The second generation Ford Sierra Cosworths were all built in Genk, Belgium, with new 4 door bodies that were introduced with the 1987 Ford Sierra facelift, in Britain the 4 door Sierra was known as the Sierra Sapphire.

The Sierra Saphire RS Cosworth was positioned at the top of the Sierra performance tree, powered by the original 204 hp version of the Cosworth YBB motor, though with suspension set to favour comfort over over performance handling as in the original 3 door Sierra RS Cosworth.

Despite losing the wild appeal of the original Sierra RS Cosworth the latter Sapphire’s performance did not really suffer with the road going version being independently timed by Autocar rest to 60 mph 5.8 seconds, 1/4 mile in 14.4 seconds up, to 100 mph in 15.8 seconds and with a top speed of 143 mph.

Unlike the earlier Sierra RS Cosworth and RS 500 evolution the Sierra Saphire RS Cosworth was built for Right Hand Drive and Left Hand Drive markets. Confusingly the LHD variant of the 4 door Cosworth was simply known as the Sierra RS Cosworth as had the original 3 door RHD version. From 1988 to 1989 around 13140 examples for both markets were manufactured.

Mark Hales is seen driving the #12 at Brands Hatch, Mark shared this car with ABBA drummer and sometime Grand Prix Driver and Truck racer Slim Borgudd to victory in the Willhire 25 hour race at Snetterton in 1989. Steve Monk is driving the #13 at Donington to a fourth place finish in a race won by Mark Hales while David Shead drives the #15 Bristol Street Motors Sierra Sapphire Cosworth RS at Brands Hatch.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘Genk Cosworth Part 1’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !