FORDS . "Sierra Sapphire" THAMES NEWS - ENG - FORDS NEW CAR - 4.2.87. To license a clip from this video please e mail: archive@fremantle.com Quote: TN-SL-103-005
Love old 1980s footage of car production lines. I guess the prolonged cranking is because it's being started for the first time and takes a while to reach the carbs. You can hear the sputtering almost starting as the carbs fill! Nice non ecu non complicated days .
I toured Dagenham earlier than the era of the Sapphire. After engines were built, they were run up briefly on a test stand using town gas. As we were passing, one engine threw a rod and was destroyed! The guys working there all cheered; we were hurried away. I had a Sapphire, and quite liked it. Great as a motorway cruiser.
Quite jealous of you both. That said, we had Austin Rover and Land Rover not too far from us. We had a day at Land Rover in the early 90s. As a young car nut, I loved the day, seeing the vehicles being made, design offices and so on. Our woodwork and metalwork classrooms always had bits of Austins and Rovers here and there. Light clusters and switchgear were quite fascinating,
The Sapphires were a fairly common sight on British roads until the early 2000s, but you are right there are not many left these days. You could spend all driving in the UK and not see one now. Only a very small percentage of any mass-produced car will last 25-30 years, so yeah there is a high probability all of these cars were cubed many years ago.
BloomingOnion With correct maintenance there’s no reason a car can’t last indefinitely...cars are scraped and moved on for superficial bullshit reasons...fact is automotive marketing does a good job of convincing you that you need their newest model.
Steve o I've had 3 of these, great cars , my dad also had one, used to love going out in it, they were all so unique in they're own way, always wanted a Cossie but sadly never owned one, I thought the Mondeo was rather boring compared to the Sierra
Mine was bought from some Mr. Patel in Golders Green back in 1998, drove it to Portugal months later without insurance, simply because I had Portuguese driving licence, stopped in Paris to visit Jim Morrison at Pere Lachaise, and honestly my 1.8 Lx drove well for another 10 years. He died in Potugal. I miss it. Only problem was fuel consumption.
great video a still drive one today 1989 1.6 classic with a 2 litre 205 block injection engine running a dgav 32 /36 carb it'll pass enything on the road except a garage lol again great video
I had an F plate (F670YWX) when i was eighteen years old in 1989.....went around the M25 in it hundreds of times during that year attending acid house / raves :-) Was really good car to be fair.
My father had a Ford sapphire18 LX in burgundy. really liked the sapphire. Spacious and the shape was eye catching and appealing. Nice size boot and easy to service. Other than the cortina MK5 which we also had in midnight blue.
Good old days. I had an ex reps white f plate 1.8l sapphire. Bought it at 3 years old and 90k miles. Put another 80k on it over a few years. Great tough car mechanically but was starting to rot when I sold it on.
It sure does take a while to get an engine started when all the fuel is in the fuel tank, and it has be cranked to reach the engine, hence the hard starting of the cars in this video :) Some pumping of the gas pedal also helps to get the fuel into the engine faster.
@@JourneywithSmee Don't remember the ear protection or fiesta cut in half. I remember seeing the cars being tested and seeing the body panels being pressed from sheet steel. The showroom outside the factory with all the older cars was great. The model t ford with leather door hinges.
Worked in the Dagenham Body plant 26 years from the Cortina mk3 to the Sierra and fiesta ! Also owned Cortina mk4 then mk5 then 2 Sierra 's ,3 ford Focus's and now the new fiesta st !
Hi Kevin B, what year did you start working on the Cortina Mk3.s?, I own 3 of them, and one I have had 44 years, which has had a full body jig strip down and the shell rebuilt to as new on my RU-vid channel, the car was built in 1974 as one of FORD Motor Cpmpany;s Promotional cars, and is a very rare model version, would love to know what your job was, and if you have any interesting memories of working on the cars?, hope to hear from you. and you might like to take a look at my channel, which has videos and slideshows of work on 2 of my Mk3;s, would appreciate your feed back on the restoration work.
@@Cortinaman63 the MK3 was totally new car design compared to the MK2 (which was a boxier , in a nicer way ,reskin of the smart & stylish original MK1. Just to think Ford in UK & Belgium were starting the design , shape & the Pinto 1600 & 2000 OHC engine ,as early as 1967 when the MK2 was new ,for a late '70/ 71 launch. I noticed that all Marks of Cortina stay at 14 foot in length, but the width of MK3 to 5 is considerable compared to MK1 &2. The trim & options of a MK3 must be mind boggling ; like a MK1 Capri , no two could be the same
Хочу, чтобы возобновили выпуск Сиерры!!!! Лучшая машина за всю историю, люблю сиерры) Главное оставить старый внешний вид от сиерры мк3) я теку от старой сиерры
I remember when I first landed my sales representative job, the sales director said we have a Ford sapphire for you I nearly cried with joy, fords are great cars.
