Ownership Verified: My Summer Car - a 1993 Ford Sierra 2.0 DOHC Saphir

That's a really good fuel economy achievement! I thought the higher speeds would result in worse.
 
So, decided not to start a new thread as it's really about the car and not about me and I might just as well just continue it here...


Since I got it I only changed the switch for the radiator fan as it would get hot in stop-and-go traffic. After that we took it on a road trip to the UK.

We had to catch the ferry the next morning in Le Havre and since it was too hot to sit at home we decided to drive across France off the motorways.

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Beautiful empty roads in the Ardennes department.

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Getting off the ferry in Southampton.

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We had a quick fish & chips next to the "terminal" for the hovercraft service to the Isle of Wight

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Drove over to a campsite in Porlock we've been to before

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On the way to the next campsite in Cornwall we came along a bridge construction site in Tintagel. Instead of a crane they installed a temporary cable car to transport the prefabricated pieces

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Weather was 15° cooler in the UK than back in Germany/France

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Next day was a trip to St. Michael's Mount (just like Mont Saint Michel used to be you can reach it on foot when the tide is low)

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They had an amphobious vehicle on cinder blocks

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My girlfriend got me a test drive in a Caterham 270S for my birthday and we took it from the factory in Crawley to the roads in the area. Fun but way to competent for the roads and the possible speeds with all the traffic.

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It was fresh from the factory with about 4000 miles on it but had the same nice home made feel to it as MXM's, nice gearbox grind and odd vibrations, nice loose cables under the dashboard. I'm guessing they use modern engine management but it still felt and smelled a bit like a carburetted car, the cold car would die if you didn't keep the revs up a bit.

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The next day we went north to the Yorkshire Dales which are really very very beautiful

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Tan Hill, the hightest inn in the British Isles at an impressive 1,732 feet (528 m) above sea level! Amazing that people and animals can live at such an altitude.

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...more to come
 

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Ribblehead Viaduct on the Settle-Carlisle railyway

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Buttertubs Pass from Swaledale to Wensleydale...once declared by Jeremy Clarkson to be his all-time favourite road (it's just a bumpy 5-minute drive over a hill with random sheep and cattle grids). On the southern side sits the hotel where he punched that guy in the face.

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Here's Jeremy on Buttertubs in a Escort RS Cosworth, which is really a shortened Sierra with a new body anyways:



And then it was back south again. Stopping at some salt-marshes in Norfolk

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And the old Ford plant in Genk/Belgium where this Sierra was made back in the 90s

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Some buildings have new owners, others are being torn down

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That was the UK trip, I have little over a week to prepare for the finalgear Ukraine road trip now. The bad roads in the UK made me realise I need to change the lowered springs for standard ones before even worse roads. The wedgy stance doesn't really help the handling anyways.

Apart from that the front axle needs some new bushings, I'll change them and the springs before the Ukraine and then swap the dampers afterwards, even if that means doing some extra work.

Other than that the car was perfectly fine, it lost a little bit of coolant which I'll investigate tomorrow and the original Ford radio sometimes doesn't auto-search for stations and at other times doesn't hold on to them. Cassettes work fine though.
 

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Really nice write-up!
I loved the unexpected Caterham review.
 
Fantastic pics! We visited the JC punch-up ground zero in 2016, and the roads near it are really nice indeed.
 
It's so <3
 
Where's the Sicily road trip pics?
 
Yes please!
 
I'll try to post some on the weekend!
 
With your new ride? :O

I was me and Beni who did the roadtrip to sicily and back in the Sierra. :) Currently trying to dig up some photos...
 
Okay, so this is gonna be a mix of Beni's and my photos. And yes, some of mine are vertical aswell as phone pictures with questionable quality; I apologize for doing so... and a lot of pictures and stories are probably missing. But enjoy the show!

Beni and me were always vivid Targa Florio fans. If you don't know what the Targa Florio is: It's essentially the oldest continuous motor race in the world, run as a rally event in today's world. Both of us always wanted to visit the track; and I've always wanted to go and see sicily in person.

Don't forget what Goethe wrote after visiting the Island in 1787:
“To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything.”

In mid-october the Targa Florio Classic event is held in memory of this greatest of the great races, though (as we'll find out later on), the event nowadays is mostly a showevent for modern Ferraris to fill the grid.

Anyway, onwards. Italy is calling.

