Vintage Thing No.61.1 - the Ford Sierra XR4x4
Designating my XR4x4 a Vintage Thing the other day reminded me of the reaction casued by the introduction of the Sierra. It was a revolution. The V&A ran an exhibition at the Boilerhouse Project called The Car Programme - 52 months to Job One or How they designed the Ford Sierra. I visited this exhibition in the first year of my Industrial Design course at Coventry Poly. At the time there were all manner of rumours circulating about the Sierra and its high profile departure from the boxy lines of the Cortina. It was said that all the design staff had been sacked and that Ford would be re-introducing the Cortina following poor sales. Of course, none of this was true but it's difficult to appreciate the shock of the new that followed the Sierra's introduction. Walter Hayes, Ford of Europe's Vice-Chairman said the introduction of the Sierra and replacement of the Cortina was "the only example in history where a company killed off a brand leader." However, I bet h...