Check the reg mate and look at when it was last taxed and MOT'd. See what it last failed on and when, that'll give you a good idea to whether or not it ended up being crushed. Amazing how common they were back in the day but now you'd be lucky to see one of them a year on normal roads. I loved the Sapphire as a kid, one of the best looking cars of the era.
я свою 2.0 OHC EFI в германии покупал 7 летнюю 91 года выпуска, с зеленым антифризом... но вам наверное виднее... )) и с коротким капотом мк 2.5 переходная... ))
my uncle has 2 x brand new sapphires in his barn along with some other new fords, he was partner in a car dealership that ceased trading in the 80`s and some of the inventory was moved to his farm, when they sold the premises and they have been there ever since :-(
@@emmetdonnelly2072 A car magazine got to hear about it and was pestering him relentlessly . he is in negotiation with a classic car dealer at the moment as one of the other new cars is a green 280 capri which is quite rare?
ford wernt to bad Vauxhall [ellesmere port on the other hand] I worked in pilkingtons in mid 80,s we had load of Essex lads come up to north wales..one was having a bad day in the glass stores and shoute ..facking ell this place is worse than fowds in Dagenham...priceless
It was 1987, the elites had broken the backs of workers by then, all well on their way to being nothing more than compliant button pushers for those above them, today mostly pushing paper in service to economic activity elsewhere in the world. Before the UK and empire, England started out in the world as a cold damp wet little island that produced little of interest for no one of note. And to that we are returning.
I always thought the Sapphires were smart looking cars, even though they were just formal Sierras. Those were the days, sometimes wish I could back to 1989 and fix all that went wrong with the UK car industry. But I think I’d have to go back quite a lot further than that...
The car industry has never been so busy in the UK (well, pre-COVID). It’s just all the manufacturers are foreign owned. Brexit is more likely to get them to leave as the cost of production rises. I expect the government will offer subsidies to manufacturers to get them to stay.
According to a video on youtube titled "Ford's BMW - 1985-1989 Merkur XR4Ti" the gas prices dropped and americans started buying big V8 engine cars again, which resulted in low sales for the Merkur XR4Ti. I also would add that Ford just didn't stick with it. For starters they could have just sold the Sierra as Ford and not slap a Merkur badge on it.
@@angrybird32495 I think Ford in the US & possibly in Australia ,went for the Mazda route in creating smaller cars. I think those Merkurs were sourced from Belgium rather than Dagenham during 1984 to 86 with LHD & different electrics & fuel systems.
Я всегда любоваться на книге она новая и очень классно выглядет ,И Я подумал вот бы мне такую но новую,А теперь я смотрю на них новые есть выпускаются,если это в 2015 году я точно получу себе новую сферу сто процентов,даже смотреть на нее приятно.у меня там есть большей друг.
They did exist in the earlier years but most went to Malta where bigger engines are frowned upon, I think the 1300 , which was a OHC & not the crossflow Kent unit was discontinued circa 1984. The dashboard had lots of switch blanks & were quite sparse
mate had a Cosworth sierra[loaded family garage owners]many posing times were had I drove it loads [3rd party insurance but the filth wouldn't pull you like todays lot]
I think to be honest. This was the norm in the 1980's and no-one really worried as those stickers would be pulled off anyway hence why they didn't care much about the air bubbles :). Although Ford's got a lot of stick in those days due to the doors drooping and corrosion issues because of poorly treated metal areas. The Austin cars (Allegro etc) got more stick due to their looks and quality. It was when the Japanese cars started to show up in the UK during the late 1970's and they were better made which was when things started to go down for British Leyland. Ford upped their game in the 1990's by improving on their quality but Leyland didn't quite grasp the facts of that the customer wanted better quality cars and they continued with this "We know what you need attitude" that lead to the demise of Leyland which many of its assets passed onto other companies like the truck and bus passing onto Volvo, the Sherpa passing to DAF, Austin-Rover passing to BMW for a while until BMW sold the Rover brand to its employees and other parts of the former Leyland group going to other companies during the 1990's. I cannot remember them all but Leyland's arrogance didn't work did it? My only complaint about the newer cars is the lack of individuality and style. Most to me look identical and do not have much difference to them.
@@user-wi2dm5bs5f а что, не слышал? У моего друга была сиерра унтверсал но она попадала в ДТП и в итоге он её продал и купил ЕЩЁ ОДИН ТРАНЗИТ 95 года))
@@watkinscopicat not so hideous as the Ford's designed in the past 10 years Sierra sales in Britain were huge over the 10 years they were on sale , 'Bad cars' just don't achieve those sales figures