1989 Ford Sierra Cosworth Sapphire from UK and Ireland - Comments

Warped brake discs.

Premature wear to the tires and brakes.

Seized clutch.

Blown head gasket.

Shattered spark plug.

Forget your Japanese Scooby's and Evo's. The 'Cossie' will always be king of the road and track.

Blistering performance with all the benefits of comfortable 4 seater transport that will happily cruise at three figure speeds (just watch the fuel gauge plummet though!).

I have used mine as a second car for dry weekends in the summer. It has many modifications that have resulted in over 300bhp and race-car handling. It is taken to many RS shows (great sociable atmospheres) and regularly used at track days. This has meant that I have got through a fair few sets of tires, brakes and spark plugs, but it's all worth while for the Porsche crushing tail happy performance.

Once you buy a Cossie you will find nearly all other cars on the road boring, mundane and slow.

Interesting review. Yes the Cossie does make most things seem slow in comparison. It is also a hoot to drive! Engine is rather coarse though. But better than an Evo? Well I own a rather fun Evo VII, my weekend car & it makes a complete mockery of all the Cossies I have come up against on the track. They just can't go through the bends at the same speed :)

Have to say though, as a cheaper alternative... nothing comes close!

Since Feb 02, I have owned a 1989 2WD Cossie that I found for five hundred quid on the continent. It has had 'one or two' mods and now has an output well over 300 BHP.

Despite high quality coil-overs and top notch brakes, it still inspires little confidence in the bends, and on wet roundabouts you have to drive like an old lady in third gear to avoid pointing the wrong way (the rear tyres are always bald). The lag is massive, the power is late, and the powertrain is industrial.

But this is 80s engineering, and it cannot be compared to the highly impressive, modern Evos and Imprezas that flatter bad drivers enormously and make good drivers look like superstars.

Aside from warped discs (original equipment) this thing has actually required almost nothing in terms of maintenance, and just goes and goes.

It was supposed to be a daft project car, and now it is giving me severe doubts about paying the relatively vast sums associated with the current crop of 'performance' cars.

Hi guys

i own an 89 saff cossie wich I've had for 4 years its tuned to the nuts and is knocking out 380bhp (or was) (the turbo needs overhauling) and to be honest with you its the mutts nuts as far as I'm concerned its the only car I've ever had (including a 944) that still makes me smile every time I use it..on fast roads it just flies yet in town it happily potters along at 20!ish and it turnes heads where ever I go! not bad for a old sierra eh?

I do like scoobies and evo etc, but the cossie just keeps on going and going so who am I to complain? your right about the warped discs to mine are like a banana and there less than a year old time for some new ones me thinks

cheers

cossieman.

Indeed, it is built with from 80's engineering, but I don't think that in terms of legendary status there are any other cars around that come close. For example, how many other D reg'd cars do you see fetching upto and over £15000 (for 3dr)? not many. So far, all the other ford RS's have reached rock bottom in price,then it seems, they get 'collectable' status and good examples start to climb in price again. I feel it's the Sapphire's turn now, seeing as they're around for as little as £3000 for one that needs a little tlc. As far as Imprezas and Evo's go, they're a different league all together! They've had 15 - 20 years of improvement added to them, but with this in mind, I don't think they beat the cossie by as much as they should. And to be fair, it's only really the road handling that they win by. Maybe the cosworth was so far ahead of it's time that it took 10 years just to even it? Or maybe the japanese are just gettin bored of it all?? I think the real reason might be the fact that the cosworth's british built it!!!

Anyway, If I had £3000 to spend on a motor with unique looks and a bit of grunt, i'd buy a sapphire over a subaru (scoob's are way too common now). If I had £13000, I'd buy the Evo. I supose it all depends on how much you got to spend.

To the last comment, you could get a scoob for 3K, but it'l be a dog, but not rusty like a cossie. I had £13.500 to spend and found a 1 year old WRX with the ppp 15k miles, kicking out 260 bhp with cossie killing performance, 60 in 4.8 seconds. With zero work from me, it makes me laugh that people still spend this amount on 15 year old escort cossies just because their rare. I couldnt care less if my street was filled with scoobs, it does'nt take away their kick ass performance.

I think it's more than just handling that makes the scoob and evo more advanced, they have come along well in 10 years. After all. the most powerful cossie was the Escort, which equals the lowest power scoob now, 0-60 and 100. The most powerful WR1 is 320 bhp, and the evo 405 bhp, you'd have to tune a cossie right up to equal it.

Yes, but not the rs500.

So what power does an RS 500 come with? I thought they were 204 BHP standard.

I believe the rs500 came with 220bhp as standard, but, and this is a big, but, it also had race spec parts on the engine such as larger intercooler and eight injectors as apposed to the standard 4 these were left disconnected in standard trim, but with a bit of tinkering these can be re connected for big power gains.

RS500's are 224bhp, I own one! A stage 3 chip, green injectors, filter and exhaust will have it showing 378.7bhp.

As for Scooby's...way too common, loads of 19 year olds have got them now due to their cheap resale price.

Cosworths have a huge following... Also it's a good British legend.

I do like Evo's though. Mate of mine has one and it handles like nothing I have ever been in, amazing car.

I doubt many 19 year olds will have a scooby, they may be cheaper due to their numbers but they still cost a bomb to insure and run. And anyway, just because somethings more common it doesn't mean it's less of a car, buy what you like, not what's more rare.