I actually haven't been in italy since 2010-ish, and I can't quite understand how I could have lived ever since without visiting this (in my eyes) great country. In may of this year, I was visiting Beni, Dr. Grip and Jules in Berlin to sell the Sierra to Beni and that was the point where both of us said we should just go and do it - visit this great island and its legendary race venue. So why not do a 5000km roadtrip relatively spontaneously in this year's autumn?

Off I went from my home town to Beni's via train, entering the Sierra and feeling right at home. We went via Augsburg and its German Mazda Museum where we encountered a rally RX-7 FC and a rotary powered JDM-only passenger bus, aswell as a teenager in a beater E36 estate with a warning light on the roof, driving around like a fool, apparently because he was so ecstatic to see a Sierra in the wild.

Luckily we had a couple of days to rest in the Dolomites, as Benis family had a small house for us to use. Gave us the chance to see the mountains and the roads in all its details, sadly not finding powersliderlover himself, only just a couple of traces from his doings.

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What we did find though is the Dolomiti Street event, which apparently is held there every year. Being held there since a couple of years every autumn, it's essenatially a wildcard for petrolheads to run their cars legally a little faster than allowed on mountain roads. We also photobombed a couple of sports cars doing a little photosession on top of one of the passes. While I have not yet gone through all my DSLR pictures, you have to believe us that we saw everything from Lancers and Imprezas being thrown around sideways in the hairpins, E30 M3's giving it the beans, an Audi Quattro LWB rally car, all the Lamborghinis and Ferraris you can imagine, and, of course, all the VAG in the world.

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So far, have a picture of the car which Chris Harris values as the best road car he has ever tested.

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Sometimes, I was wondering if we suddenly left the Dolomites and entered the scottish highlands or the Lüneburger Heide!

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Mountain Goat.

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No Quattro needed.

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On the foot of the Marmolada.

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Ford Cortina d'Ampezzo.

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Leaving the Dolomites and entering a river bed on the way to the coast of Adria and visiting the Adria Raceway on the way down.

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On the way down to florence, we visited the Autodromo di Enzo e Dino Ferrari - otherwise known as Imola...

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Aswell as Mugello. Astonishing circuit, both of us didn't expect that. On the one hand, you see the first sights of the stunning Florence, on the other hand the whole mountain range including a storm rolling in, all while some bikers enjoyed some free sessions on a trackday:

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Entering Florence...

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...and getting to see this stunning evening sky. While taken with my phone, I swear that this picture is not edited in any way. It really did look like the sky was burning.

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On the next day, after having had a look at the circuit of Magione (can you spot the trend?), we visited the be-au-ti-ful! town of Perugia, which not only had a self-driving tram leading into the city but also a stunning view over all of Umbria:

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We went through all Rally Monte Carlo stages of the Apennines to come to a stop in the evening in a beautiful nature reserve, seeing a pink sky...

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... and waking up in a big cloud of fog. Mesmerizing experience to be in the middle of nowhere, having no phone signal (while actually being outside of Germany), spending the night in a shed originally built for sheeps next to a small lake in this nature reserve at a height of a bit over 1000m asl. The couple who owns and runs this b&b shed are probably the most friendly and wholesome people we have met along the way.

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Driving past the Vesuvius and the coast of Amalfi (bucket list stuff)...

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... heading towards the ferry to Messina, which we just about got in the very last minute. Finally entering sicily felt very awesome and unforgetful indeed.

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Poking around Messina at the next day for an hour...

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... before leaving for the Etna, which sadly was within the clouds, making the view up the big crater and down to Catania quite difficult, but still a memorable experience.

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On our way towards Campofelice di Roccella, where we'd be staying for five nights on sicily.

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And this is quite literally the view I was lusting for since my childhood. Entering the last part of the Targa Florio towards our hotel, seeing Campofelice and the Tyrrhenian Sea in the background. Start of said Targa Florio Classic was in Palermo this evening, which we did drive towards and had a look onto all of the modern and old cars at the starting line.

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The next pictures are from the days on the island, in no particular order. We visited one of the three (yes) Targa Florio museums - but it's also the biggest, owned by an absolute passionate petrolhead, who insisted we can and should not just look at, but also touch and sit in the street and race cars he had on offer.

