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Free To a Good Home

UPDATE: A home has been found.

Getting My First Car

Back in 1991, after I'd passed my driving test I didn't have access to a car. I did have a Saturday job, and so the saving began. The intervening months gave me plenty of time to work out what car I was going to buy. After learning to drive in a 950cc Fiesta, I knew it would need at least a 1.1L engine if not a 1.3L; but I was happy with something Fiesta-sized and preferably sporty.

The inital choice of a Fiesta 1.1S soon gave way to either a VW Polo Coupe S or a Fiesta 1.3S when I discovered that the insurance wouldn't be much more. Then, my weekly ritual of scouring the classifieds section of the free papers showed there wasn't too big a price premium for a Fiesta Supersport.

There were a couple of Supersports knocking about the village; the precursor to the much-maligned XR2 with an attractive set of RS 4-spoke alloys and the same bodykit as the XR2 but with 1.3S mechanicals. I was smitten and soon had my heart set on getting one, despite my parents' repeated efforts to persuade me to get something cheaper and more basic.

When the time came to leave for university, I had enough in my savings to start looking for cars but finding the right one was easier said than done; the first few I dragged my Dad to see were pretty ropey. On the trip home at the end of the first term, Dad mentioned in passing that there was a Supersport advertised in that week's St. Helens Star. After complaining vociferously that he should've told me sooner, we agreed to go for a look.

That was how, on Friday 18th December 1992 I became the proud owner of a 1981 (old-style-W-reg) Ford Fiesta Supersport, in sunburst red with red stripes and a grey interior. I still remember the thrill of meeting Dad at the bank during my lunch hour and drawing out £900. It seemed such a huge amount of cash to be holding in my hands, but the feeling was short-lived as it was handed to Dad almost immediately so he could go and pick up the car for me.

The Love Affair Begins

My car ownership didn't get off to the best of starts. Come Sunday morning I was eager to go for my first drive and show her off to all of my mates. There were two problems with that: firstly Dad insisted on coming with me in case I'd forgotten how to drive (in retrospect a perfectly sensible decision, but at the time...) and more importantly we couldn't get the car to start.

We spent an hour or so trying different things without any success, including swapping the battery for a spare we had lying in the garage. I'd just about resigned myself to a many-hour delay to wait for the battery to charge, when Mum "just double-checked" that we hadn't forgotten about the ignition cut-off switch hidden behind the dashboard... Cue a couple of rather red faces, but more importantly a little red hatchback with a running engine!

For the next five years our lives were tightly intertwined. The Supersport makes an appearance in almost every story from that period of my life - if I had a scanner I'd be able to provide pictorial evidence too.

But this post is already long enough without a diversion off through tales of country lane diversions at the merest hint of traffic in central Lancaster... of late-night dashes up the A6 and A591 to visit friends in Ambleside... chasing the RAC Rally across Northern England... learning how to drive in the snow...

I'll pick a handful and write them up separately over the next few weeks.

Improvements and Showing-Off

From early-on in my Supersport ownership I was a member of the XR Owners Club (they incorporated the Supersport Register (SSR), given that the cars were close relatives to the XRs). This meant that there was somewhere for me to show off how good she looked and revel in the car-geek heaven of car shows. Whilst she was never at the jacking-your-car-up-to-show-the-shiny-suspension-components level, the regular washing, waxing, glass polish, alloy cleaner... treatments meant she could hold her own on the SSR stand. The photo above was taken on the stand of the 1993 or 1994 XROC National Day show.

I've never been that into customising or obsessing over the appearance of my cars; I like to choose something that looked good when it rolled out of the factory gates, and whilst I keep them clean and tidy I prefer to spend any serious time and money on improving the mechanicals.

The Supersport was no different. Although I was a poor student, the car was on a programme of continual gradual improvement. Generally when parts needed replacing, I'd take the opportunity to fit something better: the suspension was first - slightly lowered and uprated springs alongside gas dampers when the original dampers needed replacing; then when the front discs needed doing I put in the vented XR2 items instead; and when the top of one of the pistons decided to detach itself from the rest, during the engine rebuild I swapped in a better camshaft and uprated oil and fuel pumps. That engine rebuild was the reason I came out of university with an overdraft...

About the only part I upgraded before it needed replacing was the head (the top half of the engine with the valves in). Once I'd started work I could afford to buy things before my hand was forced, and I got a head that was better suited to the camshaft. It was clear even then that leaded petrol wasn't going to be around for much longer, so I paid a little more for the hardened valve seats that means she can run on normal unleaded.

A Change of Direction

By mid-1997 it was time for a change. I was earning more, and commuting weekly to Bury St. Edmunds from Rainford (230-odd miles each way). So a plan was hatched. For my daily transport I bought an E30 BMW M3 and then over time I'd strip out the Supersport and turn it into a classic rally and hill-climb car.

As I'd just sunk all my money into the M3, I couldn't do anything to the Supersport there and then, but that was okay - my Mum had just passed her driving test and so for Christmas I bought her a new steering wheel (an original Supersport item to replace the button-sized one that came with the car) and gave her custody of the Supersport.

Of course, Mum didn't see much of the car a year or two later when my sister got her licence and found it most useful that there was a car she could borrow. However, I think that just meant it spent a lot of time parked down at the farm where her horse is stabled - her passion for horses probably even outstrips mine for cars and is almost as expensive.

The summer of 2000 saw me moving to Cambridge, into a house with a double-garage! That meant there was room for both of my cars. The Fiesta was still in daily use, but was getting to the stage when each MOT meant a few more things needed fixing so it was best that she was retired from such high use.

Just before the MOT ran out, I brought her down to Cambridge and enjoyed a last week or so of commuting with her before I got round to moving the M3 out of the way so that she could get into the garage and await her restoration.

The Next Chapter?

And that's where I hope that you can help. When I was working at Microsoft back in 2001 I decided that the next bonus cheque was going to be used to start the restoration; but then they closed the department and made me redundant. Since starting my own business I just don't have the spare time to devote to her, and in a few weeks we're moving to Italy and she needs to leave the safety of the garage before then.

So, I'm looking for someone to take care of her and to use her. In return for giving her a good home you get to take her away for free. You'll need to bring a trailer because after six years of sitting in the garage she isn't going to be driveable, but she isn't in a terrible state either. One of the previous owners had the shell professionally treated with waxoyl (or something similar) and I gave it a second coat a couple of years into my ownership.

Feel free to email me with any questions at supersport@mcqn.net, or leave a comment on this entry. There are details of the modifications after the jump.

Modifications

Engine

Pipercross free-flow air filter High pressure oil pump Facet electric fuel pump Kent BCF2 fast road/rally camshaft Vulcan Maxiflow unleaded head (enlarged inlet valves)

Suspension

Lowered, uprated springs (approx. 1" drop) Uprated gas dampers

Brakes

XR2 calipers and ventilated discs at front XR2 master cylinder

And I've got a spare set of RS 4-spoke alloys which I'll put in the boot or somewhere.

Tags: ford fiesta supersport free

Posted by Adrian at June 14, 2007 10:14 PM | TrackBack