Cosworth Sierra / Sapphire RS

[Gavin RS]

Being an XR8 fan and having had one for awhile it was still no match for a stock Cosworth, Remember the Sierra/Sapphire Cosworth was lighter and had an LS diff as std and top speed was a lot more than the XR8 as well as a quicker 0-100. the local 12 were rated at 5.7sec o-100

I would still love both cars in my garage anyway.

And to answer a previous post about the differences of the UK spec Sierra compared to the SA built 12. First thing, there are no 3 doors Cosworths in SA.(I have heard of 1 in Cape Town but never seen it)

The Sapphire Cosworth UK spec had the bigger transmission tunnel due to it also being available in 4wd, sunroof was std, wipers and washers on headlights, full Recaro interior leather or cloth, no rear electric aerial as this was built into the rear windscreen, component sound system std and all had ABS, different bumpers and front unique to Cosworths as were the side skirts. Lattice type wheels on 2wd and BBS style on 4wd all 15inch.The later 4wd also had a vented bonnet

Of The 12 cars from Basil green only a few were based on the GHIA with ABS, Aircon and leather interior. Mine was one of those, The rest were GL based so no ABS.
The whole drive train, YB turbo engine, T5 WC gearbox, propshaft, alloy LS diff, shocks,struts as well as wiring harness for engine and Weber Marelli management was all imported from Ford in the UK, The 12 cars were all assembled with the Cosworth components By Geoff and Glyn Hall and so the 12 cars came about and were all sold through Basil Green Ford, I know of only 6 cars left including mine
Geoff Mortimer did a deal with Ford in the UK at that time to bring all the parts to SA. The only thing which was changed was the power output on the local cars, this was rated at 255hp (+-190kw)

And the Tappet Covers did not have Cosworth machined into them and were black ... oh and 13 cars :-)

Yip, as they were "Export Motors" the COSWORTH was not machined into the cam covers as the engines were meant for the PANTHER SOLO sports car, 15 were supposed to be built but the company folded after 3 cars so that's how the drive trains became available to SA.

13 cars were built but Geoff Mortimers car was not part of the 12 cars for Basil Green Ford as his car was the first one he built for himself personally and it was then decided that they need to build the other cars