| The First |
|
| Statement from
Colin Fyfield: |
| My first contact with the Sierra XR4i was in the summer of 1988
when my brother Philip bought an 1983 metallic blue example. He paid around £5,000 for
it. The car was his pride & joy, he loved driving it and he drove it very hard. Over
the 5 years he owned the car he replaced a hole heap of stuff, Including: |
 |
Wheel
bearing's, shox, brake disk's, pad's, tyres, clutch, transmission, engine mounting's,
water pump, cooling fan, suspension bushes, electric antenna, complete exhaust system,
head gaskets, ore tyres, and all the glass (don't ask), and that was just for starter's.
Over this time he had spent about another 5,000 on repairs and servicing. |
| By this time Philip had a family and needed a four-door car. He
looked at sapphire Cosworths but decide against that. Instead he bought another sierra.
This time it was a 1987 XR4x4 that had been modified to a Cosworth eating 270 HP (that's
another story). At this time
I managed to beg borrow or steal enough, money to buy the XR4i that I had lusted after for
5 years. The budget wouldn't stretch to insurance, so the XR sat in a barn or just
outside for 2 years. My Ford Fiesta 1.4s was my "main" car.
I would forget about the beast that lay
dormant in the barn for weeks on end, but all I needed to do was turn the key and hear its
engine fire up to reawaken my desire to drive this beast.
On one such occasion in the spring
of '95 I decided to follow my dream, so I sent the car to Mike Smith Motor Engineers,
with instructions to sort out the flickering oil light (which had been doing so soon after
the had gasket's were replaced). I told him 'I was in no hurry' big mistake. It would be
18 months before I would drive my XR again.
(slow) Mike found that the oil pump was
shot, which in turn had worn the piston rings, main, and big end bearings. Finally after
18 month's and a big heap of cash, I got the car back. Now all I had to do was run it in
before the fun could begin...
Once the first service was out of the way
I could start opening it up a bit. The first thing that struck me was the power, in any
gear it just pull's so well. Once the rev's pick up it goes like the proverbial rocket,
and you could stop as if you were hitting a brick wall, this was very good for stopping
where their was a wall otherwise forget it! The car held the road very well on long
corners, but on short corners don't even think about going fast. The only thing that I
haven't gotton used to is the tendency of the rear end wanting to overtake the front if
you put your foot down exiting a corner. In the rain (and we get a lot of that here) you
just can't keep the thing on the road. If you apply more than the tiniest amount of
pressure to the loud pedal, you'll soon be looking out your side window. That brings me to
the next part of my story..... |
| The Crash: |
| Well it all happened a bit quickly (as they all do). One minute I
was happily driving down the road, next minute I was facing the other way, after hitting a
parked car on the other side of the road. What makes matter's worse was that the road was
apparently dry, and I wasn't going fast (Okay I know you won't believe that). I hit a
Rover 800 that didn't have that much visible damage. My XR on the other hand was bad (see
the pic's). My insurance company told me that the car was beyond economic repair. After a
lot of hassle they offered me £1,000 which I refused. I have reluctantly accepted their
offer of £1,200 and to buyback the car for £180. |
 |
The Repair: |
| The story was going to continue but I thought better of it. The
repair would of cost over £1000 plus I still wanted to 'fix up' the interior. |
| The
car had covered nearly 150,000 miles. If my blue XR4I were a person you would say that
he's had a fair innings. The trusty blue XR now rests on a small plot of land on my
nursery.
|
| Replacement: |
| I looked long and had through car magazines, for sale ad's and the
like to look for a replacement. What could I buy. For a wile I considered a Sierra XR4x4,
maybe a Cossie, or even my brothers turboed 4x4. I considered the sierra 4x4 to ordinary,
the Cossie to expensive, and my brothers Sierra - well done that before. The power would
have been fun though. At the end of all this I still came back to one car, yes right back
to the old XR4i. People can't understand why I love the car so much, "cos' it's just
a Sierra right?" Well the car is based on a Sierra, but to me it's as much a Sierra
as a telephone ringing tone is music.
At least this car and its cousins are
appreciated in the US. |
| Believe in life after death? |
|
