RobCarden

always wondered. used to have a 90 saff 4x4 cos...

does it have that heavy feeling of a saff 4x4 cos. or does it feel more modern and light? steering, clutch etc feel as heavy as the saff?

doe sit rattle much? hard or an effort to drive or light and easy....

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Feels better made and less rattley IME, but these cars are so old now that its all down to how they have been looked after.

Fundamentally VERY similar to the saph though, as you would expect.

RWD_cossie_wil

iTrader: (9)

Have to say I think my escort and the others I have driven are in a different league to saffs , having owned both I find the Escort a lot "tighter", and you can really feel the extra stiffness in the shell and the stiffer arb's etc, and the spoliers give it a lot of high speed confidence Also feels more aggressive due to being shorter etc...

Saying that I still love driving saffs And no offence here to 3 door owners, but you really can tell the huge leap betweem 3 door and saff, and saff and escort in the chassis department, drove my mates 3 door and it was a tricky beast to keep in a straight line with 400BHP - a saff with the same power is a lot tamer...

Billabong

Agree with Will, although similar base, the Escort feels nimbler and more 'planted' due to reasons given. That's not to say Sapph's don't drive nice, just different.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Ive talked to alot of people who own escort cossies and some of them dont like them and others love them. I would love to have a go in 1. I would also like to own 1.

bud-weis

i'll be honest and say my 3dr was much much more stable to drive than any saff i've driven...in a straight line at high speed it was so smooth and controllable...my saffs have tended to wander a bit when making slight turns at speed.

escorts do feel tighter though

alanfordtw-15

i havent driven saffs but i would say there is also a heavy feeling about the escorts

Rs(555)

iTrader: (8)

just sold my escos was awsome handling , great looking ,but didnt do it for me the 4x4 was the down fall. too slow no fun hence now back in 2 wd saff lot more fun imo need alot of power in a 4x4 to make em feel fast imo great cars though

Redkop

I found the Escos a lardy car to drive and handling wasn't anything spectacular either.

Bullett

iTrader: (2)

ive driven all of them.and own a 4x4 saff.the 3dr has a nice smooth drive i think easier to control at normal-ish power than a 2wd saff.the 4x4 saff is a nice car to drive if its been looked after.i dont think they are bad at all at high speed but round the twisties i have to say to escort that i drove was far more planted than my saff.maybe due to being shorter and the extra strength but it was noticeable.tbh i havent driven one on the motorway so cant comment on high speed.must admit it didnt feel any newer to me but didnt rattle and creak as much as my saff and my saff is pretty good for that.

mk2rstaff

i have owned them all and currently have a 3dr, mine have all been standard in the chassis dept apart from the odd poly bush, and i think out of the box they are pretty poo, but when i drove other examples that have been uprated they were a lot better but not amazing. i suppose that is why many comapnies still develop better chassis components to make it better. zoo for instance do the new rear beam

Staffi

iTrader: (1)

Had a 3dr, now got a 2wd saff and agree with Martin, i thought my 3dr felt better @ higher speed than the saff does, only driven an Escos a few times, wasn't overly impressed TBH...

Wombat

At our RSOC Concourse a couple of years ago, an owner of a red Escos walked up to me with the keys to his car and asked if I wanted to take it for a drive. I damn near broke his arm gettin the keys. As soon as I started it, he stuck his head in the window and said,' if I scratch or bend it, it's mine, ok?' It wasnt much bigger then my Mk2 RS2, but didnt it go heaps harder! i was having trouble changing gears to keep up to the speed! I didnt go far, but what an experience. I want one!

mk2rstaff

that is a top geezer mate just letting you have a rip in his car, i let my drive mine only, but that is more down to insurance reasons than just being a soppy git, its a car at the end of the day and if its going to break then it will no matter who is pushing the pedals

Wombat

I reckon I was in the right place at the right time and he knew he could trust me! Damn lucky I say!
It has been the fastest 4 cylinder i've been in\driven. It had 330bhp. all good fun!

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

ive only ever driven one esc cos, and that was simon SECS's one

it was 444bhp and felt pretty good caining the fuck out of it round llandow race track

my first drive of a cosworth, and it was on track

WD Pro

I have never driven an ecos but by mate had a koni saph 4x4, sold it for a standard ecos, didnt like it ant went back to a standard saph 4x4

He is 'tame' driver on the road and uses his car mostly to comute - 50/50 town and motorway ...

Mike Rainbird

iTrader: (3)

ALL Cossies handle wank unless you spend HUGE amounts on them - you may "think" they are good, but put up against something modern and sorted, you will soon realise how far behind they are. HOWEVER, once they are sorted though, they can live with ANYTHING on track (bar Radicals and the like around the corners ), and are FAR more rewarding to drive (IMO), as you have made a car that doesn't normally do corners (particularly well) into one that does .

rapidcossie

everyone keeps saying that the escort is more planted becuase its shorter...

