station on its way back to Southways for a mixture setup and rolling road tune.
A new old stock Lucas starter was bought and fitted a few days later and we were up and running again.
The new Metering unit was set up, and we decided to weld up a blowing down pipe to front section on the exhaust, as this was giving us a headache,XR4i centre sections are no longer available, and we have had to modify a MK3 Granada 4x4 item when completing the resto, this included some cutting and shutting.
So there we have it car running well,there is still some paint work to be carried out notability the rear spoiler which has been rubbed down in preparation.
The Turbo Technics conversion remains in the pipe line, but won`t be done this year.
Exhaust.
Back on the rollers
Too many toys!!!
Rear Spoiler removed for painting, a PIA to remove, all fixings rusted in after 30 odd years, no surprise there, but the lower screws all snapped as well, so we went through a couple of drill bits, and some of the rivnuts on the upper tailgate refused to play ball, and had to be chiselled out because they just span 
The cars profile looks completely different with out the, iconic? am i aloud to say iconic? rear spoiler.
30 years of grime,upper fixings that needed the work,and some surface rust,were spoiler rubs paint.
Then off home to clean up the tailgate, and rub down the rust, and examine the slight damaged caused by beating the tailgate, the spoiler will cover all this, so as long as we can fix the new, right size, Rivnuts no one will ever know, apart from you lot
After clean up, this will be treated and hand painted to protect it for another 30 yrs hopefully.
There we go, i will post some more photos after the Spoiler,Grille and Door mirror covers are painted and the door and rear quarter panel black strips are fitted.
The cars profile looks completely different with out the, iconic? am i aloud to say iconic? rear spoiler.
30 years of grime,upper fixings that needed the work,and some surface rust,were spoiler rubs paint.
Then off home to clean up the tailgate, and rub down the rust, and examine the slight damaged caused by beating the tailgate, the spoiler will cover all this, so as long as we can fix the new, right size, Rivnuts no one will ever know, apart from you lot
After clean up, this will be treated and hand painted to protect it for another 30 yrs hopefully.
There we go, i will post some more photos after the Spoiler,Grille and Door mirror covers are painted and the door and rear quarter panel black strips are fitted.
Edited by T66ORA on Saturday 9th May 15:22
Edited by T66ORA on Friday 13th November 22:20
MarkwG said:
I'm voting no for iconic, I'm afraid - great car, but back in the day hardly anyone knew they even existed - the Capri was far more iconic - "very famous or popular, especially being considered to represent particular opinions or a particular time:" - the XR4i was more of a cul-de-sac, until the Cosworth came along.
To me the Capri was a 70s car, all, Slade,Punk Rock, 3day a week, strikes and the winter of discontent.The XR4i with its huge Bi Plane wing was pure 80s, The Falklands War, New Romantics,Electronics, Shoulder pads, and Loadsamoneeeeey
All show? yer but thankfully enough go to see off most rivals, including the Capri
Wait until the Turbo Technics conversation is fitted
Paul95 said:
The Sierra in general is a car I have a soft spot for, despite it being before my time. I don't think I've seen a Nimbus Grey XR4i before, only ever white - and often with the rear window butchered to make a Cosworth replica. I might be wrong here, and do correct me if I am because I'd like to learn more, but are the wheels on yours from an XR4x4? All the old pictures I've seen of XR4is have the pepperpot design.
I lust after the Mk2 hatchbacks, but I don't think I could dislike the Sierra in general.
Hello Paul,I lust after the Mk2 hatchbacks, but I don't think I could dislike the Sierra in general.
Thanks for the interest. Yes the original wheels were 14" Pepperpots.
The XR4x4 had 14" RS alloys similar to the Escort RS1600i and Turbo, but those models had 6x15s
My 4i is fitted with the 15s, these wheels were a rare dealer fitted option in 1983. The Sierra has a slightly different offset to the Escort so the wheels are not identical.
TheAngryDog said:
It had the rare XR4i embossed rear windows (the smaller ones). I'd only ever seen a few with them fitted.
The Car was originally to be called XR4 (no "i") Ford changed there minds around 1982, it was to late to stop the production of around 15000 sets or rear glass with "XR4" embossed into them. Later cars 1985 mdls had plain glass.Some early press photos just have "SIERRA XR4" on the back.
We took this photo when using some bits of card to protect the interior during some work.
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