Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

[JimKeogh]

Hello all, I am in the process of building my fifth road rally Escort. The last one was 30 years ago .....but time never dulled my enthusiasm for the modelled the sport.
This is the motor.... bought in Holland about 5 years ago and driven back to Ireland .

Hopefully I intend to take part in Endurance Trials and Multi venue auto tests here in Southern Ireland, Targas rallies in Northern Ireland and I would really love to do some road rallies in Wales. I would consider doing some historic stuff in the future but for now the car will have power steering and a 5 speed box....so not allowed in that category.

Here's the dirty work starting...stripping the underseal .. I bought a roll over jig which made life much easier.


This is Escort no 3 on The Highwayman Road Rally 1992 with Tim Sturla. Photo by kind permission Andy Manston.

No 5 is actually ready for paint now so in the coming days/weeks I will post photos of progress together with a few photos of Escorts No1 to No4....back in the day.

[alladdin]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

nice to see it all

[FrankC]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

Look forward to it

[JimKeogh]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

The shell was blasted and the welding repairs and strengthening done. I didn't do the welding myself as a local expert was doing such a good job I would have only devalued the car. The shell was quite good to start with...it needed new sills, splash panels, both boot wells, some repairs to rear arches and a right hand drive dash. The car was seam welded, strengthened and skidded. ....then dry built.
Repackable Tony Law back box modded and bolted up

Engine in

historic type gusset

These are Escort MK3 RS1600i sets made by Steele, retrimmed in a material similar to beta cloth.

[JimKeogh]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

This is Escort No2 ...New Cedos Rally 1989...Dave Howe navigating pic by Andy Manston

[JimKeogh]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

Here's the underneath showing panhard rod tower, skid plates, tramp brackets, turrets for exhaust, 2 new boot wells and lower rear panel trimmed/shaped.

[JimKeogh]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

The Scheel seats (not Steele as I said in an earlier post) had to have their bases modified and plates welded to the floor. The plates on the side of the auto tunnel are for historic removable seat bars should I wish to install competition seats.
The gearstick has been moved to accommodate type 9 5 speed/type E 4 speed gearboxes, the base for a hydraulic handbrake has been strengthened, the tabs on the tunnel are to hold the rear loom and brake line. The electric fire extinguisher bottle will be positioned behind a navigator's foot rest.

[JimKeogh]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5


Here is Escort No 4 sitting in my parents drive in Dollis Hill, North West London. I bought the car off Mike Brown who has just won the Colway 1300cc rally series in it...circa 1993. I converted it to road rally spec. ie: took the stickers off, put in my 1700 x/flow lump with 34 DGAS carb, back seat and carpet and it was ready to go. I only did a couple of road rallies in it...and the gave up.

Back to No5. Here it is being blasted for the second time.

Spec of No5:
Vulcan Engine
205 bloc 2060 cc
Cast pistons
Standard rods
Tracsport alloy sump
Lightened flywheel, Helix clutch
Wasp starter
Maxiflow 3 head
FR30 cam
Ashley 421 2 inch exhaust
Dave Brooks split 45's carbon air box

Tracsport 5 speed type 9 gearbox 2.48/1.61/1.225/1:1/0.82, single piece prop

Narrow semi floating atlas built by Andy from Arrow Engineering, 4.6 LSD

Rs2000 spec brakes but vented fronts/rear drums, bias pedal box, braided lines

Loom by Beagle Automotive, Racetec gauges,

Alloy fuel tank, twin pumps, braided lines

[JimKeogh]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

Just to add to my last post my shell is currently being painted......I have all the bits ready here to build it up.

I missed the suspension info:
Bilstein group 1. front 260/60 inserts 190 llb 10 inch springs, roller top mounts, alloy hubs, World Cup x/member cranked steering arms and twin cam anti roll bar, 2.4 quick rack and power steering byPower Steering Solutions
rear bilstein, single leaf decambered...not sure poundage , off 1300 auto, 90/100 llb? I didn't want 146 llb which seems to be the only offering wherever you go.

[mexicotait]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

Looking forward to seeing this getting built.

[JimKeogh]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

After blasting and epoxy priming the underneath was given a good coat of Mipa protector....its similar to Raptor I'm told.

[JimKeogh]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

Here's the shell loaded up and heading for paint.

[FrankC]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

Happy days

[JimKeogh]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5


The shell is now home ......I have most of the components here for building it and am realistically looking to have it running by next March.

[JimKeogh]

Re: Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

Sorry for lack of updates...its been one step forward two steps back. I stripped the axle (except pinion) as I didn't like the rusty look after it had been standing for year and a half ...so got it blasted...got a specialist to reset the pinion and then hand painted the casing. The tramp bar brackets were double skinned and a breather put on the diff cover plate as the original breather hole was were the tramp bracket wanted to go.
I made a mistake by taking out the firewall after the dry build ....we learn! I sealed the rear firewall with fireproof sealer....but can somebody tell how does a scutineer know that the sealer is actually fireproof?
Anyway the painter decided not to seal inside the boot before because I "didn't tell him to". Anyway I decided to continue on with my new sealing skills to the boot area with the fireproof sealer......another mistake as it has silicon in it and you can't paint over it. To cut a long story short I re-sealer the whole area of the boot and hand painted it...I was dreading the what the boot was going to look like but it turned out alright thankfully. At last I got that area sorted ..next up engine/gearbox in......now I'm stuck again. The rear of the gearbox is touching the tunnel ...see photo. I have a World Cup crossmember/brackets from Group 4 Fabrications. What is the done thing here? I'm thinking drop the engine cross member and elongate the 4 holes to straighten things up? Any advice here appreciated.