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News / Current
Status
Road testing -
preliminary race prep
Story so
far...
June 7th 2008 -
Installed FRP handling kit
One of the cheapest
and easiest upgrades to the handling is to fit the genuine Ford
Racing Puma rear axle handing kit. This widens the rear track
by 20mm with a couple of alloy spacers installed between the rear
beam and hub.
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.
May 3rd 2008 -
Upgraded air intake
Removed the inner
wheel arch to completely remove the massive and restrictive ducting
for the factory air box which stretches all the way back to the door
and weighs quite a bit. Some fire resistant ducting was then
run from the fog light hole in the bumper up to the K&N filter to
provide a clean and cool air supply to the engine.
March 29th 2008 -
Prepared for road
The Fiesta is now roadworthy! a new crossmember was welded in
place and the passenger wing pulled back into place after it emerged
that it had pushed into the A pillar causing the windscreen to pop out
and the door to leak.It's received a new bonnet, bumper and grille
and some paintwork as well as other bits and pieces like lights etc.
As the airbox was smashed up somewhat we replaced it with a K&N
filterkit and will use some ducting from the fog light holes to feed it
with fresh air for a tad more power.
It passed the MOT first time and is now on it's road trials to make
sure there's no hidden problems.
Sadly as Dominic has changed jobs and is trying to develop a new
business, the car will be confined to the road for the time being until
funds permit. With great sadness we've also had to say goodbye to
our tow car the Audi S8 as part of the fundraising exercise.
Hopefully we'll be back in action in a years time and maybe even
ready for the new season in time!
January 21st 2008 -
Road preparation
We've started stripping down the front end to get the car roadworthy
ASAP. Once the car's bank on the road we will then start race
preparation.Unfortunately the damage is slightly worse than expected
and we were not able to pull out the bent crossmember as we had first
hoped. Also the bumper is too mangled to be repaired. The
bonnet could also do with replacing but it's not essential.
List of parts required:
- Bumper
- Both headlights
- Radiator grille (all 3 parts of it)
- Radiator
- Radiator Fan
- Crossmember
- Gear knob
- Drivers wing mirror adjuster
- Steering wheel
The old crossmember did not want to be pulled back into shape so all
the spot welds have had to be drilled out and the beam manhandled away
from the car. The backing plate left behind, along with part of
the passenger side wing needs pulling sideways so that the front inch of
the chassis leg can be bent back into shape. Once the metalwork is
back in alignment we will then spot weld the new crossmember and then
everything else is just bolt on.
January 12th 2008 -
Bought Fiesta Zetec S
We've found our new project! It's a 2001 Fiesta Zetec S with the
revised 1.6 Zetec SE engine which is stronger and puts out a bit more
power than the earlier engine. Sadly it's an insurance write off
after having a small prang with it's last owner but that made it cheap
enough to buy. It only really needs a new bumper, a couple of
headlights, and a radiator in addition to the race preparation.
25th November 2007 -
Sold XR2
Well after a lot of head scratching and replacing most of the brake
system we've called time on the XR2. The brake pedal essentially
had no resistance from the master cylinder/servo and so kept going to
the floor with almost no braking force getting to the wheels. We
bought the last new master cylinder in the country and did a major
bleeding marathon but this had little effect. Due to a lack a
parts it's just not feasible to repair any longer and so we're now
looking for something more modern.
October 6th 2007 -
Lydden Hill race report
Our first event for 2 years didn't start well. The fact that this
was a car that had never been raced before, strapped onto a hired
trailer that we had never used before, towed by a car that had never
been used to tow before, and going to an event organised by a club that
we're not actually member of...was maybe a hint that things would not go
too well.Just collecting the trailer Dominic managed to swing the
larger than usual 500kg object around a tight corner and into some chaps
Toyota fortunately only resulting in a scratch. The morning of the
event our foot pump disintegrated followed by the air compressor,
leaving the XR2 with completely flat tyres. A trip via somewhere
that sold pumps was now required but this was not enough bad luck as we
got halfway out of town before we realised that we had forgotten all the
paperwork for the event.
Eventually we got our act together and survived the trip down to
Lydden with no further drama. Signing on and scruitineering went
well and qualifying then occurred after a very civilised break.
Qualifying was a bit of a shock to the system as Dominic struggled
with tyres that refused to grip after being unused for 2 years.
Being buzzed by some rather fast Mini's it was clear that something
special was needed to get a decent lap time. Eventually Dominic
recorded a best lap of 54.749 seconds to start in a 18th position in the
first race.
Race 1 was fairly uneventful apart from the crash between a couple of
cars at the hairpin which caused the red flags to be deployed within
just 2 laps. After the restart Dominic got on with the job of
improving the lap times and testing the car and although never managing
to catch up the rest of the he did improve the lap time to 53.327
seconds and finished in 12th spot.
For race 2 we lowered the tyre pressures to attempt to get a bit more
traction as the car was suffering from quite a bit of understeer, also
Dominic decided to raise the rev limit and see how the engine coped.
Again the race was uneventful for us but we gained some useful testing
time and further improved the times now down to 52.582 seconds - just a
second off the car in front and also 1 second off our best ever time at
the circuit which last time was done with a proper race engine!
September 29th 2007
- Entered race
We've now entered the BARC SEC Tin Tops round at Lydden Hill which is a
Double Header event on the 6th October. We've entered in class T3
which is for cars up to 1600cc and with slick "List 1B" tyres.We'll
let you know how it all goes for this first race in the XR2 this year!
July 15th 2007 - XR2
Ready
The XR2 is now race ready! we're hoping to enter some of the last
races of the season - finances permitting. We've still also got to
get a new trailer though as driving the XR2 to the circuit is not a very
sensible option even if it's still road legal!Over the coming months
we will be slowly upgrading the engine to extract some more power as
well as other minor tweeks that all race cars undergo. Our first
upgrade has been the installation of a Kent CVH33 camshaft with all new
hydraulic followers and topped off with uprated dual titanium valve
springs and seats. This has already lead to a noticeable increase
in performance and once we get some more upgrades in place we will be
getting a rolling road session arranged for the final tune up.
Some photos will be following soon as well as an update to the
technical spec page. |
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.
- Cat back
exhaust - possibly with sports Cat if budget permits.
- Coilover
suspension units with suitable springs.
- Engine bay
tidy up.
- Strip and
reduce weight.
- Roll Cage.
- Seat.
- Harness.
- Fire
Extinguisher.
- Electric cut
off switch.
- Timing
transponder.
- Engine
gauges.
- Proper
tyres.
- Race brake
pads and disks.
Race
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