dirtbike
cutting, welding, bashing
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2003
- Location
- Cheltenham, UK
So I thought it’s about time I actually started a project thread, I’ve been on this forum long enough.
So…
It started back in 2003/4 when I decided that I should put my plans into action.
A Volvo turbo powered Mk1 Escort.
While it’s not a Volvo it’s very much Volvo powered.
The UK Escorts of this era had a kerb weight of between 1900 and 2100lbs depending upon which engine and option were spec’d.
I don’t think the car will be as light as that once finished due to the larger heavier duty items that have been used to replace the weaker Escort components.
Phase 1
The first phase was to aquire the car, after about 6months hunting around I settled on this one I currently have.
Here is a shot of the car as I picked it up on the trailer:
Initially I was simply going to cut up the engine bay and trans tunnel in order to make the engine fit between the narrow wings of the Escort and leave the back end leaf sprung.
The first job was to modify the front panel to allow the intercooler to fit.
After this work was completed I decided that I should address the rear axle as the original Escort English axle is known to become a weak link anywhere north of 150bhp, I managed to source a Ford 8” axle (baby version of the 9” axle) that had already been narrowed to somewhere close to the Escorts stock axle wdth.
Whilst I was at it I decided that I should also relocate the dampers, as the stock damper location is at a 45 degree angle mounted to the bottom of the boot floor. So holes were cut in the inner wheel arch so that the turrets could be fabricated.
At this point I decided to pull the car from the guy that was doing the work as lots of time and money were passing and not a huge amount of progress was being made so I relocated to a friends old workshop and began working on it myself.
I was expecting traction to be a problem so whilst I was in there cutting things about I thought that it was probably a good idea to make some provisions for the axle tramp that was almost certainly going to be a problem, to solve this I made some radius arms that ran from the top of the axle into purpose made boxes welded into the rear floor where the rear seats would ordinarily reside, the idea is to stop the axle rotating and cause the leaf springs to wrap up and then release causing axle tramp/hop.
I began working on the interior and focused on the seats. I managed to get hold of a couple of Cobra Suzuka seats for a really good price, they were ex display and were advertised as GTR width (fat b*stard size) the only problem was that when I got them home and measured them I found that although they were labelled up as GTR width they were in fact standard width so I had to look at selling them on and finding something else. Lady luck was on my side I managed to sell them on and make a little and I then happened upon brand new delivery mileage only pair of Honda Civic Type R seats. The sub frames were modified to fit the brackets that I’d made and welded to the Escort floor.
I decided that I would have my friend that was capable of welding modify the inner wings to give me some more room in the engine bay as well as provide a good air intake path for the turbo.
My attentions now turned to brakes.
Because of the severity of the bulkhead modifications I could no longer use an escort pedal box so I decided that a wilwood reverse mount pedal box with clutch pedal was going to be perfect for my needs.
2 brackets were welded on the bulkhead to allow the pedal box to be mounted onto the bulkhead. This took many hours of positioning and propping up with blocks of wood to get it into the correct position.
With the pedals now mounted I decided that I need to work out what brakes I’m going to use on the front as the stock 247mm solid discs were not going to be up to the job (I knew this from my previous Escort running vented 247mm discs with stock calipers).
Fortunately as I was having this dilemma I read an article in a magazine about relocating the disc to the front side of the hub so that it is sandwiched between the wheel and the hub. The logic behind this states that the alloy wheel acts as a huge heat sink, sucking the heat from the discs, the stock location for the disc on the rear of the Escorts iron hubs and is probably the biggest reason that brake fade and warping is an issue.
The company (caprisport)championing this conversion had a kit available, it consisted of a 283mm Ford Sierra Cosworth front disc and a Ford Mondeo(Contour) Caliper with an adaptor bracket.
To use this brake system I had to upgrade the wheel size from the 12” steels that came with the car to at least 15” wheels.
EBay turned up a set of Compomotive ML’s for a reasonable price.
I test fitted them and they were a tight fit on the rear, they were also advertised at an incorrect offset so I was a little disheartened by this set back.
After I’d stewed on this gaff for a little while I decided that it was probably a good idea to upgrade the axle shafts to something more suitable for drag racing and while I’m at it I’ll get the axle casing narrowed thus solving my rear wheel fitment options.
