Not sure if there are many people still around here that actually read this, but we'll see...

Around 15 years ago I went drifting for a while with a 2.9 12v Sapphire. Due to circumstances that unfortunately came to an end, after which the Sapph was sold. But since a few years I have been going to drift days again. At first that was with my daily BMW 330d automatic. But I didn't really like the idea of doing that with my daily driver and the auto box was not that great for drifting either. So I bought another beemer to go drifting with, a manual 130i. And I have to say, it's a great little car that almost feels like a go-cart.

The guy organizing the drift days also organizes a trip to Sweden every winter to go ice driving/drifting on a frozen lake. It always seemed really cool to do this, so I said I would join them. Initially my idea was to go there with the 130i, but after thinking it over for a while I thought it would be even cooler to go there with a 4x4. I've been a rally fan for years and for a 'normal car guy' this might be thing that comes closest to real rally driving.

So what's then a nice 4x4 car to do this with? I've started watching rally in the late 90's and I've been a major fan of the Escort WRC, Lancer Evo 5/6 and Impreza WRC. Both the Escort and Impreza WRC are unfortunately crazy money, but also the Gr A Lancer Evo 5 or 6 are quite rare and expensive and it had to something a lot better for my wallet. If you go further back in time than the Escort WRC, there was of course the Escort Cosworth and then the Sierra Cosworth 4x4 in the WRC. But before the Sierra Cosworth 4x4, Ford actually rallied the Sierra XR4x4 as well on loose surfaces. Drive train wise it's the same as the Cosworth 4x4, the 'only' differences are the engine and some smaller things in the suspension. For driving on ice you hardly a lot of power anyway, so the 2.9 would do fine.

On my search for one I noticed that they have become much more difficult to find, but I managed to get one. It's 1992 car, from the last facelift, originally sold in Switzerland. Strangely enough it does have the 2.9 engine from factory, while (as far as I knew) all XR4x4's from the last facelift were built with the 2.0i DOHC, but apparently not for the Swiss market.

The previous owner had already put quite some work in the car, which was nice. My plan was to leave the car mostly standard, with only a few minor changes. As a first thing I checked what anti-roll bars the car had, as those make a big contribution to the understeer/oversteer balance, and I didn't want to take really understeering car to Sweden. The front arb was a 28 mm item, just like the Cosworth 4x4, but the rear one was only 12 mm, while the Cosworth has an 18 mm rear bar. Luckily I still had a 20 mm rear arb from a Scorpio mk2 lying around, so I exchanged it for that one.

I also noticed a front drive shaft gaiter was torn, so that had to be replaced. While I did that I also swapped around the washers that hold the front arb to the tca. I once heard that, in combination with original bushes, it makes the connection a lot stiffer and should solve the vibration during braking that standard cars so easily have. If you look at how it is fitted now you would almost think Ford intended it like this, as the shape of the washer actually fits very well to the shape of the bush.



Something I also noticed was that the steering shaft had a lot of play where it goes through the fire wall. That's definitely not a nice thing when you want to the car for some enthusiastic steering. So I ordered a new bush and ring from Ford and fitted those. It's clear to see the old one was worn down quite a lot.



After that I did some small jobs on the car, like replacing the locks, as the driver's door and tail gate lock didn't work anymore. I also replaced the boot struts, as it had the wrong ones installed. Apparently there are 3 different versions, the basic ones, with rear windscreen wiper and one with windscreen wiper and spoiler. The XR had the basic ones installed, which obviously couldn't hold up the tailgate with wiper and spoiler.

And of course I needed some winter tyres for Sweden and for driving on the ice I wanted to have some studded tyres, so I ordered 8 new ones...



After the tyres where fitted I could finally make a first test drive after having the car in the garage for a month. During the first drive I made one of my new regular winter tyres into a studded tyre as well.



During the first test drive I noticed the engine didn't always respond very nicely on the throttle. I borrowed a TPS from someone to check if that helped, and luckily it helped, so I ordered a new one to solve the issue.

 

Following

 

I just noticed I posted this in the wrong section, it should have been in the project section. Are there still any mods around that could move it?

 

After replacing the TPS I did a few more drives with the car to get some confidence before driving to Sweden, luckily that al went well. Saturday morning I left home as I had to drive about 500 km to the ferry for Kiel in Germany to Gotenborg in Sweden. The studded tires were in the boot, together with some small tools to make some small repairs if needed. I found it a little scary, taking a 33 year old car, that I had only driven a few hundred km after buying for such a trip. But luckily I wasn't driving completely by myself, after the first 50 km I joined with someone else.

