Stolen ford cosworth stories...
Discussion
My wife's cousin had his blue Escort Cossie stolen while visitng Swansea (he lives out in the sticks) 2 years ago. He'd had the car since new and was pretty upset, however I believe he was pretty silly to leave it unattended in a council estate in Swansea personally.
My work mate's mate had his Mk2 Focus RS stolen off his drive last month. They didn't have the keys but managed to drive off anyway, he woke to see it reversing off and speeding off down the road. It was early on a quiet Sunday morning.
My work mate's mate had his Mk2 Focus RS stolen off his drive last month. They didn't have the keys but managed to drive off anyway, he woke to see it reversing off and speeding off down the road. It was early on a quiet Sunday morning.
I do find it surprising also,
I have a switch in my car that basically makes it unstartable at least if you have no clue what you are doing.
There are quite a few sensors in a car that when disabled wont let the car start.
If i had one of these in their prime i'd have a hidden bypass for the starter, a pull off steering wheel and some method of locking down the bonnet with a key or something (Hidden)
sounds like it would be worth spending a bit of cas with an electrican for these....
I have a switch in my car that basically makes it unstartable at least if you have no clue what you are doing.
There are quite a few sensors in a car that when disabled wont let the car start.
If i had one of these in their prime i'd have a hidden bypass for the starter, a pull off steering wheel and some method of locking down the bonnet with a key or something (Hidden)
sounds like it would be worth spending a bit of cas with an electrican for these....
A lad I worked with at the Police in Macnhester had a grey Sapphire Cosworth, the scum never got it but they did tell him when he popped tot he shops that they were coming for it, used to just walk up to him in the Co-op and say they were gunning for his car, needless to say, his security regime was quite complex. The worst that happened was that, twice he had expensive ICE fitted and came down to find it had all been carefully removed.
A mate and I were working down in Basildon in 93 (?) and we went for an evening drive in his XR3 which was made to look a bit like an RS1600i. His alternator was knackered and this caused the alarm to trigger on a low voltage sensor.
There's me and him with out heads under the bonnet, alarm blaring, on a housing estate just as the police roll up. Cue a hurried explanation.
There's me and him with out heads under the bonnet, alarm blaring, on a housing estate just as the police roll up. Cue a hurried explanation.
petrolsniffer said:
s m said:
They moved onto Mk2 Astra/Belmont after
Every 'Police Stop/Pursuit' program seemed to feature a Mk2 Astra/Belmont in the 90s
Those or a metroEvery 'Police Stop/Pursuit' program seemed to feature a Mk2 Astra/Belmont in the 90s
Wasn't there a trick in the early vauxhall nova's where you could start it simply by swiching two dash switches around?
I remember a friend's brother having an Escort Cossie in late 90's, he also had another he was converting to a rally car in his garage.
The rally car got stolen one night along with all his tools, never recovered. I believe he also wrote off the road car not long after.
I heard a story years ago that one of the Ford RS bosses had his RS500 stolen from a secure carpark, thieves used a truck with a Hi-Ab on the back to calmly lift it over the big wall, dont know how much truth there is in that one?
The rally car got stolen one night along with all his tools, never recovered. I believe he also wrote off the road car not long after.
I heard a story years ago that one of the Ford RS bosses had his RS500 stolen from a secure carpark, thieves used a truck with a Hi-Ab on the back to calmly lift it over the big wall, dont know how much truth there is in that one?
Sir Bagalot said:
Wasn't there a competition run by an alarm company and magazine where they had developed a new alarm system. They claimed a car fitted with it would be un-nickable.
They fitted it to a Sapphire Cosworth and said that anyone who could break into it and drive it away would legally be allowed to keep the car. There was a time limit of something like 15 mins(?)
A queue was formed.... the first one to attempt it won the car.....
Yes. I'm sure it was an Escort though, as it was when they first came out and had insurance premiums that matched the list price of the car due to all the Sapphires nicked beforehand.They fitted it to a Sapphire Cosworth and said that anyone who could break into it and drive it away would legally be allowed to keep the car. There was a time limit of something like 15 mins(?)
A queue was formed.... the first one to attempt it won the car.....
I think the rule was no damage to be done to the car, and you if you started it within 15mins you could keep it.
Everyone got into the car no problem, but no-one could get it started. Many smug faces from the alarm company (which for the life of me I cannot remember which one!), until one guy had it started in under 2mins. Who "legally" nicked the car and kept it!
GC8 said:
South Yorkshire police had three late K registered Sapphire Cosworth 4x4s. One was stolen out of their yard before it was converted!
I have heard this before, but I was told it was a new Escort Cosworth stolen from Northumbria Police before they could convert it. I believed it at the time as I was living in Newcastle and finding it difficult to stop the local scrotes driving my XR3i.Dad had a few Cossie's back in the day; he sold his white 3 door after in 89 after 2 years of ownership and 90k miles trouble free.= to another guy in the village.
He replaced it with a 2wd Sapphire which was stolen (for the first time) outside a local restaurant on the night of his 25th wedding anniversary. We'd had quite a big party and came out of the venue to find a space where his car had been parked and a door lock on the floor.
