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The Ford Sierra was a large family car built by Ford Motor Company in Europe between 1982 and 1993, originally designed by Patrick le Quément.
Released on 13 October 1982 for the 1983 model year, it replaced the Ford Cortina/Taunus, and was itself replaced by the Mondeo. (In New Zealand and South Africa, it was initially replaced by the Telstar). Its aerodynamic styling was ahead of its time but more conservative buyers found it unappealing.
Possibly for this reason, and the early lack of a saloon variant, it never quite achieved the sales volumes of the Cortina or the Taunus, although sales were still strong; a total of 2,700,500 Sierras were made, mainly manufactured in Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom, although Sierras were also assembled in Argentina, Venezuela, South Africa, and New Zealand.
[] Styling
The first Ford vehicle to have the bold new "aero" look styling was 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 some other new Fords of the time adopted the look. The aerodynamic features of the Sierra were developed from those first seen in the Ford Escort Mk III — 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.
The aerodynamic styling of the Sierra would later be seen in North America's equally revolutionary Ford Taurus.
At first, many found the design blob-like and difficult to accept after being used to the sharp-edged, straight-line styling of the Ford Cortina, 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life that the styling began to pay off; ten years after its introduction, the Sierra's styling was not nearly as outdated as its contemporaries.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.
The Sierra was Ford's answer to the similar-sized Vauxhall Cavalier, which had been launched a year earlier with front-wheel drive and a hatchback bodystyle. Unusually in its sector by that time, the Sierra was still rear-wheel drive. It was a strong competitor for other rivals of the early 1980s, including the Talbot Alpine, Renault 18, Peugeot 305 and Morris Ital.
Throughout its production life, the Sierra competed with newer models; these included the Mark III Vauxhall Cavalier (1988), Austin Montego (1984), Peugeot 405 (1987) and Rover 400 (1990).
[] Body styles
In another departure from tradition, the Sierra was initially unavailable as a saloon. At its launch it was available as a a 5-door hatchback and a 5-door estate, and as a 3-door hatchback. During the life of the car, two different styles of 3-door body were used; one with two pillars rear of the door, looking very much like a modified 5-door frame, as used on the high-performance XR4i; and a one-pillar design used on standard-performance 3-door hatchbacks and also at the other end of the scale as the basis for the very high-performance RS Cosworth. At the time of the car's launch, both styles were already envisaged, and a demonstration model with one style on either side was displayed at a Sierra design exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
The Ford Cortina had only come in saloon and estate bodystyles but after the switch to the Sierra, combined with the redesign of the Ford Escort to Mark III level in 1980, and the introduction of the Ford Granada Mark III in 1985, Ford had changed its saloon-based line-up into a hatchback-based one.
The company then addressed this issue by launching the Ford Orion in 1983, effectively an Escort saloon, to fill the gap vacated between the late Cortina and the new Sierra. Ford found that customers were more attached to the idea of a saloon than they had expected, and this was further addressed in 1987 by the saloon version of the Sierra. In the UK, this model was called the Ford Sierra Sapphire. This differed from the other Sierra models in having a traditional black grille, which only appeared in right hand drive markets. The 3-door Sierra was dropped in the UK in 1985, although the Cosworth version continued. 3-door Sierra production continued in Europe, including after the Sierra range was facelifted in 1987 — the facelifted 3-door was never offered in the UK.
[] Sierra model range
[] Initial drivetrain options
October 1982: introduction of the Sierra 5-door hatchback and 5-door estate range in the UK and consisting of:
* 1300 Base and 1300 L (1294cc 60bhp Taunus engine, available in standard or economy tune);
* 1600 Base, 1600 L and 1600 GL (1593cc 75bhp engine, available in standard or economy tune);
* 2000 L Business, 2000 GL and 2000 Ghia (1993cc 105bhp engine);
* 2300 GL and 2300 Ghia (2294cc, 114bhp V6 engine);
* 2300 Base Diesel, 2300 L Diesel and 2300 GL Diesel (2304cc, 67bhp Peugeot Diesel engine).
1300, 1600 and 2000 engines all have a 4-speed manual gearbox; a 5-speed manual gearbox was optional with 1600 and 2000 engines, and standard with the 1600 Economy engine, the 2300 and 2300 Diesel. An optional 3-speed automatic transmission was available with 1600, 2000 and 2300 engines.
[] Mechanicals
Unlike many of its rivals, the Sierra retained rear wheel drive, albeit with a modern, fully independent rear suspension, departing from the Cortina's live axle.
