SAPH COSSIE
There’s been no end of drama in the lifetime of Glenn Shute’s Saph Cossie. But today it exists as a pristine and period-perfect ’90s survivor…
1990s Sapphire Cosworth modded the old school way.
There are a lot of sepia-tinted memories swirling around the Fast Ford office lately. Between us, we can’t even count the number of years we’ve collectively been in the scene, and of course we love how the movement’s evolved and how modders and tuners are pushing the envelope with showroom-fresh Fords – but there will always be a nostalgic part of us that’s yearning for the sort of builds we saw when we were fresh-faced and new to it all. The stuff that’s retro and old-school now, but in our minds-eye is exactly where it’s at: the XR3is with tiger stripes, the S2 RS Turbos with Power Engineering motors and Morettes, the Cossies on three-spokes burning out on the seafront. So Glenn Shute’s Sapphire RS Cosworth really flicks our switch: sure, it’s not the most mouldbreaking or heavily modified car to feature on these pages, but it carries a few small details that add up to a glorious whole. List them out, and you get a microcosmic snapshot of the 1990s: the Laguna splitter, the vast Scorpion pipe, the white dials, the Koni adjustables with Bayjoo springs, the stereo install with 6x9s and custom door-pods. It’s so nineties. The motor’s running greens and a modded T3, it’s got the black leather Recaros and the threespoke wheel inside… with the exception of the new-wave Focus RS wheels, everything about it is like a time capsule.
It’s hardly surprising that it’s turned out this way, because Glenn’s been a
hardcore Ford guy from day one. His first ever car was a Mk2 Escort two-door, bought for fifty quid (they were the days!), and in the years since then he’s owned a bunch of Mk4 Escorts, a Mk2 Fiesta, a track-spec Puma, a Sierra GT, a couple of Mondeos, an ST170… this is a man who knows whereof he speaks. “I used to organise All Ford meets in the north-east of England,” he explains. “Those meets got so popular that they became too big for the hotel car park and other people using the hotel complained, so they got stopped! I’m a member of PassionFord too (in fact I have the most posts on there – sad, I know) and have been on their club stand at Ford Fair and some of the RSOC shows. So yeah, I just love my Fords!”
Being a mechanic by trade, Glenn’s passion for the marque is more than skin-deep. “I work on all sorts of cars and vans, and I’ve only ever owned Fords,” he confirms. “I’ve owned this Saph for thirteen-and-a-half years now; in fact, it was actually bought for me by my wife.” The car was found at a dealership in Sheffield, and Glenn readily admits that he had his Cossiegoggles on when he went to look at it; it looked OK on the whole, so he went back a week later to collect it, and immediately started to notice all of its issues once he got it home: the rear bumper was cracked, the doors were a variety of different shades of white, it was all just a bit more shabby
“I work on all sorts of cars and vans, and I’ve only ever owned Fords. I’ve owned this Saph for thirteen-and-a-half years now”
“...When I got the Cossie back he took me out in it and I couldn’t believe how much quicker it was”
than first appearances had suggested. It drove faultlessly on the journey home, but two days later it broke down; it turned out that despite coming with a full service history, the fuel filter had never been changed and was totally blocked!
Still, these are all just bumps in the road for an eager enthusiast like Glenn. He had the Cossie he’d always dreamed of, and was keen to spend the money in the right places to get it all tip-top. “By July 2009, the bodywork was getting a bit tatty and the rear arches were starting to rust,” he recalls. “A friend at the time kept saying he would do the bodywork for me. One week it was quiet at the main dealer where he worked, so I booked the car in; they had the Cossie for two weeks replacing the rear arches and fully painting the car as well as replacing the cracked rear bumper. But by September of the same year, the arches were starting to bubble up again – I took the car back and they said they couldn’t guarantee against rust!” Such is the way friendships are made and broken, but Glenn didn’t let it get him down – despite, very understandably, being really quite irked at the whole sorry situation. He kept on enjoying the car for what it was, and by 2011 the performance was really starting to ramp up. “I’d fitted a bigger intercooler, and I was booked in for a track session at Ford Fair,” he remembers. “I had arranged for Will Pedley [of Will Pedley Racing Ltd] to check my fuelling to make sure it was OK. I left the car with my mate and Will and I went to sign on; when I came back and I got told it was starting to go a bit lean about 4.5k revs. My mate Blacky said we would just go out on track but not to go over 4.5k! Then a few weeks later Will came to get my car and get it set up and remapped; when I got the Cossie back he took me out in it and I couldn’t believe how much quicker it was.”
It’s an excellent engine setup – not overstressed or over-embellished, but correctly uprated to unleash somewhere in the region of 300-320bhp. Glenn was having all sorts of fun with it, but by June of 2014 the time had come to seriously address the bodywork. “The rear arches were properly rotten by that point,” he says, “and this is where the second body shop comes into the story. Another friend had recommended me a place where he’d got his Mk2 Escort done, and the owner of the shop told me to strip the car down first as it’d save me money that way. I took off the sideskirts and the sills were totally rotten. The floorpan needed a few patches too. I kept going back to check on progress, but by August the work seemed to have entirely stopped. Having given him £1,300 for the repairs, he then called me in September telling me to come and take the car away, and he’d finish it next year. I suspect what had happened was that he was paying someone else to do the work and they’d fallen out… but anyway
by that time I was in two minds about just breaking the car and calling it a day. On the one hand, I’d poured a lot of money into it – but on the other, it was a wreck.”
Thankfully at this point those PassionFord contacts paid off, and a fellow user messaged Glenn the details of a reputable fella, Gaz, who was well-known in the scene for body- and paintwork, and would able to get the job done right. And by October that year, the car was back in Glenn’s possession, fully finished and looking outstanding. “I couldn’t believe it, it was like a different car,” he beams. “The lad managed to achieve it all in two months – and he was only doing it in his spare time!”
With the bodywork looking flawless – finally! – Glenn was able to use his mechanical prowess to ensure everything else on the car was spot-on. He’d been refining and perfecting the details over the years, and the spec list today reads like a who’s-who of quality period mods. Nothing too outrageous, but everything done right. It’s living a pampered life now too; up until 2014 it was in daily use, although since it’s been transformed into a thing of such perfection and splendour (coupled with the fact that Glenn’s three year-old boy takes up most of his time now) the Cosworth is lovingly garaged and brought out for weekend thrills.
“When I first got the Cossie, people were always saying that they were unreliable,” he laughs. “But mine has been spot-on since I changed the fuel filter all those years ago. I think some people who own these cars have plenty of money, whereas I haven’t; I’ve always found the best-value option to repair the car and buy parts, making sure it’s done right but without needlessly throwing money at it. The biggest expense has been bodywork!” With the right people doing the right jobs, and Glenn doing everything he can himself, the Sapphire’s been given a new lease of life.
After a few false starts he finally got that body perfected, and this perennially reliable RS hero can live the life it’s always deserved to do: a genuine 1990s survivor, modified the old-school way.