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Firstly I apoligise if this isn't even allowed in here but I thought it may be of some interest to people.
Having not looked or thought about the car for so long I thought it would help me to do a bit of a write up about it and give me the kick up the ar*e I need to get it finished.
3 or so years ago I had the urge to build a Mk2 Escort after owning one a few years before that. Some people may remember the original Escort I owned as it was built by REVS magazine and given away by them in 1996 (not to me I might add)
The original Escort :
I owned that for a few years, got myself into a spot of bother and decided to put it away and drop a Cosworth lump in it. Whilst trying to be half sensible about it I had the shell shotblasted and it was then I realised how shonky the original build was, there was literally a 2ft hole in the bulkhead, the inner wings were partially non existant and the rear of the car was in a similar state so that ended up on ebay and strangely made a lot more money than I expected !
A few years passed and this is when the new build came about. A shell came up for sale that I had been watching get built over on Passionford, it had been extensively restored and then had most of the group 4 fabrication (rally preperation) carried out. The owner at the time had been offered a complete painted shell that I expect was too good a offer to pass on so he stuck his on ebay and thats when I got my hands on it.
This is how the car was when I purchased it :
At the time the planned spec was a Cosworth YB with ridiculous h/p ( for a sub 1000kg car) then after that as I had been involved in the Vauxhall scene for so long I wanted to build my own 500hp C20LET (Calibra Turbo engine) as I felt comfortable that I knew what would be needed and could technically save a few quid from a: doing it myself and b: knowing far more Vauxhall suppliers than Ford parts suppliers thus making good savings again.
A few of those parts :
As time went on and I started to get out in a few well prepped Escorts I started to see the downside of having massive hp and only 2wd, it would of been ideal for drag racing but I'm into my track days more than drag racing and although the car could be setup to suit either I didn't really want a one trick pony so once again the engine choice changed.... quite dramatically !
At first I started to sell the turbo parts I had retaining the Vauxhall block as it was bored to 87mm, ran under piston cooling and was generally a good starting point, the head was well worked, running Arrow solid lifters, piper springs and retainers and +1mm oversize 214 valves and short of a set of cams would of made a ideal NA head but it was at this point I decided some of the other parts required would of involved costs getting towards 10k to build a reliable engine so I starting looking at other options.
So eventually after lenghty chats with several people I decided to turn to the darkside so I sold my cylinder head and with the money from that alone purchased a Honda S2000 engine and 6 speed box as the engine would produce more power than the Vauxhall would anyway yet not suffering from being a highly modified race motor with a short life expentancy.
Honda engine :
These engines are 2litre 16v, 240hp, 9000rpm rev limit, massively reliable and although you don't see huge gains in power from going to a set of Jenvey throttle bodies you do gain a lot in the midrange from having the ability to remap it. I expect to see approx 260-265hp with a 9500rpm rev limit on a mildly modified engine which should still be hugely reliable making it easier for me to use the car without the worries massive running costs etc.. good gearing should give the car the performance I need and hopefully keep the car quite competitive for sprints etc..
The ports on this engine are HUGE, the internals are perfection, I was a fan of Japanese cars but you have to hand it to Honda, it is one of the best engines on the planet (although I do not expect Audi owners to admit that ! )
This is the OE gasket over my ported head !
Whilst all these decisions on which engine to use were being made I had entrusted a local rally guy I know to finish the shell off to a suitable standard.
As I mentioned earlier the car had a lot of restoration done and other bits worked on so on his advise the car was sent to Surface Processing to be dipped to see exactly if it was as good as I first assumed. Once done the only real mark that had been hidden was a dent in the a-pillar which was sorted when the original roof was removed and replaced with a non sunroof skin.
The original owner had fitted a panhard rod but this was changed to a 6 link Watts linkage setup, as well as that the whole shell was stiched up and some Tarmac spec arches fitted, the cage was then welded in place (as it was a 14 point Works bolt in)
and extended through the bulkhead to the inner wings to stiffen the shell up as much as possible. Apart from all that brackets were made for the Corsa EPAS setup, chassis mounts for the engine were fitted and the floorpan had a exhaust tunnel fitted to allow more ground clearance.
Sadly picture wise I don't have any of the pictures of the freshen up and finish off due to the guys phone going missing so all I have are the 2 that were sent to me after it was painted in the orignal RS2000 black which is what the car started life as.
Here are the pics of the shell from purchased up until it went into storage about a year ago after I lost my job whilst owning Dests S2.
( the pink was primer over the fresh welds before it was sent away to be dipped )
Painted pic :
Custom suspension setup:
Full spec :
Shell :
1979 Ford Mk2 Escort RS2000
New RS inner Wings
New Floor pans
New roofskin
Acid dipped
14 point cage extended through to inner wings
Fully stitch welded
Gusseted
Turreted
6 linked
Big gearbox tunnel
Big diff tunnel
Exhaust tunnel
Seat bars and harness mountings
Firewalled
Tarmac spec arches
Grp 4 front spolier
Dry sump tank mounts
Engine:
Honda F20c engine
Jenvey throttle bodies
Custom dry sump kit
TTV Billet flywheel 7 1/4
Drivetrain:
Honda S2000 6 speed gearbox (possibly to be replaced with a quaife)
Helix 7 1/4 single plate clutch
Gartrac thick tubed full width Atlas axle, Quaife shafts, Plated LSD
Suspension:
Custom Gaz coilovers all round
Eccentric top mounts
Adjustable TCA's
Compression struts
Watts linkage
Brakes:
All to be purchased but AP fronts and Cosworth rears
Obviously the car is a long way off being complete financially but my aim is to see it completed this year, having a job has made a huge difference although taking on a house does seem to eat up most of my income but gradually it will get done and once I get the car back out of storage I should be able to throw some reasonable money at it every month allowing for some good updates.
Having not looked or thought about the car for so long I thought it would help me to do a bit of a write up about it and give me the kick up the ar*e I need to get it finished.
3 or so years ago I had the urge to build a Mk2 Escort after owning one a few years before that. Some people may remember the original Escort I owned as it was built by REVS magazine and given away by them in 1996 (not to me I might add)
The original Escort :
I owned that for a few years, got myself into a spot of bother and decided to put it away and drop a Cosworth lump in it. Whilst trying to be half sensible about it I had the shell shotblasted and it was then I realised how shonky the original build was, there was literally a 2ft hole in the bulkhead, the inner wings were partially non existant and the rear of the car was in a similar state so that ended up on ebay and strangely made a lot more money than I expected !
A few years passed and this is when the new build came about. A shell came up for sale that I had been watching get built over on Passionford, it had been extensively restored and then had most of the group 4 fabrication (rally preperation) carried out. The owner at the time had been offered a complete painted shell that I expect was too good a offer to pass on so he stuck his on ebay and thats when I got my hands on it.
This is how the car was when I purchased it :
At the time the planned spec was a Cosworth YB with ridiculous h/p ( for a sub 1000kg car) then after that as I had been involved in the Vauxhall scene for so long I wanted to build my own 500hp C20LET (Calibra Turbo engine) as I felt comfortable that I knew what would be needed and could technically save a few quid from a: doing it myself and b: knowing far more Vauxhall suppliers than Ford parts suppliers thus making good savings again.
A few of those parts :
As time went on and I started to get out in a few well prepped Escorts I started to see the downside of having massive hp and only 2wd, it would of been ideal for drag racing but I'm into my track days more than drag racing and although the car could be setup to suit either I didn't really want a one trick pony so once again the engine choice changed.... quite dramatically !
