My Escort..........

[Nickh]

Last time out at Down Ampney near Cirencester.........disaster with my licence which explains the 00 on the door

Car is 2.0 Pinto on 48s, BV head, lightened. balanced, around 155bhp at the flywheel, 5 speed Quaife Pro box, Atlas axle, 4.6 ZF motorsport diff, 4 pots, Bilsteins, rear coil overs etc.

Cheers
Nick

[Graham]

Re: My Escort..........

looks good mate got any more pics?

i take it the 00 is you forgetting your licence so being course car and not actually competing? just guessing as i'm not a ralllying in man myself

[Cosnada]

Re: My Escort..........

Nice Escy there and being used properly

Get some more pics sorted!

[Nickh]

Re: My Escort..........

Thanks lads! Didn't forget my licence - MSA sent the wrong one! Did I check it? No........

Was allowed to run as second course car but not taking any stage times.

I'll get some photos up asap!

Cheers

[PIG]

Re: My Escort..........

nice looking mk2 there m8

[Cosnada]

Re: My Escort..........

Hi,

Not just pics - spec and a bit of ownership history and build phases etc

[smokeybeansie]

Re: My Escort..........

nice mk2, based on the belga colours?

[Nickh]

Re: My Escort..........

Didn't specifically base it on the Belga cars for colour.......just happened really. I bought it originally as a project/investment and never intended to compete with it. It was a hillclimb car and was sold to me by Paul Miles who was a bit tired of it and was leaning towards Audi Quattros. So I relieved him of it and set about converting it from hillclimbs to stage rallying. It had an English axle with 4.1 lsd and a 4 speed Tranex box, Leda front struts, Spax standard rears, leaf sprung, drum brakes, and M16 calipers with solid disks. Axle located by tramp bars and a panhard rod. The engine was a bit clever and produced about 155bbhp at the wheels which was ok for a Pinto I guess - probably in the region of 190 AFW with maximum revs around 7500. As much as I'd want to go without dry sumping even though it would probably go round to 8000 for short periods.
The car in it's hillclimbing days is actually here.......

http://www.spannerfodder.com/the_works_escorts-car-paul-ms.php

The plan was to convert it legally to stage rally spec leaving the running gear as it was and see what happens. First event was Colerne 2005 which is a huge airfield with nothing to hit and miles and miles of grass to go off on! As this was my first event for ten years it was perfect until the very first stage and the engine was banging the rev limiter in top very quickly after accelerating away from the corners.......unfortunately it let go with some large bits of piston breaking away and a big cloud of smoke and steam! So that was that.......as I was never very happy with the basic spec of the car I rebuilt the engine using the same head and set about locating some decent running gear for it and doing a major GP4 conversion over the winter of 2005/2006. Eventually managed to source a 5 speed Quaife Pro box and also an Atlas then set about the car with an angle grinder and a welder and ended up with a nice 5 link set up with GP4 round turrets for the coil over rear end. GAZ rear dampers with 170lb coils were picked as a starting point and after Down Ampney recently found it was good choice of spring/damper. This left the front suspension with the shonky old LEDAs which were junked and a new pair of GP4 Bilsteins sourced with 220lb coils.

The braking was also obviously well below par and went for a pair of Hi-Spec 4 pots and 10.25" discs from Peter Lloyd and Escort Mk3 front brakes at the rear with cables attached through a hydraulic handbrake.


So that's basically it - at Down Ampney found it was very easy to drive, turned in well, very controllable and predictable. Rode the potholes very well and went largely where I pointed it! Probably the best handling rally car I've ever driven and straight out the box too!

As for the colur scheme, before I bought it, the previous owner had put on a brand new front end, wings, front panel etc. As the first event was looming I needed to paint it quick so rather than spray all of it........thats why the front is white and back half is red!!!


More pics from Down Ampney can be seen here........

http://www.edpphoto.com/bpmotors06%20car0-20.HTML/index.htm

The bonnet is the result of someone not pinning it properly!

Not too much development planned for it now except in the engine department - have a Cosworth YB head in the garage just crying out for a Pinto bottom end! More £££££££ to spend......

Cheers
Nick