scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Been thinking of a fun 4wd car to eventually replace my Focus RS when I get bored of it, which knowing the way I go through cars, probably a few months!!!

Anyway the one car Ive always wanted to own along with a Scooby and a Evo is a Escort RS Cosworth, so I just wanted to know if anyone here has owned a Escort Cosworth, are they really worth £15k for a decent one, or am I better off buying a different car thats a bit newer, as the Cosworth is a getting on a bit now and maybe not as good as they once where!

If I was to get one it would be my only car and be used everyday, and would be parked on my drive at night, at the moment Ive had no problems with the Focus RS or previous Scoobys or Evo parked on the drive at night, but the thing is that worries me is selling a mint 2003 Focus RS with 20k miles on the clock for something thats 12 years old and over 50k miles on the clock, and things going wrong as they tend to do on older cars!!!


Someone talk me out of it please, as my heart is saying get a Cossie but my head is telling me to stay clear!!!!

LG John

Your an idiot IMHO I really don't see the appeal - just buy an FQ300 and mod it to 370bhp (all achievable for £15k). Escort won't know which way it went and you won't have to buy leapard print cloth

davyboy

Fun and 4wd

Why do you "need" 4wd?

LUCKO

iTrader: (3)

go for it

if you buy a mint Escort Cosworth and keep it mint you will never lose when coming to sell it. the same cannot be said for any Subaru, Mitsubishi, Skyline, M3......

my mate paid 14.5k for a 500 3 years ago and sold it recently for 16.2k never spent a penny on it as it was totally mint throughout.
wonder what would of happened if he had bought a p1

p.s ill be your new best mate if you get one

34srm

escort cossies drive it as hard as a scoob and you'll be fitting front driveshafts and engine mounts on regular basis, nice cars but for the money would have something else wot about mint delta evo 2

davyboy

How can you say a cossie is unreliable if driven hard, and then mention the Delta in the same sentance?

MTayler

Been there, done it, had the new engine, sold it .
Like yourself I always wanted an Esc cosworth ever since a mate of mine took me out in one of the early development small turbo ones all of 13 years ago ( how time flies ).
Anyhow finally got my one in 2002 ( or thereabouts ), ash black with stage 2 upgrade.
All was fine until it went in for a routine head rebuild ( had a couple of noisy tappets ) only to find the block had a hair line crack in it !.
So a couple of grand later I got it back and the missus never got her conservatory.
After that it was never really the same and more bills followed before I had finally had enough and got rid of it.
Truth be told though I was toying with the idea of buying a new scooby and test drove one at Wilson's romford and for a std wrx it blew my 285-300bhp cossie into the weeds, kind of swung my decision.
I too also drove it every day to work and really wish I had'nt as they are too special for that and deserve to be used as a second car.
As for spares, Ford's do less and less now for them in the way of genuine parts and any trim items you can forget !.

It's personal choice, if you really want one my advice is go for small turbo version, lowest miles you can get and loads of history.

Good luck .

Should be a picture of said cosworth below.

bob r

iTrader: (46)

The Escort has always been a favourite of mine, a proper mean looking car.
As for swapping your Focus RS to the Escort I think you are barmy.
You have a perfectly good performance car in the Focus and to swap to a Escort is 2 steps back imo. I don't think it fits your criteria as an everyday car either. The Escort would be a weekend toy only.

bob r

iTrader: (46)

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

The fact that 300bhp, 300+lb/ft in a FWD car has made me realise how stupid turbo FWD cars actually are!!!!

Ive already had a couple of scoobys and a Evo and 4WD is the car that im more comftable driving, as I know I can drive it safely in all weather conditions, To be honest I didnt like my Evo VII GSR all that much, it wasnt that fun to drive, Not saying that the Escort Cosworth will be, as I need to test drive one, I loved my old scooby but ive had a few scoobys now, and I dont want to go back again!!!!

davyboy I know your idea of "fun" is a trackday set up car, but Im not into that sort of cars that you would call fun like Elise's Caterhams etc I like a car that I can jump in anytime I want, take it to the shops in Rain, snow or sunshine, and occasionally put my foot down, thats the reason I like turbo 4WD cars!!!!!

What other turbo 4WD cars are there for under £20k!!!!!

Attu

I love them but id only have one as a second car, as has been mentioned if you keep it in good condition your not going to lose much money on it but if you use it as a daily car its going to cost you.
I always thought the early cars were the ones with the big turbo's and were better and more tunable (but more lag) than the later smaller turbo cars ?

Mica Blue

As above, great cars but only as a second car. They deserve to be garaged and only brought out in the dry imo, not on the wet salty roads.

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Are you sure you want to be my best mate, have you seen my other mates, infact you work with one of them that should give you a indication of what there like!!!!!




To be honest, I asked the same question on the RS owners forum and got the same replys, It would be a shame to drive it everyday and put the miles on it and it should only really be used as a second car, and I havent got the garage space to really look after it as it should be!!!

I think I should really think it through properly!!!!!

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Stunning motor mate!

RAF1

iTrader: (5)

IMO the only good thing about the Escort Cossy is the looks i dont like the standard gbox and drive of the cars - Also they are getting 'on a bit'...! However they have some serious road presence and can hold their own in the looks department against any car....

Here'a a pic of my old one..... (any excuse ) http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/1422/cos1010ll5.jpg

Raf
p.s. you only live once - go for it

LG John

Sounds to me like you need RWD and a lot of power. Z3 M Coupe, Boxter S or an S2000 with a supercharger should fit the bill FWIW RWD is way, way, waaaaaaaaaay more fun than 4WD IMHO.

