Ford Sierra

Sierra at a glance

All Ford models with their generations are in our Ford catalogue. The Sierra's smaller stablemate is covered in our guide to Escort generations from Mk1 to Mk6, and the company itself in the history of Ford.

Design: the "jellymould" of 1982

Ford developed the Sierra under the code name "Project Toni". The design team of Uwe Bahnsen, Bob Lutz and Patrick Le Quément gave it a smooth, rounded body with a drag coefficient of 0.34 and a fully independent suspension: MacPherson struts at the front and trailing arms with coil springs at the rear. After the square Cortina, the shape divided opinion, and the press called it "the jellymould".

The dimensions were typical of the class: a wheelbase of 2,609 mm, a length of 4,531 mm, a width of 1,727 mm and a height of 1,367 mm. In the 1983 European Car of the Year vote the Sierra finished second, behind the Audi 100. In a 1982 comparison test, Germany's auto motor und sport ranked it ahead of the VW Passat and the Opel Ascona.

Early problems and how sales recovered

The first cars were sensitive to crosswinds. Ford fixed this in 1985 with small rear spoilers known as "nolders". Rumours that the plastic bumpers could hide crash damage also hurt the car's image.

In Britain the Sierra sold about 160,000 cars in 1983, second only to the Escort, but the Vauxhall Cavalier outsold it in 1984 and 1985. By 1986 it was back at the top of its sector. It was Britain's second best-selling car in 1983, 1988 and 1989, and its best year was 1989, with more than 175,000 sales. By the end, 1,299,993 had been sold in Britain, which makes it the tenth most popular car ever sold there.

The 1987 facelift and the Sapphire

The February 1987 facelift, for the 1988 model year, brought new front and rear styling and a new body: the four-door Sierra Sapphire saloon. A 1.8 "lean burn" petrol engine appeared the same year. In 1990 the Sierra received smoked rear lamps and fuel injection as standard, and catalytic converters followed for the 1991 model year. The non-catalysed 1.6 Pinto engine was dropped in 1992.

Ford Sierra engines

A four-speed manual was standard on basic versions, with a five-speed manual optional or standard on others, plus a three-speed automatic. South Africa had its own range with the 1.6 Kent, 2.3 and 3.0 Essex V6 and a 5.0 V8 in the XR8, rated at 154 kW (209 PS).

Key specifications: Sierra RS Cosworth (1986)

XR4i, XR4x4 and the Cosworths

The sporty Sierras built the car's reputation. The XR4i (1983–1985) used the 2.8 V6 and rear-wheel drive; the XR4x4 (1985–1987) added four-wheel drive, and 23,540 had been built by the end of 1990. In North America the car was sold from 1985 to 1989 as the Merkur XR4Ti with a 2.3 turbo four rated at 130 kW (175 hp).

The RS Cosworth of July 1986 used a 2.0-litre 16-valve turbo engine with 150 kW (204 PS). Group A rules required 500 road cars, but Ford built 5,545. The RS500 of 1987, developed with Tickford, had 167 kW (227 PS) on the road, and its racing engines were reported to reach up to about 410 kW (550 bhp). The Sapphire RS Cosworth followed (13,140 built from 1988 to 1990), as did a four-wheel-drive Sapphire RS Cosworth 4x4 (12,250 built). Our power converter turns these PS and hp figures into kW for comparison with modern cars.

Motorsport

Andy Rouse won the 1985 British Touring Car Championship in an XR4Ti. The RS500 helped Ford take the manufacturers' title in the 1987 World Touring Car Championship, and in 1988 Didier Auriol won his first World Rally Championship event in a Sierra, in Corsica.

End of production and the Mondeo

The last European-built Sierra left the line in December 1992; the Venezuelan plant continued until 1994. Its successor, the front-wheel-drive Ford Mondeo, went on sale in Europe in March 1993 (some sources say April). The later Mondeo is covered in our Ford Mondeo overview.

Photo gallery