1987 Ford Sierra Sapphire 1.8L - Completed it mate - see page 46

[New POD]

4 hours ago, adw1977 said:

They did rather half heartedly sell them here, only in the only in the 1984 model year and only in base and L trim.

September 1983 brochure on Flickr

My only experience of Sierra ownership was H172HMJ which I bought in 2001 for £200 and gave away for nothing to a scrap dealer in 2005.  It was a good car really, a bottom of the range 1.6 saloon "Sapphire Classic" but a combination of rust and a knackered carb meant it wasn't worth keeping it going in the end.

Sadly I never took a photo of it!  But it was a capable comfortable car, not the easiest to park with no power steering but great for covering long distances. 

Bloke down the road from me when i lived near Longbridge (The Austin)  had a 3 door 1.3 automatic Ghia in beige, A or B reg IIRC.  It must have been the slowest luxury car ever.  I had dreams of ripping the 1.3 out and fitting a Rover V8. And a whale tail 

I once broke down near Barnt Green in my fiat 126, and he stopped and towed me home. 

[lisbon_road]

2 minutes ago, New POD said:

Bloke down the road from me when i lived near Longbridge (The Austin)  had a 3 door 1.3 automatic Ghia in beige, A or B reg IIRC.  It must have been the slowest luxury car ever.  I had dreams of ripping the 1.3 out and fitting a Rover V8. And a whale tail 

I once broke down near Barnt Green in my fiat 126, and he stopped and towed me home. 

Really?  They made a 1.3 auto - presumably a three speed torque converter traditional ............ that must have been unbelievable. 

[adw1977]

They didn't do a 1.3 auto, or a 1.3 Ghia, or a 3 door Ghia, at least not for the UK market. 

[Dobloseven]

The Sierra didn't seem to get up to speed sales wise until the Sapphire saloon appeared.There was saloon mania in the eighties with booted versions of all sorts.Belmont,Solara,Jetta,Santana,Cavalier etc.etc.Ford seemed to misjudge the market with the Sierra hatch and later,the mk 3 Granada.

[stuboy]

i had a facelift 1.6 pinto laser so basic it only had a clock instead of a rev counter

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, lisbon_road said:

Really?  They made a 1.3 auto - presumably a three speed torque converter traditional ............ that must have been unbelievable. 

Completely unbelievable...

The one I had could fly. 

[Matty]

Briefly shared a 2.3 pug diesel (indenor?) one in pinky faded red with a mate when we were 17. Slow but still a nice thing to drive in fairness. He crashed it stood up with his head out of the sunroof whilst it tugged itself down the street at idle in 3rd. When the end of the road came he didn't sit down quick enough and hit a postbox. 

He had a habit of doing fucking stupid things like that. I didn't go into shared ownership of a car with him again.

[Noel Tidybeard]

my sierror was a montego! 🤣

[goosey]

My Dad bought an E reg 1.8 pinto sapphire (E97 JWP) that had a knocking cam, we fitted a new cam and followers which fixed it for 4 months until the knocking cam noise came back so my dad bought a very rotten 2.0S Capri that we pulled the engine from on a Saturday afternoon and fitted to the Sierra in place of the knocking 1.8 on the Sunday morning so my mom could use the car Sunday afternoon to go to work. 
 

there’s loads of others but that one really stands out for some reason 

 

[New POD]

1 hour ago, adw1977 said:

They didn't do a 1.3 auto, or a 1.3 Ghia, or a 3 door Ghia, at least not for the UK market. 

Strangely I didn't take a picture of it, thinking that I'd want to prove it existed to some random expert on the Internet* some 30 plus years

*which had barely been conceived at the point that I was towed by disputed 3 door sierra. 

It was definately a 3 door. It was definately beige, it definately had a mocha dash board, it was definately an auto. It definately was not a base model as it had stuff that my dad's base estate never had. Like front head rests and rear seat belts and a radio. 

The owner told me it was a 1.3 and it definately had ghia badges. So was it a bitsa? 

 

[New POD]

1 hour ago, Dobloseven said:

.Ford seemed to misjudge the market with the Sierra hatch and later,the mk 3 Granada.

I think my dad had 5 cortinas one of every mark, only one of which was not an estate. 

I think he cried a tear when they bought out the Sierra.

That didn't stop him buying a new one in 1983 (with his redundancy pay. They took his cortina off him as he left the building) 

[Richard_FM]

7 hours ago, sierraman said:

I went to look at one of those once, an A reg 3 door in that awful wishy washy blue they did them in. It looked great in those grainy photos in Autotrader, old retired pit worker giffer owner but got there to Nottingham and the old guys son had ‘just nipped to the shops in it’. One would assume because it was bollocksed to warm it up. In hindsight I would have basically stuck a fibresports kit on it and modded it up but you know how you get talked out of these things. Probably wisely in hindsight! 

