The Ford Sierra is 30....

[gricer]

Fordperv wrote:

 

she was a 1.6 base with drop down mirrors and 13" steels I stupidly modified this car into cossie replica I still have this car it currently runs a 2.2 pinto on bike carbs,

 

 

What is done can be undone. Unmodify it it back to stock, and be Autoshite HERO OF THE YEAR 2012

[Albert Ross]

Outside, I have an only "slightly crusty" 89 Sapphire 1.8CVH, and a full set and a half of spare doors in the correct Diamond White. Beautiful Blue "Tweed" interior, and steel wheels. I have fitted Mk1 Focus Ghia trims, they aren't correct, but they're close. I also have a Mk1 wheeltrim, you know, "that" one, with the double slats, not the Ghia triples. The Sapphire WILL see the road again..... I'd love to do it for next year. But... I just ain't certain of the funds. Still, it ain't for sale yet...... even IF banger racers offer me £500 for it!

 

My first one was VWA 184Y, a Crystal Green Estate 1.6L. It left me after it dissolved.... the running gear? Well it ended up as a 2.1 5 speed with XR4i brakes all round, lowered a bit, and a Ghia interior. Then came a 2.0i Ghia Mk1 hatch D354 THD, with all the shizz. That met it's end under a Hurst Transport Renault Magnum, on the A46, January 1999. A huge succession of another 60 or so, mostly broken for spares, came and went, and with the exception of E615 FVL, all Mk1s, mostly Ghias, and also mostly Estates. Then I moved house, had three donated to me (one twice over!!) and regifted them all to a Deaf College, where they dismantled them and waited for permission to build a kit car.

Happy days, Sierras.

[Stixy]

Sierra's are great cars I love mine

 

 

All of them

[Shep Shepherd]

^

What's the black one's story? It looks brand new

[Stixy]

^

What's the black one's story? It looks brand new

 

Black one has a long story started out as a 2.3 V6 but was horrible on fuel then it was a 2.0 dohc then it went to 2.0 16v now its an injection Pinto

 

 

 

 

[Shep Shepherd]

^^

Looks like a lovely motor. As a life-long MK1 Sierra fan (I saw a red 1.6L in my school's staff car park in autumn 1982 and fell in love), I approve

 

I love the photos, especially the one of the Diamond White 2.3D Base. I bet that was a real pleasure to drive. Not!

[Timewaster]

I've had mine 7 years now. I havent got a pic of my own, but Trigg papped me at Stondon a while ago

 

 

I hardly ever drive it. Since I bought it I have got married and got 2 kids and there isn't much spare time for toys.

I propbaly ought to sell it but

a) I don't want to.

I dred selling it for the going rate now and seeing them fetch Mk1 Mexico money in a few years time.

 

Other Sierras I have come across seem to have all been Mk1 on a C reg.:

 

A guy I worked for had a black 2.0iS for a while,It went like hell but had headlights like candles so it was lethal in the dark.

When he eventually sold it, the man over the road from me bought it and ran it as a Taxi for years before replacing it with a brand new Proton 1500 saloon.

A mate had a red 2.0GL that also seemed faster than it had any right to be.

 

My brother bought a maroon 1.6L E-max. Oh dear! That thing would barely move it was so slow. And it used loads of fuel cos it was thrashed everywhere in an effort to reach the speed limit. That one had great headlights though?!

 

When I worked at the parts place, people would ask for a service kit for a 1.6 Sierra and I would have to ask if it was an E-max. No one ever seemed to know so my next question would be "Will it do more than about 75 flat out?!" If they said "oh yes!" then it was a normal 1.6. If they said "well, er, maybe downhill!" it was an E-max.

Some thought it was a cheeky question from the Saturday boy, but they all got the right air filter.

[CreepingJesus]

Happy birthday Sierra; haven't yet owned one, but driven plenty and liked most of them.

I got in Pedant's Corner in PC however, by pointing out that they weren't the same as 'Tinas underneath. I was quite proud of that...

[fordperv]

Fordperv wrote:

 

she was a 1.6 base with drop down mirrors and 13" steels I stupidly modified this car into cossie replica I still have this car it currently runs a 2.2 pinto on bike carbs,

 

 

What is done can be undone. Unmodify it it back to stock, and be Autoshite HERO OF THE YEAR 2012

 

to top it off when i changed the mirrors i put them to one side safe, my mum had a tidy up and threw them away, when i asked why she did that her reply was what do you want shit like that for ill be honest though i do like how my 3 door looks as ive put alot of me in that car (not in the mechaphile way lol)

just means ill have to get another pov spec one

[greengartside]

I LOVE Sierras, I always have done and always will.

 

I was brought home from the hospital when I was born in my dad's new Sierra. A510 SVV was a 1.6L Automatic in red and two days after he bought it someone scraped the side of it whilst reversing out of a space at the Norwich Cattle Market car park. I went up to Manchester in it when I was a couple of weeks old and dad nearly span it on the A1 due to the splendid crosswind problem that the early Mk1's suffered from - apparently he says the whole front end lifted off the ground for a split second

 

Whilst it was in Manc, it of course got vandalised. Two lads nicked the "two slat" hubcaps but were chased down the road by my grandad. The hubcaps came back. I think it got repo'd in the end (a long story) but did last until September 1996.

 

I worked on a very late (Jan '87) Mk1 1.8 Ghia when I was at college. It was generally abused and unloved by the other students so I was the one going round fixing everything that they broke or didn't put back on properly. D184 AAV was legendary. Even the little door/ice warning computer worked properly.

 

I'd love to actually own one - would have to be a Mk1 Ghia or a Mk2 Sapphire in Black, Ghia spec preferably.

[Morgan84]

I sadly missed out on a MK1 Ghia automatic in white in 1997,but when my Ghia estate came along in 2003,the void within was soon filled ! Sadly FVG18Y fell into the wrong hands,and got messed with,and ruined

[stuboy]

I've had mine 7 years now. I havent got a pic of my own, but Trigg papped me at Stondon a while ago

 

 

 

lovely.................

 

 

 

love the sierra!! had 3 of them

[cheguava]

Also feeling the Sierra love. Bought a 2 year old Sapphire GLS for the missus in the early 90's - H885 LOP. She loved it because it had all the toys, including the mental headlamp wash wipe. I loved it because it went like stink, and because it was Diamond White, when you drove at 90 in the outside lane of the motorway everything in front suddenly braked sharply and pulled over, particularly when I was wearing my office Johnny white shirt and dark tie.

 

Great car to drive - particularly after I lost the back end on a motorway slip road bend and fitted some decent tyres it was nailed to the road and faultless. Then my missus decided she wanted to take the company car and picked a Toyota Corolla. H885 LOP has long since departed to the scrapyard in the sky, but left a jelly mould shaped void in my heart.

[gricer]

just means ill have to get another pov spec one

 

 

That might not be as easy as you think.

 

Pov spec dangly mirror grey grille Sierra appears to be extinct - though someone spotted one over a wall in a garden a while back....

[Geep]

I went on the introductory course for the Sierra at Daventry when they were released. 30 years ago though,blimey

 

Quite interesting and covered all the changes from previous models, the new electrical gizmos, 5 speed box and so on. Worked on hundreds of them when they were new but never owned one. Always found them good to drive and quite well specced in the more luxurious versions. But 30 years ago...

[Cavcraft]

Hey Tontops, your's looks brilliant. Not surprised you're not keen on selling it.

 

 

 

Forgot earlier in the thread I also had a Sierra GT for a short while. It'd had been through a local garage for an MOT, failed on front seat belt mountings being corroded (or something like that) and was a bloody tidy and original example in metallic blue. I can't remember doing anything with it (including having the work done and a new test) so lobbed it on eBay and it went to a bloke in Liverpool who was a Ford fan.

Should have kept it really, looked a treat and I reckon being a 'GT' it would have been worth a bit in a few times as a relatively rare special edition/run out model.

[Morgan84]

I remember hearing the early ones had aerodynamics issues,but this was solved by changing the rear quarter windows rubbers to encorperate a deflector

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I had a couple of early Sierras and never had an issue with sidewinds. I did however have a beige '83 on the Y 1.6L that I bought in '97 for about 150 quid with a damaged bonnet, grille and headlight. Thought I'd be flash and upgrade it with the Ghia type blank grille and bigger lamps as well as Laser hubcaps. Trouble was, it started to overheat like a bastard. Turms out the Ghia bumper was different and had different cooling slats for the radiator!

