20/06/2010 - Well the term "So close yet so far" pretty much sums up the weekend. We had a last minute problem with the flywheel the previous weekend so had to order up a different one on Monday. That turned up late so it was Wednesday night before all the drivetrain got put back in and a quick test fire to make sure the the car would flash up which it did with ease :) However the problems started occuing Thursday morning (the day of Scruteneering). We seem to be burning out the amplifers for the coil packs which we were able to replace with the help of a Friend. Pushing time a bit to get to scruteneering but we manged to get down to be the last car to be looked at which is always a worrying time as it is a new car and the first time the safety officials have looked at it. However it ran through without an issue. So in theory all we had to do is to finish balancing the carbs and await Saturday. Sadly that was to happen as we still appeared to be burning out amplifers which meant there was something wrong with the Weber Alpha ECU that controls the firing. So without a replacment there was no way we could enter. Bummed :(

We are now in the process of looking again at the the Megajolt ecu for ingnition controlling. This has been ordered and all we need to do is to rip out the current setup and build in the new system and try again. We'll hopefully have picture and a discussion about what is going to happen shortly.

29/05/2010 - omg over a month since the last update, time flies when you are having fun :) getting perilously close the the rally on the 19th June but should make it unless there is something catastrophic with the engine. so basically everything is fitted now and it getting ready for its first test firing. One minor issue of the gearbox mount will not fitting correctly now due to the engine moving forward slightly, the is roughly a one inch gap between the mount and the floor pan so it needs to got down to P.A.C.E. to have a bracket made up for it. following is a brief gallery of the progress (so very close!!!!)

Engine Install

29/04/2010 - Beginning of a slight redesign and a little reduction of the overall orange feel to hopefully a bit more subtle. I'll be adding some new galleries over the next few days that I haven't had up before due to being busy with other things.

Cam Cover painting
Exhaust Manifold
Exhaust System

28/04/2010 - Starting to add the ancillaries Gallery

14/04/2010 - A selection of photos from just after installing the new engine Gallery

13/04/2010 - Test fitting the alternator Gallery

11/04/2010 - Fitting some of the ancillaries like flywheel, water rail and alternator mount Gallery

01/04/2010 - Running a new photo gallery to hope simplify viewing and uploading new images, just click on the link and click on the desired image, there is a full screen icon in the top right hand corner to bring the whole gallery to the front useful if you have a small screen and its a bit cramped

03/09/2009 - The first batch of goodies have arrive from Retro Ford which are the engine mounts, Motorsport Sump and the exhaust manifold. very nice quaility and what I've liked about the RF parts is that they come with all the supporting hardware (Bolts, gaskets etc) have a gander at the but bu clikcing on the link

>31/08/2009 - Began the preparation of the engine now, we are still waiting on some of the parts but this allow some of the maintenance to be carried out. So have started with the cam cover, which had a fair amount of corrosion on it, which is fairly typical for the age and the exposed nature of the engine. So we have degreased it and remove the top layer of corrosion as the alloy was getting slightly pitted. So about two hours with a Stanley knife blade and it was nicely smoothed out. Once it has been cleaned again to remove any debris a few coats of etch primer have been applied and allowed to dry overnight in a warm room to cure properly before painting. Then using engine enamel to hopefully give it some long-lived again several coat were applied and allow to dry overnight. I've gone with just standard Black and it’s the easiest to deal with but may do something special with the lettering. Have a look at the progress at the following link

15/08/2009 - With the car effectively complate now bar testing it has come to light that the engine, our venerable XFlow, is beginning to let go. So with a few options available we have gone the modern engine route and have managed to source a Zetec engine. The jobs done so far and the coming layout check out the Rallycar section for more details under Engine from the menu. Apart from that we are just going through the process of setting the brakes, spring rates and general reliability before the first event whitch will be in November so plenty of time......