A lot of 3 doors ended up as Cosworth replicas, I heard the owner of a "cooking" one used to get notes put under the wipers asking if they were willing to sell it.

[andy18s]

Spotted this earlier this year.Very tidy for its age,and in 2.3 diesel spec just makes it perfect..

[High Jetter]

Has it landed yet?

[EspenO]

1 hour ago, andy18s said:

Spotted this earlier this year.Very tidy for its age,and in 2.3 diesel spec just makes it perfect..

Ghia wheel trims, but base headrests/dangly mirrors. I wonder if that’s Caspian blue? My old one was, but I remember it as a slightly lighter blue. 

[Noel Tidybeard]

2 hours ago, New POD said:

Strangely I didn't take a picture of it, thinking that I'd want to prove it existed to some random expert on the Internet* some 30 plus years

*which had barely been conceived at the point that I was towed by disputed 3 door sierra. 

It was definately a 3 door. It was definately beige, it definately had a mocha dash board, it was definately an auto. It definately was not a base model as it had stuff that my dad's base estate never had. Like front head rests and rear seat belts and a radio. 

The owner told me it was a 1.3 and it definately had ghia badges. So was it a bitsa? 

 

2.3 maybe- ghia was only evah 5 door in uk

[Metal Guru]

On 27/01/2024 at 12:52, Jerzy Woking said:

I had a 1988 Sapphire Cosworth for a couple of years. The front doors were rotten at just 6 years old and 38,000 miles. Replaced both doors with an immaclate pair from a scrapped 1989 1800L. 

I considered buying a Cosworth around 1990 but was moving house and over spent there , so ended up with an Escort 1.6LX. A few years later, my GF ( later wife ) introduced me to the delights * of diesels and we got a Sapphire 1.8TD LX .

[tooSavvy]

11 hours ago, Rod/b said:

My grandad used to have a 2.0 Ghia, B454OLX. I remember him proudly coming to show us when he first bought it, and my Dad ruining the occasion by pointing out that the B-OLX number plate said “Bollocks”.

Anyway for the 8 year old me bought up to the point on a diet of BL tat, the car was a revelation with its pepperpot alloys, the little LCD display of the car showing when the doors / boot were open, the digital stereo cassette player with 4 (count’em!) speakers, automatic aerial and joystick control, the built in cassette storage box… Not to mention the luxurious seats and 4 x electric windows (although to be fair our Acclaim had that too). This thing lives up to its number plate, it was THE B-OLX. 

Could be 'misremembering' a funny story...but... I'm sure an Englishman, over in septicland, had a damn good laugh because the US plate system allows you to choose your own array of numbers/letters (if unique) and he plated his car 'BOLLOKS' (mebbies a zero in there somewhere)

Anoraks may know..... 🤔

[sierraman]

My dad had the 1.6 EMAX GL as a kid, an 85 B reg I think it was, had it for years and years, went all over in it. Then some years later he had the option of buying either a 1.8 LX Sapphire or a 2.0 GLX estate from work as ex fleet. For some bizarre reason that I’ll never understand he went and bought an Astra Mk3 1.4 Merit. 

[wesacosa]

I still kinda regret not buying @rob88h's Mk1 DERV when he sold it a year or two ago

 

[Peter C]

UPDATE:

Poo count: 2

[garbaldy]

That's a shite update ☹️

[Peter C]

10 minutes ago, garbaldy said:

That's a shite update ☹️

It can only mean one thing……

[andy18s]

1 hour ago, tooSavvy said:

Could be 'misremembering' a funny story...but... I'm sure an Englishman, over in septicland, had a damn good laugh because the US plate system allows you to choose your own array of numbers/letters (if unique) and he plated his car 'BOLLOKS' (mebbies a zero in there somewhere)

Anoraks may know..... 🤔

https://www.tiktok.com/@asegal/video/6970853580358110469?lang=en

[cort16]

48 minutes ago, Peter C said:

UPDATE:

Poo count: 2

What’s the eta (of the car not poo no 3)?

[Peter C]

30 minutes ago, cort16 said:

What’s the eta (of the car not poo no 3)?

Car - 10:30am

Poo number 3 - I'm ok for now but ask me again in ten minutes. 

[HMC]

Looking forward to the pics, it looks period perfect.

[Dobloseven]

Hope he's not like the Evri people.Wait till you're on the bog,put a card through the door and bugger off!

[Peter C]

5 minutes ago, Dobloseven said:

Wait till you're on the bog

This is likely.

[Peter C]

The lorry is too big to access the roads where I live so we are doing the deal on the main road. No chance of me being on the shitter when he arrives.