A phone call from the police in the morning confirmed it had been dumped in a field about 8 miles away. We went to try and recover it but the ignition barrel was smashed and the fuel wouldn't energise. All four wheels and tyres were trashed where it had clearly been up and down kerbs etc and the merciless bstards had used a screwdriver (or similar) to puncture every panel. They had also clearly smoked prolifically in it which, as a non-smoker, riled my dad.
Car went away to be repaired and was one for months. 4 new wheels and tyres and a s
t load of paint later he got it back, but he had fallen out of love with it. The car lasted 4 weeks before, having parked it in Peterborugh Theatre car park, he came out to find the familiar cossie shaped hole in the car park where it has been left - it had been nicked again.
This time it wasn't recovered; well, it was, but in no fit state. It had been drive from P'boro to Bedford where it had been used in a ram raid of a jewellers and was later burnt out.
He ran a seven series after that for a coupe of years, then went back to T C Harrisson in P'boro as they had one of the last unregistered 4x4's for sale (would have been 1993 I think?). They did a deal in principle, dad rang for an insurance quote and get a sensible figure, which he quesioned (knowing it should have been mental) to which they replied (and Im paraphrasing here) "If it's nicked you'll get 50% of its value".
To which he said Foxtrot Oscar and got something else (a Scorpio Cossie, which wasn't classified anywhere close to the same risk).
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 stil has it - it comes out on highdays and holidays.
He replaced it with a 2wd Sapphire which was stolen (for the first time) outside a local restaurant on the night of his 25th wedding anniversary. We'd had quite a big party and came out of the venue to find a space where his car had been parked and a door lock on the floor.
A phone call from the police in the morning confirmed it had been dumped in a field about 8 miles away. We went to try and recover it but the ignition barrel was smashed and the fuel wouldn't energise. All four wheels and tyres were trashed where it had clearly been up and down kerbs etc and the merciless bstards had used a screwdriver (or similar) to puncture every panel. They had also clearly smoked prolifically in it which, as a non-smoker, riled my dad.
Car went away to be repaired and was one for months. 4 new wheels and tyres and a s
t load of paint later he got it back, but he had fallen out of love with it. The car lasted 4 weeks before, having parked it in Peterborugh Theatre car park, he came out to find the familiar cossie shaped hole in the car park where it has been left - it had been nicked again.This time it wasn't recovered; well, it was, but in no fit state. It had been drive from P'boro to Bedford where it had been used in a ram raid of a jewellers and was later burnt out.
He ran a seven series after that for a coupe of years, then went back to T C Harrisson in P'boro as they had one of the last unregistered 4x4's for sale (would have been 1993 I think?). They did a deal in principle, dad rang for an insurance quote and get a sensible figure, which he quesioned (knowing it should have been mental) to which they replied (and Im paraphrasing here) "If it's nicked you'll get 50% of its value".
To which he said Foxtrot Oscar and got something else (a Scorpio Cossie, which wasn't classified anywhere close to the same risk).
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 stil has it - it comes out on highdays and holidays.
SpeckledJim said:
petrolsniffer said:
s m said:
They moved onto Mk2 Astra/Belmont after
Every 'Police Stop/Pursuit' program seemed to feature a Mk2 Astra/Belmont in the 90s
Those or a metroEvery 'Police Stop/Pursuit' program seemed to feature a Mk2 Astra/Belmont in the 90s
Wasn't there a trick in the early vauxhall nova's where you could start it simply by swiching two dash switches around?
The reason that Mk2 Astras and Metros became popular at the shell suit tucked into socks end of car theft, was due to better cars having alarms or immobilisers. These low value cars didn't have anything fitted as standard and they seldom had anything aftermarket fitted either, making them the only car that f
kwits were able to take.From 1997 onwards all cars had to have an immobiliser fitted, meaning that the pool of available cars dwindled.
Might as well add the story of my Dad's RS500, it got nicked in Leeds in the early 90's outside a chipshop. He was lucky to get it back to be honest, problem was Leeds Police hadn't updated their system when it was recovered. So my Dad got a visit from the local's and asked him about it. Were all fine once they worked it out. It was garaged after that anyway, when he bought an RS1800 Fiesta to tool around in. You'd notice people going after the windows on the garage when you went there. It also had a Vecta immobilisor on it, which were supposed to be pretty good back in the 90's. They're all failing now though.
Its now in an undisclosed location in the middle of nowhere until I find somewhere for it.
A friend of my Dad's has a Escort Cossie, and he tends to park next to street lamps and then puts a bike chain round a wheel. Thankfully my Dad's Escort never got nicked.
Its now in an undisclosed location in the middle of nowhere until I find somewhere for it.
A friend of my Dad's has a Escort Cossie, and he tends to park next to street lamps and then puts a bike chain round a wheel. Thankfully my Dad's Escort never got nicked.
jkh112 said:
GC8 said:
South Yorkshire police had three late K registered Sapphire Cosworth 4x4s. One was stolen out of their yard before it was converted!
I have heard this before, but I was told it was a new Escort Cosworth stolen from Northumbria Police before they could convert it. I believed it at the time as I was living in Newcastle and finding it difficult to stop the local scrotes driving my XR3i.Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff