Team Highlights - 2001: Four podium positions, Summit Motors Award of Excellence.      2002 - Two podium positions.    2003 - Two podium positions.   2005-Oulton Park - Most Improved Driver.   2009-Snetterton - Best Prepared Car, 3rd in class x2.   hello@dr-motorsport.co.uk

                            

About Us/Car
2009 Calendar
Championship Position
Sponsorship
Gallery
News

Welcome to DR Motorsport

DR Motorsport have prepared and raced Ford Fiesta's since 2001 in the BRSCC Ford Saloon Car Championship and the BARC Tin Top Challenge.  Now on our 5th car - an immaculate Mk5 Zetec S, we will be gradually evolving this car from a insurance write off to a nimble class winning car.

We have appeared on Race & Rally UK on Motors TV, Five, And Men & Motors; as well as having had our races covered in Classic Ford magazine.  Being a competitive team we are always interested in your suggestions and feedback on developing our cars.

 

 

Recent happenings...

23/8 - News, 2009 Calendar updated

23/6 - Gallery updated

30/6 - About Us/Car updated

 

 

 

www.ten-tenths.com

www.thegrid.co.uk

 

Project: Fiesta Zetec S

 

Source suitable car

A 2001 Fiesta Zetec S was acquired from a local salvage dealer via eBay for the reasonable sum of £1200.  It has the stronger series 2 Zetec SE engine with only 60k miles, no sunroof, no air con and is in excellent condition except for the crash damage!

We shall keep the car standard for the time being which should allow us to race it in Class E of the Ford Saloons hopefully.

 

Fix Faults

The crash damage needed to be sorted out first.  Although the engine runs, there is no coolant in the system due to the bent radiator and as there is no history with the car there are some question marks.

  • Removed the broken bumper, grille and lights. 
  • Pulled out the top of the front panel and bottom radiator support to allow removal of fan and radiator.  Fortunately there does not seen to be any damage to the engine from the crash impact.
  • Removed the crossmember from the backing plate after drilling out all the spot welds. 
  • Tried pulling the chassis leg and backing plate back into shape but no joy.
  • Ordered new lights and fan.
  • Ordered new grille, bumper and radiator.
  • Removed damaged air box.
  • Changed oil and spark plugs - much easier to do with no bumper and radiator in place!
  • Bought slightly used K&N induction kit via eBay.
  • Fitted radiator and filled with coolant - engine now operational.
  • Hired trailer and took car to a bodyshop on Canvey to have the metal work properly straightened and painted.  New bonnet ordered to be fitted at the same time.
  • Ordered Gearknob.
  • Ordered steering wheel and boss kit.
  • Car now back at base and looking good!
  • Fitted assorted bits.
  • Now concentrating on getting the car road legal so am worrying about the airbag light on the dashboard - will it pass an MOT like this?
  • MOT inspector likes the car and it passed first time with only a slight tweek to the headlight beam.
  • Taxed and insured - now can test properly!

Test

All appears well except for a slow puncture in the front nearside tyre.  The car is fun to drive and engine is perfect.  Have now put about 2000 miles on the car.

The airbag light is still annoying.  Have tried removing SRS fuses and attempting to remove the bulb - but it's an LED.  May have to try the Homer Simpson technique of using some tape over it.

We may have joy by finding the SRS control unit which lives somewhere behind the dash but is nowhere where the manual says it is - will have to wait until the dash comes out during preparation then.

Also annoying is that all 4 wheels have completely different tyres on them - makes for interesting handling!

We will be keeping the car on the road while we are race preparing it as it's useful as a runabout.

 

Prepare

We are now planning the preparation and what toys to buy for the job.

Will need:

  • FRP Rear handling kit.  Done.
  • Coilover suspension units with suitable springs. Done.
  • Engine bay tidy up. Done.
  • Strip and reduce weight. Done.
  • Roll Cage. Done.
  • Seat. Done.
  • Harness. Done.
  • Fire Extinguisher.  Done.
  • Electric cut off switch.  Done.
  • Timing transponder.  Done.
  • Proper tyres. Done.
  • Race brake pads and disks. Done.