 

Loving the original Ford pics. Modern cars haven't changed a lot really since then - it's styling really was 10-20 years ahead of its time. And I bet a really mint early one would still be a thoroughly pleasant and useable car today. Looking back at the 1982 Autocar road test, the 1.6L five speed weighs an almost laughable 1070 kilos, makes no more than 73dba of noise and does 36 mpg. So, where's the progress?

[Stixy]

I remember hearing the early ones had aerodynamics issues,but this was solved by changing the rear quarter windows rubbers to encorperate a deflector

 

The deflectors on 85 models were designed to keep the rear screen cleaner in wet weather as the grime sweeps the side of the car and onto the screen not many pre 84 cars had rear wash wipes it was even an option on the Ghia .

 

There was an issue with aerodynamics at the front at high speed the front could "lift" but this was sorted on 85 models by slightly different bumpers and a splitter

[ProgRocker]

just means ill have to get another pov spec one

 

 

That might not be as easy as you think.

 

Pov spec dangly mirror grey grille Sierra appears to be extinct - though someone spotted one over a wall in a garden a while back....

 

 

Wellm this one was on the road up until at least last autumn.

[Timewaster]

Looking back at the 1982 Autocar road test, the 1.6L five speed weighs an almost laughable 1070 kilos, makes no more than 73dba of noise and does 36 mpg. So, where's the progress?

 

Nothing - until you crash it.

 

I do remeber early Sierras had a reputation for folding up in a crash, although I think it may have been all pub talk.

 

EDIT: Crash picture changed to one without claret.

[Shep Shepherd]

I've never, ever seen a base-spec Sierra with a grey grille. I imagine that most such cars had their grilles painted body colour when they were new, or shortly afterwards.

[HMC]

at one stage the old man had a 2.3d estate which even he found a mite slow. He got a last of the line 93k azura hatch as a hack to and from work in 95 with 11k on the clock added another 100k to it without any bother. Last seen in 1999 doing minicab duty in manchester K135HAU where are you now?

[Timewaster]

last of the line 93k azura hatch

 

Oh yeah - I had one of those too! How did I forget that one?

 

Probably because it only lasted 2 hours, the 1.8 CVH imploded and the banger boys took it away the next day!

I kept the nice service book cover for the Cossie though

[M'coli]

I remember hearing the early ones had aerodynamics issues,but this was solved by changing the rear quarter windows rubbers to encorperate a deflector

I believe the prototype Sapphires also had aero issues, solved by the black extensions on the rear pillar. The rumour I'd read was that at motorway speeds the car would try to change lanes when either overtaking or being overtaken by lorries or buses, but those little bits of plastic moved the centre of pressure (or whatever it was) enough to prevent that.

[Lankytim]

Sierras are pretty bad in smashes, but then probably no worse than any other early 80's family saloon.

 

Don't like that pic much, there's blood all over the road....

[HMC]

I remenber watching this Top Gear sierra buying segment in 1993, in the same issue JC road tested the new mondeo

 

[vulgalour]

The first car I properly owned was a Ford Sierra Sapphire in that metallic blue-grey. F reg, 1.6 engine, smoky, and rusty in every conceivable place. You could poke your fingers through the doors where the glass started, the A pillars were non existent, the floors were much the same. Good old Charlies Cheapies (no apostrophe), what a waste of money. I should have bought the Mazda 323 he had on the same forecourt, for the same money, that actually had more than air holding the rust together.

 

Two of my friends have Sierras, they're very different animals. This one is stashed away waiting for restoration as my friend doesn't want to part with it. Doesn't need a huge amount, but you know how it is when you've got a modern Honda that keeps breaking.

 

The other friend has this ex-vicar owned XR4x4 that he's transformed into a rally car that he has fun playing with Novas and Subarus with on rally days. He has some vids (careful with the sound quality there) of it in action http://www.youtube.com/user/WolfmotorSport Unfortunately I can't find the photographs I have of the car, so here's a picture I did for him to give you an idea instead.

[vulgalour]

Thought I'd best add these too, found on the interwebs. If it weren't for Autoshite, I probably wouldn't even know this exists.

 

 

 

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

A hatchback named 'saloon'?