Ford Sierra
The Ford Sierra was an medium-size car built by Ford in Europe between 1982 and 1993. It replaced the Ford Cortina/Taurus, and was itself replaced by the Mondeo (and in South Africa, the Ford Telstar). Its radical and polarising aerodynamic styling was ahead of its time and was a lasting influence, but more conservative buyers found it unappealing.
Possibly for this reason, and the early lack of a booted saloon, it never quite achieved the ubiquity of the Cortina, although sales were still strong; a total of 2,700,500 Sierras were made, mainly manufactured in Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom, although also assembled in Argentina, Venezuela, South Africa, and New Zealand.
Styling
The styling was first seen on the 1981 Probe III concept car. The good reception this received encouraged Ford management to go ahead with a production car with styling almost as challenging. This "aero" look influenced Fords worldwide; 1983's new Ford Thunderbird in North America introduced similar rounded, flowing lines, and many other new Fords of the time adopted the look. The aerodynamic features of the Sierra were essentially developed from those first seen in the Mk.3 Escort - the "Aeroback" bootlid stump was proved to reduce the drag coefficient of the bodyshell significantly, which was a class leading 0.34 at its launch.
At first, many found the design blob-like and difficult to accept after being used to the sharp-edged, straight-line styling of previous cars, and it picked up nicknames such as "jellymould" and "The Salesman's Spaceship" (the latter thanks to its status as a popular fleet car in the United Kingdom. Sales were slow at first. It was later in the Sierra's life that the styling began to pay off; ten years after its introduction, the Sierra's styling was not nearly as outdated as its contemporaries. As other manufacturers adopted similar aerodynamic styling, the Sierra looked more normal.
Early versions suffered from crosswind stability problems, which were addressed in 1985. These shortcomings saw a lot of press attention, and contributed to early slow sales.
Body styles
In another departure from tradition, the Sierra was, at first, only available as a 3-door and 5-door hatchback and an estate car; no booted saloon was available. Ford found that some customers were more attached to the idea of a separate boot than they had thought, and this was addressed in 1987. In the UK, this was the Ford Sierra Sapphire (simply the Ford Sapphire in South Africa).
Mechanicals
Unlike many of its rivals, the Sierra retained rear wheel drive, albeit with modern, fully independent rear suspension, departing from the Cortina's live axle.
In the beginning the Sierra used engines and gearboxes from the Taunus/Cortina. The engines were of two types, the OHC Ford Pinto engine in 1.3, 1.6 and 1.8 litre displacements, and the V6 "Cologne" engine (in 2.3 and 2.8 litre capacities). Towards the end of the 1980s the Pinto engine began to be phased out and in the UK replaced with the CVH engine first seen in the Escort, and also the DOHC engine (a twin cam version of the Pinto unit) in 1989. Both models used the Type N gearbox that had been used in the Cortina, which was later superseded by the MT75 unit.
XR4i and other sporting models
In 1983 the high-performance XR4i version was introduced. It utilised a tuned version of the 2.8i V6 engine and sported a restyled version of the 3-door Sierra bodyshell. The double rear spoiler and curious multi-pillared rear windows were considered over-styled by some prospective buyers, and the car never achieved the cult status of the smaller Fiesta XR2 and Escort XR3i. A version of the XR4i was sold in the United States as the Merkur XR4Ti, Merkur being Ford's brand name in the US and Canada for German-sourced Ford models. In South Africa, there was a 3.0 litre V6 version, called the XR6. Brazil retained the XR4i for some years after it was deleted in Europe in 1985.
In 1985 the XR4i was replaced by the XR4x4, which was based on the five-door hatchback, had four-wheel drive and was powered by a 2.8 litre V6 engine. By the end of its production in 1990, 23,540 had been produced.
A special version called the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth was also produced based on a three door Sierra with the dashboard from the North American Merkur. It was designed by Ford's Special Vehicle Engineering (SVE) group and made in Ford's Genk factory in Belgium. It was launched in July 1986 and only 5545 were made. The RS Cosworth used a 2.0 DOHC engine with Garret T3 turbocharger and intercooler. In 1987, it was superseded by the 224 bhp Cosworth RS500, of which only 500 were produced. Other revisions to the RS500 included uprated brakes and modified front and rear spoilers (a second smaller rear spoiler was added beneath the large "whale-tail"). Racing versions of the Cosworth were highly successful in European touring car and rally championships through the late 1980s.
In 1988, a new Cosworth was produced which was based on the Sierra Sapphire saloon. 11,000 were produced until it was replaced in 1990 by a four-wheel drive version, the Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth 4x4, of which 9,250 were built. This model was deleted from the range when the Sierra was replaced by the all-new Mondeo in 1992.
Changes during production life
In 1987, the Sierra was given some minor styling revisions (the windows were slightly enlarged, while the front-end treatment was tweaked), and a sedan version was introduced, known in the UK and other right hand drive markets as the Ford Sierra Sapphire. although in South Africa it was known simply as the 'Ford Sapphire'. This had a different front end from the other models, with a traditional grille, although from 1990 this appeared on the hatchback and wagon. A pick-up truck version was also introduced, to replace the Cortina-based P1000 imported from South Africa. Some detail styling changes were made in 1991, when the dashboard styling was freshened up, and the rear-end was given smoked rear lamp lenses.
External link
- dmoz Merkur Sierra Cosworth directory page (http://www.dmoz.org/Recreation/Autos/Makes_and_Models/Merkur/Sierra_Cosworth)