SAPPHIRE COSWORTHtime of purchase, the car was sporting a
pretty desirable spec: Stage 3 tune, 4-pot
brakes with 330mm discs, the classic TSW
Imola multispoke wheels that were oh-so
on-trend at one time... the paint was a little
tired, but on the whole it was pretty decent
so Andrew immediately pressed it into
service. “It was my daily driver, and I was
adding little bits here and there, which was
all going fine until a track day at Donington
Park in 2011 when the block cracked due
to a water leak and the car got too hot,” he
recalls. “It still managed to get me halfway
home though, before the alternator packed
up and starter motor collapsed! The AA got
me the rest of the way home and I fixed it
all overnight – aside from the block crack,
of course. I continued to use it for a few
months – with very frequent water top-ups! – before I found the time to remove the
engine and fix it properly.”
As is so often the case, however, the
demands of real life pushed the Cossie
onto the back burner and, with the engine
out and the car not currently contributing
anything vital to family life, it ended up
sitting untouched for the best part of five
years. House moves took priority, then two
children arrived on the scene, and there was
a wedding to pay for... in addition, Andrew
still had a Series One RS Turbo that was
flourishing on the concours circuit, and
his wife had a lovely Fiesta RS Turbo, so
the Sapphire wasn’t presenting itself as a
priority. But inevitably its time was always
going to come eventually: in August 2018,
with the wedding taken care of, the kids
settled and the house renovated, the carIt’s a RWD Saph, so it’d
be rude not to grab the
obligatory burnout shot!“...When the family’s
not in it, it likes a
good thrashing on
the B-roads...”
SEPTEMBER 2019 FAS T FOR DѲѳtime of purchase, the car was sporting a
pretty desirable spec: Stage 3 tune, 4-pot
brakes with 330mm discs, the classic TSW
Imola multispoke wheels that were oh-so
on-trend at one time... the paint was a little
tired, but on the whole it was pretty decent
so Andrew immediately pressed it into
service. “It was my daily driver, and I was
adding little bits here and there, which was
all going fine until a track day at Donington
Park in 2011 when the block cracked due
to a water leak and the car got too hot,” he
recalls. “It still managed to get me halfway
home though, before the alternator packed
up and starter motor collapsed! The AA got
me the rest of the way home and I fixed it
all overnight – aside from the block crack,
of course. I continued to use it for a few
months – with very frequent water top-ups! – before I found the time to remove the
engine and fix it properly.”
As is so often the case, however, the
demands of real life pushed the Cossie
onto the back burner and, with the engine
out and the car not currently contributing
anything vital to family life, it ended up
sitting untouched for the best part of five
years. House moves took priority, then two
children arrived on the scene, and there was
a wedding to pay for... in addition, Andrew
still had a Series One RS Turbo that was
flourishing on the concours circuit, and
his wife had a lovely Fiesta RS Turbo, so
the Sapphire wasn’t presenting itself as a
priority. But inevitably its time was always
going to come eventually: in August 2018,
with the wedding taken care of, the kids
settled and the house renovated, the carIt’s a RWD Saph, so it’d
be rude not to grab the
obligatory burnout shot!“...When the family’s
not in it, it likes a
good thrashing on
the B-roads...”
SEPTEMBER 2019 FAS T FOR DѲѳ