Ford Sierra Minker K1: quicker than a Countach – Throwback Thursday

Back in 1990 the poster boys of supercar-dom were the Lamborghini Countach and Ferrari Testarossa.

Oozing with cool and both packing mid-mounted V12s, the wedge-shaped Italians were among the quickest things on the road.

That was until small Northamptonshire company Turbo Technics decided to re-engineer a V6-engined Ford Sierra to create the supercar-slaying Minker K1. The car could reach 62mph in just 4.8sec, which was a tenth quicker than the Countach and 0.3sec quicker than the Testarossa.

The Minker featured an extensively modified 2.9-litre engine, complete with forged aluminium pistons, Nimonic alloy exhaust valves and a pair of Garret T2 turbochargers.

The reworked unit was blueprinted for optimum tolerances and fully balanced before being reassembled and ran with a maximum boost of 15psi to produce 320bhp and 345lb ft.

This was a lot of power for a five-door hatchback of the day, and it’s still a lot today, yet the finished product wasn’t particularly exotic, even by 1990s standards. Autocar contributor Ian Sadler described the Minker's look as a bit “East End”, and he didn’t think it lived up its £40k price tag.

“[The car] is derived from a four-wheel-drive Sierra, and, whether you’re stuck in a city jam, pootling about town, or wandering the countryside, people look at the Minker and say, ‘that’s a Ford Sierra, innit?’” Sadler explained. “It doesn’t look like a common-or-garden Ford Sierra, it looks like a customised Ford.”

Thankfully, Sadler’s concerns for the Minker’s boy racer looks were quickly quelled once he experienced its V6 engine.

“While Ford’s V6 might be optimised for a long and boring motorway life in typical Granada/Scorpio mainstream work, the TT transformation is complete,” he commented. “It feels ready and willing. Smooth and snarling, it answers the throttle without any quantifiable turbo-lag, and the initial acceleration reaction depends more on the driver’s dexterity than anything else.”

Sadler revelled in the Minker’s strong torque band, which reduced the need to swap cogs in the Sierra’s notchy MT75 gearbox. “Once the Minker is up and running, it really doesn’t matter what gear you are in,” he continued. “With 345lb ft of torque you can climb vertical walls in fifth.”