Spooling tradition: The pioneer of the affordable high-powered family saloon.
The loud and brash family saloon wasn’t strictly a mainstay item like it is now. As the likes of the Subaru Impreza WRX, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, Mercedes C63 and BMW M3 have become a cult and current favorite for buyers seeking real genuine use with real grunt and aggression, it almost felt as if this market segment was already fully figured out since the start of the car.
Its probably an eye-opener that, actually, its not. The Ford Sapphire Cosworth was born at a time where the go-fast 4-door saloon car wasn’t a hit yet. In those years, the sports cars were defined more firmly by body style.
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| Conventional body style a early 1980s sports car would have used. |
Around 1986 where the first Sapphire Cosworths were assembled, most, if not all cars used in international motorsports consisted of coupes and hatches. Generally, the consensus was two doors on both sides and nothing more.
Seeing where the industry shifted to in the 2000s and up, the shift to cars with more practicality with less fun was going to happen one way or another. It would happen that Ford had a winning recipe on their hands.
They already did with the Ford Sierra Cosworth hatchback, the Sierra with more motorsport status than what the Sapphire saloon did.
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| Photo credit: PSParrot |
The Ford Sierra Cosworth got ahold of the Cosworth YBB 2.0 litre, the Sapphire receiving largely the same bar for some model year revisions.
204 turbocharged horsepower and 277 Nm of torque was placed onto the duty of the rear wheels, later 4×4 models putting power via all fours via a permanent all-wheel drive system.
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| Photo credit: Lee |
Fords rationale for the Sapphire Cosworth was actually more than testing the waters for a performance saloon. The hatchback Sierra Cosworth was intended as a car for Group A touring car championships in Europe. They enlisted Cosworth for engine development, whom agreed to assist in developing the turbocharged YBB engine under two conditions.
Firstly, the engine had to produce at least 204 horsepower in road-going trim – fair enough for Ford.
Second, Ford had to build at least 15,000 units of the engine.
This was not an issue for homologating the engine and car for racing, but the issue was more related to sales because – how are they going to take sell a race-developed engine? Even in the 1980s, market demand for high-performance cars wasn’t as lucrative in sales volumes as bread-and-butter cars.
Idea! Take the same engine and just throw it into the family car. Buyers intending for a usable car for family use could now explore the performance market once reserved for sports car buyers.
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| Photo credit: Pietro Zoccola |
The Sapphire Cosworth was not solely made to sell more Cosworth engines, later becoming the replacement for the Sierra Cosworth RS500 (evolution variant created for homologation) via the later model Sapphire Cosworth 4×4.
Ford took note of the limitations the RS500 had for rallying due to the rear-wheel drive layout, replacing it with the Sapphire to make use of the all-wheel drive layout.
Ford shifted use to the Sapphire Cosworth 4×4 and began using it as a basis for touring car works, effectively superseding the original Sierra Cosworth RS500.
This is one of three Sierra Sapphires in Singapore.
It happens not to be stock – hearsay to have had 500 wheel horsepower at one point.
It was also recently for sale on Carousell.
The post has been completely wiped off Carousells database, so no real way to find back the post without an archive of the listing.
As I’d heard, the interior condition was adequate, but rest of the car would need a huge amount of money spent to get it in a well-sorted condition.
All hearsay, but an old-school cult classic is bound to retain old-school modifications, this example being no exception.
Last I heard, the engine bay was in terrible condition with missing original wiring harnesses. Undercarriage was damaged at one point, sealing needed to be redone, the frame is straight but poorly painted.
Supposedly, the listing was purely for fun as well, the owner not actually keen on selling it. The listing being taken off doesn’t tell me much on what happened to it.
As for the other units, a white one with Morette headlights and white Speedline 6-spokes has been spotted in recent times bearing vanity UK plates.
Another unit, previously silver but supposedly restored back to original condition in a light blue shade, has to my knowledge not been spotted in recent years, nor is the plate valid.
I wasn’t expecting to find that much support for UK cult classics in Singapore – not a surprise most of the new birds in the car community didn’t know what is was, but I was surprised by how many friends drew interest with the car, and their knowledge about it.
I’m humbled – guess I wasn’t so mad for picking my car!
~Efini
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