Sadly you've bought a 20 odd year old fast ford mate lol, a genuine car with no hidden problems will cost you a LOT more than 2.8k imo but i do feel gutted for you....i bought an rs turbo from a garage 8 years back now with 12 months mot and it failed on rust miserably at the next one much to my surprise as well as so many other problems that these cars give! Kept it 6 years though and chucked thousands at it in that time, don't regret it but god knows why i loved it so much as it was a real moneypit!
Just take it on the chin and crack on with getting the car up to scratch if you can mate.....hard lesson to learn but i've been there and you will learn from it !