At first I started to sell the turbo parts I had retaining the Vauxhall block as it was bored to 87mm, ran under piston cooling and was generally a good starting point, the head was well worked, running Arrow solid lifters, piper springs and retainers and +1mm oversize 214 valves and short of a set of cams would of made a ideal NA head but it was at this point I decided some of the other parts required would of involved costs getting towards 10k to build a reliable engine so I starting looking at other options.
So eventually after lenghty chats with several people I decided to turn to the darkside so I sold my cylinder head and with the money from that alone purchased a Honda S2000 engine and 6 speed box as the engine would produce more power than the Vauxhall would anyway yet not suffering from being a highly modified race motor with a short life expentancy.
Honda engine :
These engines are 2litre 16v, 240hp, 9000rpm rev limit, massively reliable and although you don't see huge gains in power from going to a set of Jenvey throttle bodies you do gain a lot in the midrange from having the ability to remap it. I expect to see approx 260-265hp with a 9500rpm rev limit on a mildly modified engine which should still be hugely reliable making it easier for me to use the car without the worries massive running costs etc.. good gearing should give the car the performance I need and hopefully keep the car quite competitive for sprints etc..
The ports on this engine are HUGE, the internals are perfection, I was a fan of Japanese cars but you have to hand it to Honda, it is one of the best engines on the planet (although I do not expect Audi owners to admit that ! )
This is the OE gasket over my ported head !
Whilst all these decisions on which engine to use were being made I had entrusted a local rally guy I know to finish the shell off to a suitable standard.
As I mentioned earlier the car had a lot of restoration done and other bits worked on so on his advise the car was sent to Surface Processing to be dipped to see exactly if it was as good as I first assumed. Once done the only real mark that had been hidden was a dent in the a-pillar which was sorted when the original roof was removed and replaced with a non sunroof skin.
The original owner had fitted a panhard rod but this was changed to a 6 link Watts linkage setup, as well as that the whole shell was stiched up and some Tarmac spec arches fitted, the cage was then welded in place (as it was a 14 point Works bolt in)
and extended through the bulkhead to the inner wings to stiffen the shell up as much as possible. Apart from all that brackets were made for the Corsa EPAS setup, chassis mounts for the engine were fitted and the floorpan had a exhaust tunnel fitted to allow more ground clearance.
Sadly picture wise I don't have any of the pictures of the freshen up and finish off due to the guys phone going missing so all I have are the 2 that were sent to me after it was painted in the orignal RS2000 black which is what the car started life as.
Here are the pics of the shell from purchased up until it went into storage about a year ago after I lost my job whilst owning Dests S2.
( the pink was primer over the fresh welds before it was sent away to be dipped )
Painted pic :
Custom suspension setup:
Full spec :
Shell :
1979 Ford Mk2 Escort RS2000
New RS inner Wings
New Floor pans
New roofskin
Acid dipped
14 point cage extended through to inner wings
Fully stitch welded
Gusseted
Turreted
6 linked
Big gearbox tunnel
Big diff tunnel
Exhaust tunnel
Seat bars and harness mountings
Firewalled
Tarmac spec arches
Grp 4 front spolier
Dry sump tank mounts
Engine:
Honda F20c engine
Jenvey throttle bodies
Custom dry sump kit
TTV Billet flywheel 7 1/4
Drivetrain:
Honda S2000 6 speed gearbox (possibly to be replaced with a quaife)
Helix 7 1/4 single plate clutch
Gartrac thick tubed full width Atlas axle, Quaife shafts, Plated LSD
Suspension:
Custom Gaz coilovers all round
Eccentric top mounts
Adjustable TCA's
Compression struts
Watts linkage
Brakes:
All to be purchased but AP fronts and Cosworth rears
Obviously the car is a long way off being complete financially but my aim is to see it completed this year, having a job has made a huge difference although taking on a house does seem to eat up most of my income but gradually it will get done and once I get the car back out of storage I should be able to throw some reasonable money at it every month allowing for some good updates.
awesome cars just a shame the prices are so ridiculous now
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