Filed Under: News
I suppose one might just think, ah, an article about one of the delights of childhood days, though even now I am rather partial to a plate of Jelly and Ice cream.
As a child we had one of those jelly moulds, that had sort of knobs all over the top, of course everyone wanted a knob.
Well, if it is food you are thinking of, then I am sorry to disappoint you, our jelly emerged from Dagenham, Ford’s in 1982. Isn’t it a terrible thought, thirty years ago, the first Sierra’s made their debut.
From all that I have read it is difficult to decide whether or not it was a true success. The consensus of opinion being that Ford were very brave at the time to bring out a car so removed from the much loved Cortina.
Due to its aerodynamic shape our Sierra acquired the dubious title of the Jellymould, the flowing lines being so advanced after the straight edges of the Cortina.
Though Ford were wise enough to use the running gear from the Cortina, which kept it from being an unknown entity.
Strange as it may seem, but the shape of the Sierra influenced many of Ford’s future model’s, in particular the US.
This was a world car, it was produced in Germany, Belgium, Argentina, New Zealand, Venezuela, South Africa and of course Dagenham. The production figure given for Dagenham was 1,299,993 units and total world wide 3.444,229 million. For some reason it was not sold in Australia.
Ford’s in the UK, are looked upon as the peoples car’s, down to earth, easy to service, hard working. By the time production came to an end in 1993, the Sierra had achieved being the tenth most popular car sold in the UK, little wonder it could be found in most streets, everyone new someone who had a Sierra.
Reps were fond of them, they made very nifty motorway cruisers, never mind your Merc’s and Jag’s, a fast moving sierra was something to behold, even the police kitted themselves out with them, don’t laugh, so did the villan’s, so the story goes the Cosworth sierra was one of the most stolen cars in the UK, apparently you would never leave it unattended, like a car park or in a badly lit street.
To start with, the Sierra was not an immediate success, in fact the sales were dire, Ford had built up such a large stock of Cortina’s, dealer were having trouble shifting them.
Despite all the wind tunnel testing our new car, though aerodynamically brilliant was a bit dodgy in windy conditions, I know what you are thinking, we had one, well we didn’t, we weren’t Ford people, but we had some in our fleet at the office.
With 600 cars to play with, I kid you not, all sorts of weird and wonderful things happened, two of our sierra’s lost all their wheels when jumping over motorway barriers, at what speed this occurred was never conveyed, at least the driver’s lived to tell the story, though one of them spent nearly two years hospitalised.
Anything made by Ford, is by virtue of the name destined for sporting achievements, and so it was with the Sierra. The sporting Sierra started around 1986, the RS Cosworth, a 2.0litre OHC bottom end was mated to a 16v DOHC top, a Garret Turbocharger and an intercooler shoved on, hey presto a 201 hp motor, a 2 door shell was used, it was designed purely for Group A racing, only 5.5 thousand were made, it was enough, Ford never looked back, by the way it came in Black or White or that Ford Blue.
Only a year went by and out rolled the RS500 Cosworth, this was truly special, so only the minimum number of 500 were produced for homologation purposes, it was an out and out Group A racer, it dominated the sport around the world, the engine was boosted up to 550 Bhp. The miles per gallon is never mentioned, I wonder why, in any case petrol was cheap, I say that tongue in cheek, because when it was only 4shillings sixpence a gallon it represented a small fortune to me on my meagre wages,. I would drive the Mini in for half a gallon, true.
The great problem was the sierra was a rear wheel drive and the motoring world had moved on to front wheel drive, Ford made an attempt at four wheel drive, a Sierra Sappphire, it did well but wasn’t up to the earlier car’s.
We had another problem, Sierra’s originally came as hatchbacks, someone at Ford did not reckon on the British need for saloon’s, so in 1987 the Sierra sapphire saloon appeared.
Because the Sierra was in many markets there was a lot of cosmetic changes, like the saloon never appeared in left hand drive so was never sold in Europe, equally the two door version was dropped in the Uk but was available on the continent, but the cosworth was a three door.
One other oddity before we move on to the bread and butter cars, though South Africa will be dealt with, 250, 5.o litre Cars were made, engines from the US Ford Mustang, with Borg Warner heavy duty transmission, I reckon it needed that and Ap racing callipers on 280mm discs, of course it Group A racing again.
By the way the Sierra was the Semperit car of the year in Ireland in 1983,
In all Ford offered 12 different engines together with 4 different gearboxes and an option of 5 body styles, what with body colours the logistics must have been mind boggling.
The down to earth model’s were using Cortina and the German Taunus engines, mainly what are described as Pinto engines of SOHC of 1.3, 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0litre capacity, Ford also offered a diesel of 2.3L made by Peugeot, but whilst frugal it lacked power, so Ford produced a turbo diesel of 1.8l
The final versions of the Sierra had fuel injection as standard and 15inch wheels and rear disc brakes, a few more cosmetic changes and alas our car ceased production in 1992, though the last registered examples were in 1994, they had been around for two years before being sold.
It might well have ended in Dagenham but production of right hand drive Sierra’s was moved to Belgium.
In fact the very last Sierra was not sold until 1995, “A new car sir, yes it is three years old, matured perhaps.”
Now, you want a Sierra, you had better be quick, there are not that many left, given the production figures, and to be honest it is going to be a nightmare sorting out what model you are buying, is it genuine?
I thought it was going to be an easy job, but as you can see it is definitely not, without doubt the Sierra is a classic and be very careful what you buy.
If you have the money why not invest in a Mondeo, it will be twenty years old next year, give me a garage big enough.
Happy motoring, and remember it matters nothing how old your car is, drive it as the most expensive car in the world.
Ted.
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