OT - 1989 Flint Grey Ford Sierra RS Cosworth. NOW SOLD
Turbo Mini Forums

General:
1989 Sierra Saphire RS Cosworth in Flint Grey. It has 112k miles on the clock with quite a large history/receipts folder. I have owned this car for two years and it has been my every day car! I am going back to university so unfortunately I need to sell the sierra to pay my tuition fees.
There is 11 months MOT left; it has flown through its last three MOTs with the only advisory this year being on rear tyres getting near the legal limit. The car is also taxed until September.
The service book shows stamps up until 94k miles (roughly the mileage on the car when I purchased it) since then all servicing and repairs have been carried out by me. Please don’t let that put you off; I am an automotive engineer by trade and a perfectionist by nature. The car has been maintained to standards far exceeding the standard service intervals!

Engine:
When purchasing the car 2 years ago the seller informed me it had a rebuilt engine. I took this with a pinch of salt as he had no receipts to back this up. Whilst I have owned the car it has had the cylinder head removed and rebuilt by my local machine shop. Whilst the head was off we took the time to measure and inspect the bores, they are standard size with very little lip at the top. The engine scores very strong 150psi compression test results; to us this indicates that maybe the car has had a low mileage standard donor engine fitted?
Cylinder Head Rebuild- In the summer of 2009 a small water leak started to dribble out, as soon as this was noticed we removed the head and gave it a full rebuild. This work involved a very light skim of the head, 16 bronze valve guides, all valves re-cut with 3 angle seats and the ports have had a very light cleanup/gas flow to remove the casting roughness. The inlet trumpets have also been lightly gas flowed and the entire top end has been rebuilt with a genuine Reinz group a head gasket, new camshaft oil seals and genuine Cometic gaskets everywhere else.
Turbo – Currently fitted is a standard 2wd T3, I purchased this turbocharger last year off eBay as a temporary measure. It does give a little puff of smoke when lifting off the throttle on a fast run (as most cosies do). I must make it clear this turbo is still perfectly useable, I am just trying to be as honest as possible.
I always planned on upgrading the car to stage three but unfortunately I have never got round to fitting the T35 and other stage three bits, I will be selling these parts separately, if the purchaser is interested.
ECU/Ignition – when I first purchased the car neither the AMAL valve nor the idle speed control valve worked, I tracked down the problems to a burnt out ECU which has since been replaced. The ECU is fitted with an Ahmed Bajoo Stage one chip, boost holds steady at just shy of 15psi after an initial 17psi spike. Off boost the engine is lovely to drive and returns a regular 22 to 25 mpg on my normal rush hour commute to work. The car also has a group A ignition coil fitted and genuine motorcraft 071 spark plugs.
Cooling System – When the cylinder head was off for its rebuild I decided to upgrade the entire coolant system to the 4x4 type. This includes the double capacity 4x4 water pump, the 4x4 thermostat housing, a new thermostat, silicone pipe work and the larger 4x4 intercooler. The coolant system has been given a thorough flush out and refilled with red 5 year anti-freeze and deionised water and now a year later it is still as clean and clear as the day it went in.
Ancillaries – I have fitted a reconditioned alternator after the last one was struggling to keep the system charged last winter. The car also has a Bosch 044 fuel pump with an additional sytec pre pump filter fitted and of course it has been rewired with a decent high current feed ensuring full voltage at the fuel pump. For safety reasons I chose to keep the emergency crash cut out switch in the boot, I know a lot of people seem to disconnect/bypass these for some reason. A baileys breather system is installed with two inputs, one from the original kidney box and the 2nd from the other side of the block. It currently drains into a plastic bottle as I wasn’t too keen on draining back to the sump!
Suspension: Koni Adjustable shocks all round with Ahmed Bayjoo fast road spring (rears not fitted yet but will be supplied with the car), Front suspension is polybushed with genuine Powerflex bushes. I however reverted to original ford rubber top shock mounts, but I will include the used powerflex top bushes with the sale.
I have not got round to the rear suspension yet (it is on my to do list) I have a full set of powerflex bushes and a Motorsport Developments Poly diff mount. I will be listing all these parts in the "for sale" section shortly unless the purchaser of the car wishes to buy them too.
Brakes: Brake system had a full overhaul summer 2008 (my first major job after purchasing the car). The front has had fully rebuilt 4pot callipers with new pads/disks, The rear has had two brand new genuine ford 4x4 callipers and carriers, new 4x4 vented disks and pads. BF-Goodrich stainless steel braided flexi hoses were fitted and at the same time as this the entire system was flushed and refilled with Ferrodo dot 4 fluid.
Interior: The interior is original light grey cloth; the seats are in good condition with no rips or crushed foam. A 52mm Revotec 2bar boost gauge has been mounted into the dashboard in the space the factory amplifier unit fits. There are 13cm Kenwood speakers fitted into the front door cards and on the rear parcel shelf in the place of the original factory speakers.

Exterior:
Body - To me this was the most important consideration when purchasing the cossie; I looked at several examples in this price range all of which were suffering from rust. This car is very solid, it has not needed any welding for its last two MOTs, and the only rust I can find is a couple of tiny little spots just starting to surface through the paintwork.
Wheels – Standard 15” lattice spoke wheels are fitted, they are not concourse and have some very light kerb scuffing. The spare wheel however has a large dent in it.

Asking Price £3750

I’m sure I am forgetting stuff, any questions please feel free to ask either here or on the phone:

Daniel



I will take/upload some new photos at the weekend, in the meantime here are a couple from a few months ago:

Edited by SumpNut on 20th Jun, 2010.

I really fancy this, but have too many other bills as the moment, and not enough room on my drive, somebody please buy this quick!

Team www.sheepspeed.com Racing

You will be a fool selling this!
An educated fool

Its too close to me for comfort !

ummm....i want!

““A turbo: exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens and you go faster.”” - Jeremy Clarkson

It's in a lot better condition than mine....

Assuming it's the 2WD version from it's age and your comments about uprating the rear brakes to 4X4 vented etc, why has it got the 4X4 bonnet ???

"The engine scores very strong 150psi compression test results; to us this indicates that maybe the car has had a low mileage standard donor engine fitted?"

I would suspect so as well from those CR readings, even with a lightly skimmed head.

Good luck with the sale though, an incentive to get mine back on the road, I've been without it for 18 months.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Very nice example :)

i would love to buy it such a clean motor

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

Hi Guys

Thanks for all the positive comments, it sold this morning to the first person that viewed it. The guy drove over 250 miles from Middlesborough to see it!

Rod - You're spot on it is 2wd, a previous owner fitted the 4x4 bonnet and rear smoked lights. I quite liked the look so I stuck with it!

Now all I have to do is insure my Pajaro tow waggon and I will be seeing you all at AvonPark with a fully working Mini this year :)

Dan

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

damn.. i wanted this!

““A turbo: exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens and you go faster.”” - Jeremy Clarkson

Lovely looking motor this! Always liked Sapphy Cossies!

1/4 Mile 14.3secs 96Mph Terminal 10psi of boost.


Fibreglass Parts? - http://www.tdkracing.co.uk/
Split Rims? - http://www.force-racing.co.uk/

I'd still like to see some more pictures please.

If you have any.