FRP Rear handling kit:

Although easy to fit in theory, it required using various combinations of sockets and extensions to remove the 4 bolts from the hub as 2 of the bolts were partially obscured by the damper which also made removing the ABS sensor a pain.  Once the drum was removed it was also necessary to drill out the 2 rivets holding the hub backplate onto the rear beam.  Now came the tricky part of threading through the new longer bolts through the beam, spacer, backplate and drum while keeping everything lined up.

Once fitted though there was a noticeable reduction in understeer and a more solid feel to the rear.

 

Coilover suspension units with suitable springs:

Have now ordered Gaz Coilover kit with 8" 300lb springs at the front and 9" 400lb springs for the rear.  Unfortunately they will take about 4 weeks to arrive as they are custom built to order.

Suspension now arrived - far quicker than expected!  Now need a whole weekend to fit, adjust and test.

After a full weekend the units have now been fitted starting with the easier rear end. The old units were removed with just 2 nuts holding each one on.  The top rubber donut was removed to be reused with the new units with the aid of spring compressors.  The ride height was set at 16cm and after some testing the dampers set at 10 out of the 24point bump/rebound settings.

The fronts were somewhat more difficult with the mounting point for the antiroll bar and brake pipe to contend with - however some serious bashing was required to knock the old damper out of the hub.  The ride height was set at the lowest possible which results in 12cm of road clearance.  Dampers were set at 10 as per the rears.

Strip & reduce weight:

Stripping out is the easiest but most time consuming job to do properly.  So far we have removed:

  • 14kg rear seats
  • 34kg front seats
  • 6kg stuck on sound deadening
  • 2kg sound & airbag/pretensioner wiring
  • 1kg nuts & bolts
  • 10kg heater & engine bay trim
  • 13kg carpeting & underlay
  • 1.5kg headlining
  • 19kg seatbelts & trim bits
  • 4kg surplus suspension parts
  • 2kg dashboard
  • 3kg rear wiper and motor
  • 16.5kg spare wheel & jack
  • Side trim, bumper, rear wheelarch liners

       Total so far: 129.5kg!

Engine bay tidy up:

The removal of the heater unit has left the heater control valve and the coolant hoses floating around the back of the engine bay looking rather messy and needs to be replaced which will also save a little bit of weight.

Also the 'evaporative emissions system' has been removed.  This is a system to recycle petrol fumes from the tank into the engine inlet via a carbon canister and hoses and valves.  All this does is weigh, impacts on engine performance, and is unnecessary baggage on the race track - so must go!  Fortunately it's quite a simple unbolt and unplug job at both ends of the car but did upset the ECU which lit up the Check Engine light.  A reset of the ECU seems to have cured the light in the end.

Preparation for rollcage and seat:

The cage was starting to rust already, so have given it a quick coat of hammerite to tidy it up a bit.  Unfortunately the front legs of the cage fit very closely to the A pillar of the Fiesta which means some modification to the dashboard is required.  This was compounded by the metal beam and support mounts that run through the dash being in exactly the wrong place, and so after taking the dash in and out several times we've now chopped off about 3 inches from both ends of the dash.  The support bar also has been chopped but the dash is still supported in the middle and in 3 locations under the windscreen.

The paint has now been ground away from the reinforcement plate positions to allow for welding and the door bars cut to length with the mounting positions marked on the cage legs which will need the fresh paint removed for welding up.  It looks likely that the door cards will not need modifying to allow for the door bars as we've positioned the bars to run in front of the recess in the door card above the door handle.

 

Having seen some other Fiesta's with the same OMP cage we've noticed a flaw in the kit we received and now installed.  Essentially the 'bolt in' feature of the foot mountings are upside down with the nut that the foot of the cage is bolted to being welded to the top of the reinforcement plate rather than underneath which other folk have received.

Now that doubt's of the mounting's safety have arisen with an impact possibly breaking the nut's weld and the cage foot then being free to deform into the car which is bad.

We've decided to enhance the safety margin by bolting completely through the car floor with higher tension bolts and with a sandwich of cage foot/welded nut/reinforcement plate/car floorpan/big washers.  Hopefully the scruitineers will approve!

 

Develop

Things to do...

  • Replace tow points with strap version - done.
  • Remove side strips - done.
  • Move video camera mount - done.
  • Remove engine bay sound deadening
  • Remove heat shield from exhaust
  • Source & install exhaust
  • Source & install strut braces
  • Source & install LSD

 

Copyright 2008 Ryan Group.  All rights reserved.