In the beginning the Sierra used engines and transmissions from the Taunus / Cortina. The engines were of two types, the SOHC Ford Pinto engine in 1.3, 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 L displacements, and the OHV Cologne V6 engine (in 2.3 and 2.8, rarely 2.9 L capacities). Towards the end of the 1980s, the Pinto engine began to be phased out replaced with the Ford I4 DOHC engine (2.0 L) or CVH engine (1.6 L and 1.8 L) first seen in the Escort in 1980. The 2.9 L Cologne engine was available in the Sierra XR4x4 and the rear wheel drive Sierra Ghia. Models with the 2.0 L and Cologne V6 engines had an option of a limited slip differential. Models built until 1989 used the type 9 gearbox that had been used in the Cortina, with the exception of 2WD Cosworth models that used the T5; it was later superseded by the MT75 unit (for DOHC and V6 models). All Sierras had rear drum brakes, except sporting models (2.0iS (some), XR4x4, Sierra Cosworth, other special/sporting models) and models with anti-lock brakes. American versions meanwhile were sold only with a 2.3 L four cylinder turbocharged version of the Pinto engine.
The Sierra also had a diesel option on the engine, namely at launch the 2.3L normally aspirated Diesel made by Peugeot. This was later superseded in 1990 by a 1.8L turbocharged powerplant which offered better response times and slightly more power.
[] XR4i and other sporting models
In 1983, the high-performance XR4i version was introduced. It utilised a tuned version (150 hp DIN) of the 2.8 L Cologne engine also used in the Ford Capri 2.8 Injection of that era 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 with a 2.3 L turbocharged engine was sold in the United States as the Merkur XR4Ti. In South Africa, there was a 3.0 L V6 version, called the XR6, while a limited run of 250 eight-cylinder XR8s were made in South Africa for saloon car racing homologation in 1984. These were based on the Ford Windsor 302 engine.
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 the same 2.8 L V6 engine. By the end of its production in 1990, 23,540 had been produced. From 1990 to 1993 the XR4x4 was available with both the revised 2.9EFi and 2.0 DOHC EFi engines. The XR4i also made a reappearance in 5-door form but with the DOHC 2.0 engine instead of the V6.
In 1989, Ford nodded towards its past and created the Sierra 2.0i 2000E, a model name used with limited success on the Mk3 Cortina. The Sierra 2000E had two-tone metallic paint, alloys and leather/wood interior and was offered in saloon form. It was not a great sales success and was only a limited run.
Argentina retained the XR4i for some years after it was discontinued in Europe in 1985.
In July 1986, a special version called the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth was launched, using a 204 hp (DIN) 2.0 L DOHC engine developed by Cosworth, with a Garret T3 turbocharger and intercooler. It was designed by Ford's Special Vehicle Engineering (SVE) group and made in Ford's Genk factory in Belgium. It was based on a three-door Sierra with the dashboard from the Merkur XR4Ti. The car was available in only white, black or Ford's 'Moonstone Blue' and only 5545 were made.
In 1987, a 224 bhp Sierra Cosworth, the RS500, was sold alongside the 204 hp version. Only 500 were produced as the minimum number of road-going cars required to meet with homologation racing rules, allowing it to compete in certain motor racing competitions. The car was modified by the Tickford Engineering Company in conjunction with Ford. Revisions included uprated brakes and modified front and rear spoilers (a second smaller rear spoiler was added beneath the large "whale-tail") as well as various engine upgrades including a larger turbocharger. 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. Its replacement came in the form of the Escort RS Cosworth which appeared in 1992, which used a shortened and developed version of the Sierra platform and running gear but clothed with an Escort-esque bodyshell and the return of the whale-tail spoiler.
[] Turbocharged versions
The 2.0 L Ford Sierra was an attractive base to a serious street car tuning project, as a turbocharged 2.0 L engine could produce well over 400 hp (300 kW) with a street-legal setup.
In Finland, tax laws made the 1.3 L-engined Sierra an attractive business car in the mid 1980s. A number of these underpowered engines were turbocharged by local Ford dealers in order to gain 2.0 L engine power with 1.3 L tax fees to the owner of the vehicle. The 1.6 L and 2.0 L OHC engines were also turbocharged. Some of these "Stockmann Turbo" Sierras are still running today.
Turbocharged vesrions of the Sierra were also available as post-production models from companies like Janspeed and, most notably, from Turbo Technics. The XR4x4 2.8 was available with a range of aftermarket kits pushing power from 150BHP to 200/230/250 BHP. The 2.9 got a twin-turbo setup, available in 225/250/280 BHP variants. Even the DOHC version got a single turbo kit, of which only a small number were made. Turbo Technics even sold their own pre-prepared sierras known as the Minker; only a handful were ever produced, as they cost significantly more than Ford's own RS Cosworth.
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