So I contacted Hauser race cars and commissioned them to narrow the axle by 20mm per side. This solved the issue of rear wheel fitment and allowed me to fit 239mm solid rear discs.
So…
It started back in 2003/4 when I decided that I should put my plans into action.
A Volvo turbo powered Mk1 Escort.
While it’s not a Volvo it’s very much Volvo powered.
The UK Escorts of this era had a kerb weight of between 1900 and 2100lbs depending upon which engine and option were spec’d.
I don’t think the car will be as light as that once finished due to the larger heavier duty items that have been used to replace the weaker Escort components.
Phase 1
The first phase was to aquire the car, after about 6months hunting around I settled on this one I currently have.
Here is a shot of the car as I picked it up on the trailer:
Initially I was simply going to cut up the engine bay and trans tunnel in order to make the engine fit between the narrow wings of the Escort and leave the back end leaf sprung.
The first job was to modify the front panel to allow the intercooler to fit.
After this work was completed I decided that I should address the rear axle as the original Escort English axle is known to become a weak link anywhere north of 150bhp, I managed to source a Ford 8” axle (baby version of the 9” axle) that had already been narrowed to somewhere close to the Escorts stock axle wdth.
Whilst I was at it I decided that I should also relocate the dampers, as the stock damper location is at a 45 degree angle mounted to the bottom of the boot floor. So holes were cut in the inner wheel arch so that the turrets could be fabricated.
At this point I decided to pull the car from the guy that was doing the work as lots of time and money were passing and not a huge amount of progress was being made so I relocated to a friends old workshop and began working on it myself.
I was expecting traction to be a problem so whilst I was in there cutting things about I thought that it was probably a good idea to make some provisions for the axle tramp that was almost certainly going to be a problem, to solve this I made some radius arms that ran from the top of the axle into purpose made boxes welded into the rear floor where the rear seats would ordinarily reside, the idea is to stop the axle rotating and cause the leaf springs to wrap up and then release causing axle tramp/hop.
I began working on the interior and focused on the seats. I managed to get hold of a couple of Cobra Suzuka seats for a really good price, they were ex display and were advertised as GTR width (fat b*stard size) the only problem was that when I got them home and measured them I found that although they were labelled up as GTR width they were in fact standard width so I had to look at selling them on and finding something else. Lady luck was on my side I managed to sell them on and make a little and I then happened upon brand new delivery mileage only pair of Honda Civic Type R seats. The sub frames were modified to fit the brackets that I’d made and welded to the Escort floor.
I decided that I would have my friend that was capable of welding modify the inner wings to give me some more room in the engine bay as well as provide a good air intake path for the turbo.
My attentions now turned to brakes.
Because of the severity of the bulkhead modifications I could no longer use an escort pedal box so I decided that a wilwood reverse mount pedal box with clutch pedal was going to be perfect for my needs.
2 brackets were welded on the bulkhead to allow the pedal box to be mounted onto the bulkhead. This took many hours of positioning and propping up with blocks of wood to get it into the correct position.
With the pedals now mounted I decided that I need to work out what brakes I’m going to use on the front as the stock 247mm solid discs were not going to be up to the job (I knew this from my previous Escort running vented 247mm discs with stock calipers).
Fortunately as I was having this dilemma I read an article in a magazine about relocating the disc to the front side of the hub so that it is sandwiched between the wheel and the hub. The logic behind this states that the alloy wheel acts as a huge heat sink, sucking the heat from the discs, the stock location for the disc on the rear of the Escorts iron hubs and is probably the biggest reason that brake fade and warping is an issue.
The company (caprisport)championing this conversion had a kit available, it consisted of a 283mm Ford Sierra Cosworth front disc and a Ford Mondeo(Contour) Caliper with an adaptor bracket.
To use this brake system I had to upgrade the wheel size from the 12” steels that came with the car to at least 15” wheels.
EBay turned up a set of Compomotive ML’s for a reasonable price.
I test fitted them and they were a tight fit on the rear, they were also advertised at an incorrect offset so I was a little disheartened by this set back.
After I’d stewed on this gaff for a little while I decided that it was probably a good idea to upgrade the axle shafts to something more suitable for drag racing and while I’m at it I’ll get the axle casing narrowed thus solving my rear wheel fitment options.
So I contacted Hauser race cars and commissioned them to narrow the axle by 20mm per side. This solved the issue of rear wheel fitment and allowed me to fit 239mm solid rear discs.
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