I though cars with short wheels bases are LESS planted...

Rippers

Lets be honest its a 15 year old escort, compared to most modern cars it drives like crap.. hasn't stopped me from always wanting one thou

charlie luciano

iTrader: (3)

Chavy cos that what a ford escort is a chav mobil don't forget to put dave n sharon on the front window screen


Luciano

Mike Rainbird

iTrader: (3)

They are more planted because they actually have negative lift at speed (i.e. down force), where as 99.9% of all cars have POSITIVE lift at speed.

The short wheel base gives the car a sharper turn in compared to one with longer wheel base, which gives a feeling of the car being more direct (which can be confused with feling "planted"). Obviously this makes the car a little more "nervous", but the down force created gives the car limpet like handling. So the whole car feels much more cohesive.

cozzfather

iTrader: (1)

they feel like a bigger car than a sierra, if you look in the mirrors
you see the wide arches and big spoilers
i have found then to handle great in the dry as they have so much
contact with the road.
escort is aero designed to stick to the road and for going around corners
not top speed runs up the a1

the sierra is a great car but i get fed up after a while owning one
knowing there is a far superior cosworth out there

Bullett

iTrader: (2)

mike,whats huge money?

Billabong

Myself and Will didn't say they feel more 'planted' due to the shorter wheelbase

Bullett

iTrader: (2)

i did

Mike Rainbird

iTrader: (3)

Minimum of £3k upto what-ever you want to spend on suspension (you can spend more than that on dampers alone ).

The minimum would consist of poly bushing the car, the same suspension I have, 6° rear beam, adjustable TCAs (consisting of new Ford TCAs modded, not the cheap aftermarket ones that seem to last five minutes), plus full geometry set-up and including fitting.

AlexD

iTrader: (3)

The second i drove the Escos i was addicted, It just feels more of a drivers
car imo.

The saph was great dont get me wrong that was fully modded.

I am just in the process of changing all my suspension, cant wait to drive
it again

Al.

NEIL A

iTrader: (6)

Mike on a road car running Cossymad spec GAZ coilovers how much of a change would the back beam make over the set up im running justnow. Im running shims on std beam, adjustable tca's and fully poly bush including diff mountand front and rear braces. Will hopefully soon be running AVA spec compression stuts and tca's aswell.

RWD_cossie_wil

iTrader: (9)

I need a decent rear beam next, but thats going to have to wait a bit as I'm fookin skint from sorting the drivetrain ...wanky 4x4

Mike, have you got the Adrenalin frame connectors?

Bullett

iTrader: (2)

you are running coilovers arent you mike?is this different on a saff to an escy then?i didnt think you could run coilovers on the rear of a saff due to shonky seperate spring and shock.
what has yours set you back in total if thats not rude?

RWD_cossie_wil

iTrader: (9)

escort has exactly the same suspension configuration, and you can run coil-overs on either. I'm going to be running gravel spec bilstiens on the Escort

Asturias

The saphs feel lower slung than the escos but the escos seems more chuckable and a bit more fun.

My saph 4x4 had coilovers and front and rear strut braces poly bushed ect and it was very very stable through medium to high speed corners and i have to say its the best balanced car ive driven meaning it had no tendancies to run in to under or oversteer without warning.

The strut braces and poly bushes make huge differences to the cornering and keeps the damping,accelerating and braking under more control.

Cossies are very underrated handling cars imo.

AndyBrew

and in answer to the "do they rattle"


....yes like a bitch

redrsmk5

feels like this

JTECH James

iTrader: (13)

how the fook do you do the little degree sign on a querty keyboard ive been looking for ages

Alps Pacino

Imo they feel heavy, slow, boring. As a PERFOMANCE car it was a MEGA let down compared to my previouse cars. For the money there probably close to the bottom of the list in that price bracket as a capable performance car. I mean look what 15k can get you these days and then tell me an escort cossie can compare lol.

Having said that if you want a big shiny cock extension that makes you stand out around town and draw peoples attention then there fantastic, me my cock doesnt need extending so i will be pottering around town in my £1000 106 rallye

Bullett

iTrader: (2)

thats messed up! ive never noticed its not there.

Mike1

It's an interesting point to ponder certainly.....

I'm reminded of the recent BMW M-car test in EVO mag ......what won as best driver's car? An 18 year old E30 M3..............


...........go back to the group tests of the time Autocar, Fast Lane, Performance Car, What Car...............what was one of the few rivals to often beat the E30 M3 for driving fun/feel/laptimes? Another rwd car with 200bhp weighing around the same......the Cosworth...



Like you say though, compared to modern stuff they both get left behind

rapidcossie

the E30 wasnt the best handling car in the test tho...