Friday 5th December 2008

SOTW: Ford Granada Cosworth

A Cosworth for 700 quid? That'll be the Granny...

---

Here at Shed we had started the day hunting down a late bug-eyed Ford Scorpio Cosworth as this week’s SOTW. Sadly the work experience boy turned to stone from looking at its hideous features too long, so we settled for the earlier Granada.

The third generation Granny still has bags of old school charm and looks like it could reach out and give you a friendly tweak of the cheek like an East End gangster. It is also one of those huge five-door hatchbacks that seem to have all but died out, a bit like big Fords themselves. This is football manager, Sunday league-style - an attainable chunk of wafting power and affordable cowhide.

The Mark III appeared in 1985, but was freshened up to keep it on sale all the way until 1994. Engine options included the SOHC Pinto engine and the Cologne V6 in 2.4L and 2.8L form, but these were replaced by the range-topping 24-Valve, re-badged the Scorpio. The V6 had been extensively reworked by Cosworth Engineering and was packed with quad camshafts and 24 valves.

The new EEC V engine management system with sequential multipoint fuel injection was also fitted, and a second catalyst, one for each bank of cylinders, gave the car better breathing. This Cosworth jiggery pokery raised the power from 195bhp to 206bhp at 6000rpm and torque is raised to 207lb ft at 4250rpm.

Of course, the most important bit was that it had a ‘Cosworth’ badge glued to the boot, not unlike the ones that had sat in the shadow of ridiculously oversized whale tails elsewhere in the Ford range. The Granny Cosworth had a 0-60mph time of 8.1 seconds and a top speed north of 150mph.

So, what you have now is a car that is familiar but rare, with a huge unit that has been fettled by a legendary name. All for £750? This sounds seriously tempting to the PH office. Throw in just 103,000 miles, leather, a ‘brake upgrade’, new tyres, original alloys, history and an MOT and you have got yourself a bargain barge. Ignore the badge snobs and look after the car – you could be looking at a future classic…

Ad reads: '1995 Ford Cosworth Granada Scorpio 24v 2.9i Metalic, leather,alloys, ac, history, mot Nov. 2009. One of the last Cosworths excellent condition for year, great engine on leaks or blow back recommend viewing, brake upgrade, good rubbers. £750 ONO.

 

[Motorrad]

Ha! I found this car myself earlier this week in my shed search. Great minds obviously think alike.

[Cassius81]

I wonder what "brake upgrade" means?

[oagent]

Cassius81 said:

I wonder what "brake upgrade" means?

Foot to the floor, anchor out the window, faith etc replaced with greenstuff pads maybe?

[sleep envy]

someone with the runs shat in the cabin

[BlueSei]

80s Fords get my vote every time, huge fan.

[pSyCoSiS]

Good shed. Different. And, alot of car for the money...

[Garett]

said:

This Cosworth jiggery pokery raised the power from 195bhp to 206bhp

So they gave it a massive power increase of 11 bhp!

I do like these though, suprised they haven't appeared in sotw before, lot of car for the money. Wonder what it would be like on a track stripped out with 2 bucket seats.

[Beefmeister]

Garett said:

Wonder what it would be like on a track stripped out with 2 bucket seats.

Awful. Truly truly awful.

[Garlick]

Beefmeister said:

Garett said:

Wonder what it would be like on a track stripped out with 2 bucket seats.

Awful. Truly truly awful.

if you need to ask etc.....

[Turbobanana]

Cassius81 said:

I wonder what "brake upgrade" means?

Never mind that: what are "good rubbers"??

[tonytifoso]

Didn't one of the mags or something describe these as "like the boardroom wearing sprint trainers"? I knew someone that ran these one after the other for ages - loved them.

[Beefmeister]

Turbobanana said:

Cassius81 said:

I wonder what "brake upgrade" means?

Never mind that: what are "good rubbers"??

[Strawman]

Turbobanana said:

Cassius81 said:

I wonder what "brake upgrade" means?

Never mind that: what are "good rubbers"??

legal tyres, at a guess, is it an auto as well

[JayMan]

A nice old barge. A good shed me thinks.

Can someone find me one for £200 or less?, I need something for next years Crumble Rally.

[OllieWinchester]

Took one of these in as a px where I worked, was so excited I couldn't contain myself. What an awful shed of a thing it was, didn't seem particularly knackered but it had NO GO.......

[JayMan]

"great engine on leaks or blow back" presumably its rubbish at everything else.

[Jellymonster]

oagent said:

Cassius81 said:

I wonder what "brake upgrade" means?

Foot to the floor, anchor out the window, faith etc

Now THAT was funny...

[useyourdellusion]

I'd forgotten all about these!

I remember seeing the first Cosworth badged one of these and wondering what treats lay within. 11bhp extra though? I'm quite disappointed now. I knew it was no Lotus Carlton slayer but I was still very curious about it.

Such was the power of the COSWORTH badge at the time! It was unattainable dream-machinery to me back then.

It's a true bargain now though at £750 and I would agree with the PH write-up referring to it as being a future classic.

Good spot and great SOTW!

[ZZR]

Garett said:

said:

This Cosworth jiggery pokery raised the power from 195bhp to 206bhp

So they gave it a massive power increase of 11 bhp!

I do like these though, suprised they haven't appeared in sotw before, lot of car for the money. Wonder what it would be like on a track stripped out with 2 bucket seats.

The original 2.9 engine was 160bhp not 195 so it was actually a 46bhp increase, the original 2.9 only did about 130mph and the Cosworth version about 145mph. A bit of schoolboy exaggeration going on in the PH office me thinks!

[minimatt1967]

Garett said:

said:

This Cosworth jiggery pokery raised the power from 195bhp to 206bhp

So they gave it a massive power increase of 11 bhp! I do like these though, suprised they haven't appeared in sotw before, lot of car for the money. Wonder what it would be like on a track stripped out with 2 bucket seats.

Hang on the old single cam 2.9 only had 148 raging ponies!