Ford Sierra Styling Body Styles Mechanicals XR4i And Other

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, VenezuelaThe Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish: Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela") is a country in northern South America. 1 It borders the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Guyana to the east, Brazil to, South Africa, and New ZealandFor alternative meanings, see New Zealand (disambiguation). New Zealand is a country formed of two major islands and a number of smaller islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. A common Mori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa popularly translated as Land.

1 Styling

The styling was first seen on the 1981Events January-February January Sarawak Chamber found January 1 Greece enters the EEC January 1 Palau becomes self-governing January 4 Sheffield police arrests Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper January 16 Protestant gunmen shoot and wound Bernadette D Probe III concept carA concept car is a car prototype made to showcase a new vehicle's styling, technology, and overall design before production. They are often shown at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not have a chance of be. 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; 1983Events January January 1 Beat Raaflaub became Basel Boys Choir's new conductor January 1 the ARPANET officially changes to use the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet. January 1 compulsory wearing of seat belts becomes law in the UK. January 2 The mu's new Ford ThunderbirdThe Ford Thunderbird is a car manufactured in the USA by the Ford Motor Company. It was conceived as a response to the Chevrolet Corvette and entered production for the 1955 model year as a two-seater quasi sports car, going on sale on October 22, 1954. in North AmericaNorth America is the third largest continent in area and the fourth ranked in population. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocea 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 EscortThe Ford Escort is a sub-compact car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Although it was originally a European model, the Escort badge has been applied to several different designs in North America over the years. European Escorts Ford Escort Mk I The - 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.

2 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).

3 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.

4 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.

5 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.

6 External link

dmoz Merkur Sierra Cosworth directory page

Sierra Rear wheel drive vehicles

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