14/03/2009 - A number of small jobs finished now (These always take the longest) please follow the link to see what has happened recently. Couple of biggies coming up are to sort the routing of the rear brake lines to give them a bit more protection which will entail shortening them slightly and routing then to the rear of the axle. We also need to look at fixing the mud flaps front and rear as these, like the bumpers, are now mandatory. We have the brackets and the material we just need to create the templates to give them the correct shape and fix them to the car. Sounds easy but will probably take all day.

27/08/2008 - Works progressing well now. Car is basically there now, ran into a couple of issues recently that has held it up quite a bit such as a failed clutch release bearing after everything was in which entailed everything coming out again, the sump collapsed and ended up hitting the crank as it went around and the biggest was trying to get hold of a diff flange, initially we only though there were two sizes where it ended up being three and we managed to get every size bar the one we needed. we finally go one (thank you eBay :) ).

However this did give us time to look a couple of other areas that we were going to put off till we had more time but we went ahead anyway, we managed to get a geared starter motor to replace the aging standard one which is not only lighter and smaller it can turn the engine over even when hot and only draws between 2 and 4 volts when cranking which is a massive drop. this also means we can remove it without taking half the engine out like the current model. we have also had time to put a proper electronic speedo in now with an electronic sender unit on the gearbox. Pictures of all these are in the new build section which i have reordered to split the images.

30/04/2008 - refreshed the video section by uploading the videos to YouTube, check them out.

15/04/2008 - Pictures are now uploaded into the Installation photos from the Rallycar section

14/04/2008 - Slight redesign to the site now that I'm trying to catch up with updating it. Changes to the contents and I have replaced the Project section with the new Rallycar section to signify the next stage. Added a complete spec list to the new section and included a new section for the shell build and then everything else we have done since the prepped shell was returned to us.

Very close now as the pics will eventually show you once they have been properly catalogued then uploaded

27/02/2008 - Been a long why coming, where the Escort shell prep was meant to take 8 weeks it slowly slipped into 53 Weeks.....Doh. Oh well its prepped and painted and just waiting on us putting all the internals back in. To show it's current state I have put up a slide show of the progress from a standard shell with some nasty bit showing up after the shot blasting of the shell to basically Group 4.

Slide Show 1
Slide Show 2
Slide Show 3
 

There will also be a shell spec appearing shortly.

26/11/2004 - Added photos from the 2001 Jurby event from May of that year, as everyone in rallying knows that way foot and mouth season and this was a last minute replacement for the Manx National Rally that had to be cancelled. No text, but the pictures show we had a good time on that one.

Should also be adding a host of new videos from the years of rallying, there are currently a couple but no great quality. So after converting all our old videos to DVD I have some nice hi-quality videos to show.

2/11/2004 - The car has finally gone into the body shop to have the floors done and some modifications like the large gearbox tunnel and the mounts for the rollcage. Over the next few weeks hopefully I will be showing the work done.

8/10/2004 - Again some more updated and new sections within Body to do with the Paintwork and the Doors.

7/10/2004 - New section under project to do with Suspension and Brakes are now added and updated with a host of new information and pictures

29/09/2004 - slight overhaul of the main page and once I have that tied down then the rest of the site will follow. as anyone who has designed websites will know you can never get it right, just a series of compromises. but please stay with me...this will improve!!

30th July 2003

Things are swinging along a a great rate now, although I've a few minor set backs like the fact that I went to fit the suspension legs and found that my nice new eccentric strut top don't fit. basically the escorts had two different strut top holes (obviously large and small) and mine has the large so the strut top basically fits through the hole...Doh!!

But oh well what can you do!! but I have finally finished the fuelling system and oh boy shiny!!!! the battery tray and the spare wheel post as well, after I take a few photos for the website that should be the rear end finished. so I have so of the electrics left mainly just the bulkhead connectors. and because this month I have my pay rise, the back pay from May plus my bonus (all 2p of it lol) I have decided to get the rear disc conversion kit from RalDes. Basically all the callipers (rear cosworth type), the mounts and the discs, along with the Adj TCA and compression strut kit. A fine way to spend the best part of £600.