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I did not dare to ask to sit in his Targa Florio'd Alfa Romeo 33, which I highly regret. He told us the story of this particular chassis, showed us how you're sitting in front of the V8 and between 300 liters of race fuel, being able to do 315 kph at the long straight down at the bottom of the track (which he has also done for himself at the Autodromo di Pergusa (another track, more on that later)), yet still having to manage all the bumps and dips of the brutal Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie at race speed.

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There was a nicely widebody'd Fiat Ritmo though, which was nice.
And, being German, I've never sat in an original Beetle. I did so at his place, aswell as compared it to a Fiat 500, 600 and Innocenti Mini. Sorry Käfer, you lose.

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Over the next couple of days, we explored the Targa Florio and its surroundings - sadly failing to find any old race car parts.

The old Floriopoli:

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Probably the most beautiful spot of the Targa Florio.

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I can't help myself but just love these small, stereotypical italian villages. Collesano in this case, with all its traces of the Targa Florio.

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Or Cerda.

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Exploring the Targa Florio some more ...

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... and getting to know its current state of affairs. This is the reality of some of the track's sections today, sadly.

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Of course we also saw some on-track action of the Targa Florio Classic. Sadly, the trucks were going faster than the Ferraris (not even kidding, actually).

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On sunday the 13th, I managed to fullfill another childhood dream as Beni was kindly enough to let me enter the car at a trackday at the Autodromo di Pergusa (aka Enna Pergusa), going around the only natural lake on sicily. When it's not in use, the track is actually open for the public and is being used as a footpath or for cycling and running around, as the lake is a nature reserve.

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Entering the trackday wasn't easy at all, since sadly no one was really speaking and form of English. Luckily, our (now) good friend Diego with his Variocam'd 993 C4S helped me to enter the first 30-minute-session of the day. He told us a lot about the island, some of the track's history and how it's essentially all fucked and wasted opportunities. We also saw an F40 LM on old Catania-plates, but sadly it wasn't running on the trackday.

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Later on, we drove to yet another track that we used as a stop for a short lunch break, the Circuit Valle di Templi (aka Racalmuto), where we saw yet another bike trackday.

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Our time on sicily comes to and end with a visit in Corleone (actually fairly boring) and Monte Erice with its hillclimb course (very good!), and onwards trying to catch the ferry from Palermo to Genua, and back via Brescia, visiting the Mille Miglia museum and (of course) the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, going past Lago di Iseo and going over the stelvio pass, seing an unforgetteable colourfull autumn.

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On the Stelvio Pass...

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... towards Switzerland, Austria, and back to Germany.

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And that's about it. Car did flawlessly except for a small puncture we inflicted ourselves because we trusted Google Maps too much and had to off-road and overland for a bit. Sadly we carried a brand-spanking new 1993 spare tyre on a very clean and brandnew 14 inch rim with us. We switched the tyre on the Targa Florio itself, just like race car mechanics back in 1973.

Unforgetteable experience, car did so well, joyful trip. I think I can speak for Beni and myself here - 11/10, will definitely do this and visit sicily more than once in my life again.
 
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So they made you an offer you could not refuse? :p

But seriously, I need to go back to Italy sometime...

The whole Alpine region is fucking magnificent. Italy is its own special goodness as well. After going on the Finalgear Swisstaly trip, I just want to travel more.
 
Damn that looks epic.
 
This is so epic. I wish i was there. Maybe one of those years fg roadtrip to sicily...
 
This is so epic. I wish i was there. Maybe one of those years fg roadtrip to sicily...

You know what, this being slightly out of season it was firstly actually really bearable in terms of temperatures, and secondly really cheap to do. Two weeks and 5000 kms with two blokes in a car to sicily and back sounds expensive, but in reality it wasn't.
 
Beni and me were always vivid Targa Florio fans. If you don't know what the Targa Florio is: It's essentially the oldest continuous motor race in the world, run as a rally event in today's world. Both of us always wanted to visit the track; and I've always wanted to go and see sicily in person.

9LfqwFi.jpg

Quite some time ago I have bought the DVD from the 1965 Targa Florio, called "Mountain Legend". Turns out Beni and I weren't the first ones to mob in a Sierra on the Targa Florio - Nino Vaccarella, school teacher, local hero and Targa winner was invited to test the 1983 XR4i on the Targa Florio. I definitely need to upload that video, it's superb. He loves it and thinks it's a proper high performance sports car... totally not sponsored by Ford.

Here it is, have fun with it!

 
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