GONE IN TEN SECONDS…

This stunning Sapphire Cosworth is unlike any other, thanks to a homebuilt 760bhp YB engine and a sequential gearbox that help it cover the quarter mile in just 10.3 seconds...

- Simon Holmes

Over the years, it’s fair to say we’ve seen plenty of well modified Cosworths pass through these pages. Both heavily fettled track cars with race specifications, or full road cars hiding huge power have become fairly regular, which is no bad thing. But of all the massively modified YB powered Fords we’ve featured, we don’t think we’ve ever come across something quite like Jon Gamble’s Sierra Sapphire 4x4.

For a start, it’s putting out a serious 764bhp, thanks to hefty sized, twin-scroll BorgWarner turbo producing 2.5bar of boost. It then sends all that horsepower through a trick six-speed sequential gearbox and down to the Tarmac via a set of stunning centre-lock wheels that look they’ve come straight off an RS 500 touring car. That little lot alone is enough to firmly place this Sapphire ahead of virtually any other of its kind, but then there’s the fact it also happens to be a true road car, with a full interior and tyres to prove it. Yet this tidy Sapphire covers the quarter mile in a blistering 10.3 seconds and, perhaps most impressively of all, was largely built by Jon at home in the garage.

Only a handful of fast Fords, let alone Sierras of this type have ever been able to boast those sort of credentials, as it takes a serious amount of time, money and effort to create what is quite simply one of the best Sierra Sapphires we’ve seen.

The journey to bring the car to this level wasn’t short or easy either, as Jon explains to us that he has owned the car for some 14 years. He originally bought it as a toy, for use as a hobby in his spare time, back when the Cosworth was the best choice for modifying, long before the Focus ST and RS models became so popular.

Jon sourced the car from Ebay and when he first got hold of it, it was completely standard.