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Imperiel Blue Escort Cosworth!!!!

My favourite colour!!!!

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Not really into those sort of cars!!!! I like my big spoilers and bodykits!!!!

scooby222

ive been thinking similar thoughts recently,selling my 05 sti and getting an escort cossy,i blame pistonheads adverts!
but then i remember beating a standard one 7 years ago in my classic and think of the maintenance and running costs and the fact that my stis worth about 2 grand more than a 15 year old cossy if im lucky!
might have to go try one just to be sure though
and im totally with you on 4wd cars,if you enjoy driving down minor a and b roads in all weathers its the only way to go. unless your idea of fun is filling your trousers everytime you come to a corner!

scoobygez

get the daddy a 22b it wont go down in value or even a sti type r v6 wrc v ltd???

davyboy

I was not thinking of a track car, a RWD road car is perfectly safe.

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Not with my missus driving it wont be!!!!


Never owned a RWD car so I cant comment. saying that though I nearly bought a 350Z but couldnt find a decent one within my price range, and ended up with a Focus RS, but on the test drives it didnt feel all that bad even putting the power down I thought it would feel unsafe but it felt quite stable, but im guessing in the wet it would probably be a bit of a hand full!

LG John

I'm now even more sure you need a RWD. I went FWD, 4WD, RWD and rear is the most fun and the most rewarding. FWD is just a frustraition pit and 4WD just doesn't seem to make its mind up. In the scooby it seems to fleet between understeer and oversteer on the power which sort of amounts so 'not really sure what it'll do here'

MTayler

Cheer's, I do try to buy the cleanest motors I can and I must admit I had reservations going for metallic black but when clean it did look stunning .
Really wanted a Imperial blue one or a limited edition Monte carlo but they are quite rare.
For info the car is back up for sale on pistonheads, however the bloke wants more than what he paid me and has put another 20k on the clock,a set of wheels and headlights.
He says in the advert the bumper has been re-painted only because he is not mechanically minded and fitted new brakes and did'nt bleed them properly.
End result he drove home with little to no brakes and promptly went into the back of another car, **** .

Here's the link ;

Ford : Escort cosworth

Have never had any problems selling a second hand motor until it came to this one, had the guy phoning me a couple of times saying this was'nt right, this noise that noise blah blah, posts on rs owners club saying how he had been sold a duff motor.
Howver once i found out he was ragging the **** off it, it all became clear he was thrashing it and the car could'nt take it and yet he wanted me to sort it .
Still it was bought sold as seen so he had no comeback and quietly went away !.

As for an early post, yes the large turbo cossies are more tunable but very laggy, hence if I did it again I'd go for a small turbo motor as they are much more driveable.
I believe you can still get in the region of 285bhp out of a small turbo which really is plenty for this kind of motor, if your looking for 335 + bhp then it's the large turbo and large bills to match .

PPPRob

I've had 1 of each, big turbo and small turbo.

I can honestly say that I would have another but definately wouldn't use it everyday and definately wouldn't keep it anywhere other than a garage.

They do still fetch good money but thats because some are worth it. Others are just similarly priced because of what they are and not because the condition reflects the price.

As to whether you should get one, well, how much fun do you want?

If you want outright fast then get another scoob or evo.

If you want an escort cosworth then your decision should be how much power do you want?

Big power means big turbo (either early car or late but converted - becomming more and more popular) obviously. All the horror stories that you hear about big bills are all completely true i'm afraid. (Another reason why it needs to be a second car). FFS don't get a low comp conversion as they drive like **** and you'll hate it. Been there with a sapphire. Scrapped it and sold the bits on ebay

Having said that, I still think they are one of the sexiest looking cars on the planet, they always get looks and they are respected so if thats what you're after then get one. But get a run around as well, you'll need it

My 370bhp GGR tuned cossie. One of the best standard compression conversions I have driven. Very laggy, very hard susp, very unforgiving..... but just look at it

Sorry about the crap photo, its a scan of a 35mm, thats how long ago that was


My 265bhp PE tuned cossie. Small turbo and fairly standard otherwise. Nicer car to drive but dog slow compared to what I swapped it for - 04 sti PPP

LUCKO

iTrader: (3)

i have you can come and visit/clean it on weekends (ill drive it weekdays)

jameswrx

iTrader: (4)

I've allways wanted an escort cossie. Recently I've actually been looking for one!

Not sure it's the right decision though (especially when you read these threads) I know I'd be dissapointed with the performance after owning scoobs and evos

Bat-Fink

Mate,get across to PassionFord and ask the same question.

ukdave

A mate of mines been rs mad for years(though got a few mates with nice rs`s )anyway he had a white 3door cossie which he loved but his dream car was a escort cosworth anyway his mate were selling his so he sold the sierra to another mate and bought the escort only to sell after about 4months told me the sierra always felt special and being rwd always enjoyable/exciting to drive whereas the escort cossie albeit competent drove like a fast mk5 escort............not that exciting, he really regretted selling the 3door cossie made worse by the fact he see`s it regularly.

scoobymad/johns sierra cosworth - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

scoobymad/johns escort cosworth - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

MTayler

I and many others will know you will be disappointed, a tuned Esc cossie is still no match for let's say an STI with PPP.
Unless you are talking 400 bhp + and then you lose reliability so the scooby or indeed the evo wins hands down.
At then end of the day any company who will back an upgrade package with a full manufacturer's warranty is very confident in their product.
Ford on the other hand have never released an upgrade pack anything like subaru or mitsubishi, nuff said .
If you have to own an Escort cossie then it's got to be a second car as there is no denying they are a special motor and you see less and less good ones up for grabs nowadays .