SIERRA COSSIE
The perfect antithesis to the concours collector scene, James Pepper’s been giving his Cossie grief for years – and now that it’s been beautifully restored, he’s determined to thrash it even harder…
Old-school Cossie is still showing the streets who's boss!
Watching the Ford scene from the inside out, it’s amusing to observe how moneyed collectors are falling over one another to get their paddles in the air whenever a three-door Sierra RS Cosworth rolls across the auction block. These blue-collar Blue Ovals have been a linchpin of our world for decades, and yet they’ve become a prize trinket for the sort of cash-rich types who are trying to mitigate a potential currency crash by filling their air-conditioned garages with deliverymileage 911 GT3s and non-cat/non-adjust F40s. For old-school gearheads like James Pepper, this is all very amusing, particularly as he loves nothing more than pirouetting his three-door in an acrid fug of atomised rubber before haring for the horizon in a sonorous symphony of turbo chatter. This is one Cossie that’s very much not getting wrapped up in cotton wool.
That’s not to say it’s not looked after, though. Quite the opposite, in fact; this Sierra has been with him through thick and thin, enjoyed with great enthusiasm over many years and, more recently, treated to the sympathetic resto that such a beloved machine deserves. This isn’t a cynically appreciating classic, it’s one of the family.
Indeed, family is the thread that pulls this entire story together. “My dad used to run a scrapyard back when I was growing up,” James explains, “so I would be down there any chance I had, taking cars apart and building silly things. Naturally, as working class people, Fords were all we were interested in, and the XRs and RSs being the ones to have! My dad was at one point building a Mk2 Escort Mexico, in between buying Mk1 and Mk2 Escort Sports and Ghias for £25-£50 a time… I remember being around 13 or 14 and wanting a car to do up for when I could drive, and had my heart set on Vauxhall Nova GTE – but this was very much frowned upon! Dad soon talked me into having a Mk3 Escort, and when he came home in one it was a
Sunburst Red RS1600i…”
This outlandish choice pretty much set a precedent for James’s motoring proclivities from then onward. It wasn’t just Fords for him, he was especially taken with the idea of the limited-run models developed by Ford’s motorsport and special vehicles operations. The RS1600i was, of course, one such model; the first time the Mk3 Escort wore the RS badge and a limited homologation run. There’s a natural path from the RS1600i to the Sierra RS Cosworth, arguably the jewel in Ford’s homologation crown – although that’s not to say he jumped straight from one to the other. No matter how strong the passion or the familial bond, the insurers weren’t happy about unleashing a teenager in a Cossie.
“Once I had my licence, one of my mates – Baz – had a Sapphire Cosworth, and we spent many nights drifting and burning out down Southend seafront,” James recalls with a grin. “So I started the quest for Cosworth of my own; I looked at a few Saphs and some three-doors, but when I tried to get an insurance quote all I got told was ‘No chance till you’re 21’.” So James had to play the waiting game, and he kept himself amused in his fledgling and formative driving years in a variety of Sierras, Orions and Cortinas
“...Now staring down the barrel of 324bhp, which is more than enough for smoky hijinks and high-octane mischief”
until, at last, he turned 21.
“I rushed straight out and bought this three-door!” he laughs. “I was paying £300 a month on insurance, but I’d finally got myself a Cossie. I would regularly do a rolling burnout lap of Southend seafront, and I picked up my first penalty points in this car…” All water under the bridge now, of course – we all let our hair down when we were young. And he formed such a bond with the car, he kept using it from the Amy Winehouse era right up until 2014, when he bought himself a four-door Mk2 Escort and decided to throw a Cosworth YB in it.
“After a year with that, I decided I needed the Sierra back on the road,” he remembers. “With the help of some good friends in the Ford scene – Frank Frostick, Pub Carpet, Lewis Double Cheese – a full resto started. The target was to get it ready for the 2018 Classic Ford Tour, and we smashed it!”
Rather than being a trophy-winning concours resto with everything fastidiously box-ticked to factory specs, James instead opted to upgrade and embellish in the classic style. This wasn’t to be a highlystrung big-power build, but at the same time he likes to drive it hard and he knows which areas of the car are ripe for improvement. The YB has been rebuilt by Lowman Racing Engines to largely standard specs, but augmented by Bosch 803 ‘green’ injectors, Group A air filter, uprated head gasket, and an Airtec radiator and RS500-style intercooler. The Garrett T34 was artfully tickled by Bernie’s Blowers, and the 3in Scorpion system provides the requisite retro bark; with the L6 management expertly tuned by GS Motorsport, James is now staring down the barrel of 324bhp, which is more than enough for smoky hijinks and high-octane mischief. The chassis is beautifully old-school too, with the timeless addition of Koni adjustables – 15mm lowering springs up front, stock springs out back – and the standard calipers joined by drilled and grooved discs and Ferodo
“It’s funny now seeing people get upset when I start doing burnouts, or getting black flags at track days...”
DS2500 pads. It’s also great to see a whaletail Cossie on its original wheels, in this instance straightened and refurbished by Alloy Art in Rochford.
“John at Prestige Autos painted the shell in Diamond White – inside, outside and underneath,” James continues. “Alloy Art powdercoated everything throughout the chassis, and stainless bolts were used to put it all back together, as well as Powerflex bushes. Once it was all finished, we drove over to France and Belgium for the closed street parade in Laon and a couple of laps on the Circuit de Chimay in Belgium – needless to say we drove back with minimal tread on the tyres!”
Of course, we wouldn’t expect anything less form this dyed-in-the-wool Ford fan. He’s always used and abused this car, regularly kicking its head in as that’s exactly what he bought it for all those years ago. “It’s funny now seeing people get upset when I start doing burnouts, or getting the black flags out at track days,” he smiles. “People don’t expect these cars to be treated this way nowadays, as most are wrapped up in cotton wool and sat next to all day at shows.” Rest assured though, James is going to keep doing what he’s doing. The Pepper family is Ford through-and-through; these days his dad has a Mk1 Focus RS, a Mk1 Escort Mexico and a Mk1 Escort 1300E, while James has his Cossie’d Mk2 parked next to the three-door… and impressively, he still has that RS1600i from back in the day. “That’s the next project, getting the ‘16i recommissioned and on the road,” he says. But the twinkle in his eye suggests that he’s got a whole load of Sierra tyres to burn through first…