MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

[360phil]

As we're about to get our car back on the road after 2 years, I thought it was time to start a thread.

The car is co-owned by myself and my brother (Beany on here).

It's been in the family since 1981, and used as a rallycar since 1987.

I know the colour scheme won't be to everyones taste (not very retro), we painted it like this about 10 years ago, trying to copy the Seat Cupra works rallycars!

[360phil]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

The car is sitting a bit high at the moment - there's no engine in it yet, and the rear needs lowering a little.

We blew the 2 litre NA Cossie engine 2 years ago. The only salvagable bit was the crank, which is a short stroke steel item.

We've had a new engine built round that, but it's taken forever due to all sorts of reasons.

Whilst it's been off the road, we've made a few improvements, most of which have come from reading various threads and posts here on Turbosport.

We've had a new rollcage fitted, which picks up the suspension top mounts, and should make the whole thing much stiffer.

We've fitted a Corsa power steering column, which I would never have attempted until I read on here how relatively straightforward it is.

We're going to try different front suspension geometry, and play around with spring rates to improve the handling.

We swapped our semi-floating baby Atlas for a fully floating wide one (the early single bearing one - couldn't afford a twin taper one!).

We've added a flocked dash, and other bits and pieces which hopefully give it a better finish.

[northeee]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

very nice motor i could even put up with the colour scheme if it was sat on my drive

[360phil]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

We got the engine back this week....



And put it back in after we'd found all the bits that we'd taken off it over a year ago...

[exboyracer]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

Tasty looking engine that good luck with the rebuild

[sambo]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

Great looking engine there mate! All the best with it!

[Fridgeman]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

very nice car, not sure about the paint though, nice looking mill,so what spec is it,cc stroke etc,love the injection set up,after ideas on that front myself.

[360phil]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

Thanks for the comments (and for not being too harsh about the paint scheme!!).

The engine is now intalled, and the engine builder came round tonight to start it up with us (he insists on this, which is great).





The only issue was the starter didn't disengage, so will probably require shimming a little.

Brief spec of the engine is:

Big valve head, with L1 and DA10 cams

205 block bored out to 93mm, short stroke (72mm I think) billet steel crank, forged rods and pistons. This gives a capacity of 1956cc.

Slide throttle fuel injection and DTA management.

With it being a short stroke, it doesn't give huge torque, but the builder has played with the cam timing to try to give us a bit more than the old engine.

This is the first time we have had an engine professionally built (usually buy second hand, and before going to Cossies, we built our own crossflows), and up to now we're really pleased with the results.

The normally aspirated Cossie is being replaced with Duratecs, Honda's, and even Volvo engines in rallying, but hopefully we can still give it go. The Duratecs particularly are giving huge power and torque outputs.

Next week it will be going on the rollers to be mapped.

My brother has entered the Fat Albert Stages at Keevil airfield on July 31st, then in August I'm doing the Richard Burns Rally which I've wanted to do for a while now.

[Darbo]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

looks good

should sound well with the slide throttle

[sambo]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

Keep us posted with the results mate.

[360phil]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

We've had a busy and frustrating time with the car over the last couple of weeks, including taking the gearbox out 5 times to sort the clutch out.

Anyway, we're really pleased with the engine, which has now been mapped, and is giving 262bhp at 8248rpm, and 188lbft of torque. The torque figure is a big improvement over the last engine.

We had a short test with the car at an outdoor kart track in Preston (never got it out of 1st and 2nd gear), and have a list of problems/niggles to sort out before this weekends rally.

First impression is that the new engine pulls like a train compared to the old one, but we won't really know until it's out on the stages.

[Sunbmw]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

Nice looking car sir, are you still doing the RBMR? I did it in it's first year, cracking event, here is a video of me...............

[philip2]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

saw this on the trailer in tweeks the other day, looked very well, not sure if you were with a lad at the butty van when i turned up with the mrs or the tall lad at the counter:S lol

[360phil]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

Yeah, we're still doing the RBMR, can't wait. It looks like a great event. You're Beemer sounds fantastic, and you were certainly enjoying yourself. How did you find tyre wear? I've heard it's hard on tyres.

We were at Tweeks after picking up the car from the rolling road. I could have been the tall person at the counter, or at the butty van with my brother stuffing our fat faces!!

[360phil]

Re: MK1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car

Here's an in car of me doing the Jim Clark a couple of years ago (the engine blew on the next event, and I haven't rallied since).

We were last car on the road, having lost loads of time with fuel starvation. This was a very short stage, and about the only stage that the car didn't grind to a halt.