Stolen ford cosworth stories...

[markcurtains]

I remember a few years ago, one of the tabloids were doing a car giveaway whereby there was a "fake" car key given away in each paper. Readers then had to take the key down to the dealers, I think it was Vauxhall, and try to open the car that would be the prize. The controversy came when some punters found that the "fake" keys were actually old Vauxhall keys and could still operate locks on older cars.

[Chlamydia]

S0 What said:

I've owned over 150 fords over the years and they are easy (OK laughably easy) to open but some of the storeys on here make me wonder, a twig, really? any TX ford key will open a Mk3 cortina yes but there is no way a twig would turn the lock to lift the rod and release the latch in the door lock, a tea spoon does it ok though, a lollypop stick will 9 times out of 10 snap with the force needed, i know i've tried many times.

I absolutely guarantee that a twig not only opened the driver's door on my Cortina it also started the engine. I stood there and watched him do it. We'd found the door ajar one morning and someone had rifled through my cassettes and nicked the good ones, but the window hadn't been put through or anything so I couldn't figure out how they'd done it. My brother got me to relock the door and tried his Cortina Mk4 key - it unlocked it and relocked it. He tried a flat screwdriver, again it unlocked and relocked it, as did a small blade on his Swiss Army knife. If you could get anything into the keyhole in the door it would unlock it, including a twig he picked up from the floor. The twig was the only thing he tried in the ignition barrel but believe me it started the car no problems at all with a bit of wiggling, (the steering lock never worked so he didn't have to force that). The locks were just so worn out they were useless.

[spiralp]

I had one as a company car between 1989 and 1991. My boss insisted that I had to have a British badged car and I could not have a BMW. I had to keep it for 3 years, during which period I covered 80,000 miles. It was in for repair every month, and had numerous gearbox repairs, track control arms, discs, exhaust bolts, broken fuel pipes, water leaks, cracked block, etc, etc. Oh, and it was stolen twice and recovered twice. The second time it was recovered it had been used in a robbery near Birmingham and left burning in a school playground.

All the big cities were hot spots for the theft of these cars and mine was stolen from Leeds city centre and then from the NEC near Birmingham. When I reported the theft to the NEC security they insisted that no cars had ever been stolen from the NEC and that I must have forgotten where I parked it! The police, however, believed me and said that virtually every Cossie in the Birmingham area had been stolen at least once.

My boss got sick of the repair bills and let me have a BMW - result!

[lee2cossies]

The one that popped up on Facebook this week was stolen back last summer never to be seen again! High parts value means that their still being stolen quite a lot! A basic engine starts at £2k these days, a rs500 bumper is £2.5k for example, easy money for the scum that pinch them. Mk1 and mk2 escorts are also going missing due to the high parts value.

[rallycross]

lee2cossies said:

The one that popped up on Facebook this week was stolen back last summer never to be seen again! High parts value means that their still being stolen quite a lot! A basic engine starts at £2k these days, a rs500 bumper is £2.5k for example, easy money for the scum that pinch them. Mk1 and mk2 escorts are also going missing due to the high parts value.

Parts prices definitely going up.
I bought a low mileage engine for one of my Sierra cosworths back in 2003 for £1500, minuminum £2k now for a tired one, and 3 door cossie and Escort Cosworth parts are going up to crazy levels check ebay prices for things like front bumper, trim parts, uncracked dash are going for huge prices.

[jimmyt1202]

Not a Cosworth incident but a couple of years ago at a garage I worked it we had an 07 Performance Blue ST-3. One morning when I came into work I was opening up and then did my usual walk around. Walked up to the Focus and had all of the front and rear bumper grills, wing mirror caps and indicators and spoiler ripped off. Worst phone call I've ever had to make to my boss! Got straight on to Ford and re-ordered the parts. Got them fitted then came back to work a few days later and they'd gone again! Needless to say after that the ST's were always kept inside! Always had spoilers/centre caps going walkabouts from Fiesta Zetec S/ST's as well if they were kept outside!

[WCZ]

a fair few of you had them as company cars here? nice!
Evo's are defiantly the modern equivalent, lots and lots of them get stolen

[jk888]

My ex boss had one, it was stolen at least 5 times. He once put it at the top of his drive, blocked in by a Sierra XR4x4, an Astra GTE, an Orion Ghia, a van and a trailer with a boat on it. They still got it

[Spoonman]

Had several close calls with my Sapphire, despite a couple of alarms and a snap-off steering wheel. In the end, I stopped using it as my everyday car - not because of the thieves, but because the succession of lousy immobilisers (and worse installers) turned the wiring loom into a mass of dodgy connector blocks.

Here's a couple of photos of one attempted theft, which was directly outside our offices. The car park was 'patrolled' by a daft old sod of a security guard who complained, "That's a loud alarm, isn't it."

[wooooody]

Found the link below today after reading this thread a couple of days ago, scroll to the bottom:

http://catchingphotons.co.uk/blog/railways/bridget...

[cptsideways]

Is this still classed as warm? probably nicked in the 90's


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Sierra-2-door-barn-...

[iva cosworth]

Deffo suspect dodgy.

[jones325i]

Part of me wants a Cossie just to see if I can keep hold of it.

Really interesting thread, but also quite depressing.

[161BMW]

The tales in this thread are very eye opening. They sound almost like folk lore

[s m]

Spoonman said:

Had several close calls with my Sapphire, despite a couple of alarms and a snap-off steering wheel. In the end, I stopped using it as my everyday car - not because of the thieves, but because the succession of lousy immobilisers (and worse installers) turned the wiring loom into a mass of dodgy connector blocks.

Here's a couple of photos of one attempted theft, which was directly outside our offices. The car park was 'patrolled' by a daft old sod of a security guard who complained, "That's a loud alarm, isn't it."

Enjoyed reading the "REVS" features with that one

To be honest, with getting on for 40,000 cars built with easy to overccme security, there were bound to be a few hundred stories over the last 25 years!

[cptsideways]

And another still warm one obviously

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-ESCORT-COSWORTH-BOD...

[Zooks]

petrolsniffer said:

Those or a metro

Wasn't there a trick in the early vauxhall nova's where you could start it simply by swiching two dash switches around?

Thought this was a myth but they did this on tonight's top gear. Great design feature lol

Edited by Zooks on Sunday 2nd February 21:10

[Escort3500]

cptsideways said:

Is this still classed as warm? probably nicked in the 90's


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Sierra-2-door-barn-...

Did they produce Cosworth Sierras in red? Quite a lot of the engine bay is red; possibly a standard 2-door shell? Also, those arch extensions and skirts look blended in; I thought they were bolted on? No doubt a Cossie expert will put me right

[stain]

My plumber had a black RS500 (E500 APN iirc) and I will never forget the feeling of proper turbo lag. Funnily enough he didn't have it long before someone half inched it. From memory it was used in some sort of heist too.

[iva cosworth]

AFAIK there is one 3 door in red from. new.

Saw it a couple of years ago at an RSOC show.