SAPPHIRE COSSIE
The simplest Saph can be the sweetest, as Gordon McWilliam proves with his 350bhp Cosworth
Stage 3 Saph is a nice, no nonsense fast road weapon.
Goldilocks had it right: not too much and not too little. Enough is enough. Why have panseared quail in a yuzu and tarragon reduction when you can deep fry some chicken and have done? Plain boiled bird is too far the other way, though; there’s a balance to be found between avarice and asceticism.
The same is true in our four-wheeled world. Slight and skimpy superminis, as useful and useable as they may be, don’t carry the clout to keep our interest for long, yet 600 horsepower, hybrid-turbo hotties are hardly ideal for rush hour commutes. Luckily, there’s a third way – one with an eye on both excitement and the everyday.
Enter Gordon McWilliam and his aroundand-about-350bhp Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth; a car that’s light, bright and all right. We’d expect no less from a man
who’s worked on Cossies for years and holds the keys to plenty of his own YB-powered Blue Ovals. If you’re wondering whether you’ve heard that name before, let us elucidate you. Gordon’s cars have featured within our pages twice in recent history; we drooled over his YB-powered, 550bhp, all-wheel drive Mk1 Focus just a few months ago before burning for his rally replica Escort RS Cosworth.
All through his driving life, you see, Gordon has had a taste for Ford of Europe’s forced induction firebrands. Not only has he employed every fast Focus going as a daily driver – including both a Mk2 and a Mk3 RS – he also owns a stunning collection of custom Cossies. The die was cast early. Following an apprenticeship with Ford, Gordon entered a cycle of buying, fixing, driving and selling Sapphire Cosworths which lasted until the model was hit by collector car status and prices jumped by a decimal point.
Investor interest couldn’t put our man off forever. A few years passed by, sure, but Gordon returned to Cossie ownership with the acquisition of a Moonstone Blue Saph. Ever the tuner, he swiftly uprated the RS to handle fast road and track use then set about simply enjoying it. The times were good, but they wouldn’t last. And, in early 2014, the car was broken for spares. Things weren’t all bad, mind: a rear-wheel drive converted Escort Cosworth soon took the four door’s place on the circuits of Scotland.
The Escort scratched an itch, but Gordon still had an urge that only a four door could purge. “I grew up around Sapphires,” he explains, “and they’re the RS I’ve owned the most examples of, so I ended up thinking ‘Why not get another?’” His reflections were soon bolstered by an internet connection and, in the time it took to click onto a Facebook owners’ group, Gordon was staring at white rear-wheel drive Sapphire on seven-spoke RS Softlines. The owner’s friend had posted, mentioning the car was for sale, and Gordon sensed an opportunity. Within a couple of hours, he was speaking with the Cossie’s custodian.
Sweet Saph serendipity came into play as the pair chatted: the seller and wouldbe buyer were based just five miles away from one another. It was fate. Gordon had found his new four door and it had already benefited from some choice tweaking, including a Motorsport Developments remap and Bosch Dark Green injectors. “I ran it for a while like that,” Gordon explains, “but it had done 136,000 miles and was a wee bit smoky. It had probably had a head gasket in the past but was otherwise untouched. The standard Garrett T3 turbocharger was getting a bit tired and needed a rebuild so I took the driveline out.”
By coincidence, Gordon had just carried out an engine, transmission and driveline swap on his EsCos track car, returning the hyper hatch to four-wheel drive and leaving him with an abundance of rear-wheel drive parts and a healthy 200 block 4x4 engine going spare. Better still, the motor had
“It gets used exclusively on the road. It’s as much fun as some of my other Cossies – if not more fun – because it’s rear-wheel drive...”