About halfway in Germany we made the first fuel stop. After filling it up I turned the key to start the engine, but instead of the V6 coming back to life I only heard a 'click' from the starter motor. So much for my confidence in the car... Nice though that I wasn't alone anymore and that I threw the tow cable in he car last minute. It only needed a short tow to get it running again.



The next times we tow started the car directly as that was quicker than trying to find the problem. But the next morning on the ferry there was some more time to try some things. Again it didn't want to start by itself. I tried tapping the starter motor with a hammer, but that didn't help. Then I disconnected the plug from the ignition switch to the starter motor that's near the battery, and using a spanner I directly put 12V from the battery to the plug to the starter motor solenoid. When I did that the engine did actually turn over. I then reconnected the plug and the car actually started again by turning the key. My idea was that there might be a bad connection at the ignition switch, since I had taking the complete steering column out to replace the steering bush and I also replaced the ignition lock. But at the first fuel stop in Sweden it again didn't want to start and the trick with the 12V directly to the plug to the starter motor also didn't work this time, so my hope on easily fixing the issue was gone. Fortunately there were some helpful people that didn't mind to tow start the car each time. You just need to pay attention where you park the car, especially with snow and ice around, as that makes a tow start quite a bit more tricky.

On Monday it was finally time to drive towards the lake where the ice driving is done. Upfront I was worrying a bit whether the ice would be thick enough, but it being 1 meter thick that was no issue at all. You could hear the ice crack/grind at some moments, which sounded a bit scary, but apparently that was all normal. I also wondered whether a tow start on the ice would work, but the organizer had a big Dodge Ram, which had no issues at all to tow start the Sierra.

On the lake there were two circuits, a small and a bigger one. There were also 3 ovals and 2 circles to practice. First I went unto a big oval, where there was more than enough space to practice, but on the oval you actually have the start and end of the turn, unlike the circles.

My first tries to get the car sideways by just applying a lot of throttle in the corner weren't much successful. The 4x4 system then really makes the car understeer. Near the end of the turn the car does still go sideways, as the 4x4 has 2/3 of the torque going to the rear wheels. But the goal was actually to make the turns in full drift rally style, and not only the last part of the turn. After trying for several laps I started to get a bit frustrated and was thinking I should have taken a rear wheel drive car instead. But that was no option anymore, so better keep on trying. I asked guy who was driving an Impreza and had been coming there for years for some advice. Apparently it works a lot better to enter the turn with throttle off, or even braking slightly with a 4x4. Because the car slows down you get some weight transfer to the front wheels, which helps the turn in. And the reduced weight on the rear wheels make the rear a bit more loose. You have to be a bit patient, but once the rear really starts to slide wide you can apply the throttle and get the car in a nice 4 wheel drift. What also worked really well was the so-called 'Scandinavian flick', where you first turn in the opposite direction to get some weight transfer and then enter the corner. The weight transfer upsets the balance of the car already before the corner and helps getting the rear out of line really well. It's a completely different experience than drifting an rwd car, but definitely fun to do!

Since this topic is not much better with some pictures:



The Sierra together with the BMW E34 540i from the organizer.



I also asked someone if he could make some videos of practice attempts on the oval.





After practicing on the oval I went out on the other circuits. Since those were a bit less wide it was quite a bit more challenging, but after a while that went quite well. I also made some videos of that of course.



The last video video is of me chasing the BMW 540i of the organizer. Since he had longer Lappi studs on his he had a bit more grip, but in the end we were lapping around the same times.

With the studs you have quite a bit more grip than you would expect on ice. But once you got off the ideal line there was a lot of slush, on which the studs were not long enough to still grip on the ice and in those places there was a lot less grip.


On Thursday it was time go back home, so tow starting the car was again needed every time. After arriving back in Germany with the ferry I was again on my own, so I couldn't tow start the car anymore, but it was just doable to drive home on full tank of fuel. Over the whole trip I did some 2600 to 2700 km, and apart from the starter motor the car did really well, so happy with that, but it did need a bit of care afterwards. The front bumper was a bit loose after I understeered into a snow wall on the ice track and the rear bumper is also damaged, it has a piece of plastic missing behind the rear wheel. I didn't hit anything there, but the amount of ice that was hanging from that point apparently was too heavy and broke a piece out of the bumper. Both bumpers were already damaged anyway, so not really a big deal. But all in all I had lots of fun with it.

 

Great stuff