04th July 2003

we go a fir chunk of work out of the way recently. the passenger door is finally complete with intergrated navigator switches. that and the fuel tank is about 95% done with just the fuel line to be finished being plumbed in and the pumps done.

The front struts are now converted to the 21/4 springs with the eccentric top mount and the WXCM is assembles awaiting the new tca's

Once again the date has come and gone and the car still needs work to do. the only benefit that I have got from it is the fact that I have nearly everything I need to complete it, well as much as they even are!!! This has also allowed me to push the cars spec up a notch.

When I originally bought the WCXM I went for the Group 4 version however as I then found out that with the lowered rack mounts mean not away from the steering column but vertically down. This would then entail me lowering the column, and as my car will be tarmac spec I really didn't thing that was requirement. Rally Design were really good about it and Allowed me to swap it for a standard WCXM.

I was also going to put the TCA's back on with Poly bushes however with this extra time it has allowed me to purchase some instu-adjustable TCA's with Rose joints, tying this up I have also purchased a Compression strut kit to get rid of the Anti-roll bar, however this has also meant I have to up rate the Front Suspension. So I am going to convert the front struts to 21/4 inch springs (up rated from 190lbs to 200lbs to compensate with the extra body roll with the removal of the anti-roll bar) with alloy eccentric top mounts, I'm going to have so many shiny bits I'm not going to want to get it dirty!!.

Apart from that I am still wait from my new fuel tank and stand to turn up, apparently they are having supplier problems, however for the prices they are selling them at, I am happy to wait.

Well Finally given myself a deadline to get the car on the road and it a rally coming up in June, 14th to be specific. so been spending loads and working pretty much non-stop. front end has been changed fair significantly. A WCXM, Poly Bushes, Quick rack and a general tidy up of all the components. 

Pretty much finished the wiring, again just tidying them up wrapping all the wiring and putting proper connectors on. Also gave the car a quick re-spray as it had about four different blues on the car. Final thing is to spray up the engine bay and boot. I have finished the engine bay as that is now black on the top section and the blue from the top edge down.

Also have a roll cage to go in and a new shaped ally tank and stand. and for the rear axle a anti-tramp kit, with the helpful instruction from Classic Ford Magazine. have a look at the project section under body for the info about installing a strut brace.

I can't believe it has almost been a year since the last update, quite a number of fairly large projects on last year and only recently I have had the time and motivation to get any work done. I did have the car up and running until it was discovered that there was a leak in one of the block core plugs. so I just though it would be better to strip it all out and put the part that I wanted back in, so I have added some of the pics from what I have done so far. Project. 

Hasn't been updated for a while because I have been busy with work and all that. However I have been managing to get some time with the new project and there is an update of what has been going on with the rebuild so far. Project. I have also added pictures of the rally car after the crash, not a pretty picture. Rallying. The week after the rally we spent stripping the red escort with the running gear and then sending the shell to the scrap yard. Finally updates to the For Sale section.

Final result for the CCS 2002 have been added, normally wouldn't of bothered but seen as we haven't anything else to put in thought it would be nice filler.

Added a report from a decidedly short CCS Rally, with some pictures that will make you cry, well lovers of Mk 1 Escorts anyway. Report.

Updated the for sale pages as well, someone actually bought something, just need to get rid of the rest of it. For Sale

With the upcoming CCS Stages Rally on the 15th and 16th I have updated the site with the current entry list. This however can change over the next week or o with either people pulling out or late entries.

First Piece of news on this site might have chance to update it more regularly now, especially with the new car on the way. just a few notes on the section that have changed.

Rallying:

Having a few problems with this as only seem to have a limited space for pictures. UK online My Arse!! might have to se up another account for them. However some are there now.

Project

Most changes here with the new car on the way. add a few pictures of the new beast. and a spec list. more details about it when the car arrives plus some more pictures. changed the button because I like the thicker text, makes it easier to read. Added a for sale section for parts I don't need from the last project. hopefully adding pictures of inpidual items soon.