Hello everyone. About a year ago I heard a rumor of a Sapphire rally car in a garage in Seattle Washington. Having rallied 2 XR4Ti's here in the US, and bieng born in Peterborough, it seemed destined to be mine. It took 7 months to secure a deal, but I finally dragged it home 4 months ago. Unfortunately, all of the GpA running gear is gone, but it still has some decent stuff left. It was completely torn apart, engine in pieces, no brakes on the car ect. It had all of the AP calipers, but no rotors, or masters. the 909 pedal box was there. first step was to get suspension and brakes together. Once that was done, I started on the engine rebuild. It is a stock compression 200 block, 4x4 head, T34 turbo, 803's and 3bar map, 4x4 intercooler. I have the car together as RWD, as that is what I am comfortable with as a rally car. It has been quite a struggle figuring out things, but it is progressing nicely. The plan is to get it mechanically 100%, enjoy using it in some local events for a few years, then maybe down the road do a full restoration.

Any information on the car from some of you guys that have been around would be greatly appreciated.

 

great piece of history mate

 

That looks really good, a lucky find

 

cracking piece of history, any idea how it ended up over there?


steve

 

Your one lucky man to find this car.

 

Was surprised to hear of this car over in America, any idea how it ended over here?

 

Here is the story I have uncoverd so far. Sutton built the car in 1990, it bears a tag DSMS Chassis 9001, DSMS engine 00, from a body in white, for Serdar Bostanci, who ran it in the Turkish national championship until the start of the 1993 or 1994 season, when he switched to an Escort. It continued on in Turkey with multiple drivers until 1998, where is was sold to a guy in the UK. At that time it still had all of the Group A parts, front uprights, rear arms, 4x4 running gear etc. That owner didn't do much with the car that I can find, and most the GpA parts were stripped from the shell. Fortunately they only took the drivetrain and suspension, leaving the wiring, electrics, and alot of the supporting parts in the car. John VanLandingham bought the car in 2000 as a parts shell and imported it to the USA then. He sold it to a guy in Seattle as a "builder" with about half the parts needed to make it 2wd. He did almost nothing to the car in the 16 years he had it. I bought it in November 2017 as a barely rolling shell with an "rebuilt" engine and T5 gearbox in pieces. Im a pretty motivated guy, so it took me 3 months to make it a driver.

Neither of the 2 owners did any research on the history of the car. I feel privelaged to own it, but I also have no problem thrashing the car in the woods

 

That's a great find! Well done for getting it running again. A shame the Group A parts are missing, as they're going to go up and up in value now.