Right first I am going to say that this isn't strictly a drift car. It may possibly see more track driving or even drag racing but I thought you guys would appreciate the project anyway. We would like to use it for a some more drifting but due to the way its being built I don't think it will be eligible for many comps but I am sure we will be able to have some fun with it! So it pretty much starts here: An extremly clean MK1 Escort shell with the front end panels removed, the wings have just been fitted quickly as a mock up. and this is what will be powering it: A 350Z VQ35 engine that has had a few light mods and a remap to produce 311bhp. The VQ was chosen as it is quite a large capacity engine for its relatively light weight. There is also many tuning options avaliable to up the power in the future and it is coupled to a pretty robust driveline. So obviously this wouldn't be the easiest fit in an original MK1 escort shell so we have decided to build the car as a full spaceframe chassis. This should allow us to keep the weight as low as possible, it has also allowed us to choose our suspension and running gear freely. With this in mind we first decided to run an independant rear suspension set-up. We considered a few choices but wanted a readily avaliable, reasonably priced option. so... Yep your pretty much straight forward S14 rear subframe. This was an obvious choice as there are plenty about, they can be made pretty much fully adjustable at a low cost and with the addtion of GTR parts can be made to handle large amounts of power. Again at the front an S14 front set up was chosen for pretty much the same reason as the rear. Got hold of this lot to mock up the front: As you may have seen in the first pic the car already has the rear arches just mocked on the rear. You may have thought that they look a bit larger than the regular 'bubble' arches fitted to MK1 escorts. This is because a complete Zakspeed kit has been purchased (hence the project name!) to run on the car which will allow us to run some mega sized tyres for high levels of grip. So the next job is to consult with the frame builder and take numerous measurments to see how we will want to mount the running gear and suspension in the frame and then get cracking with constructing the frame as at the moment it is just a load of pipes! Will update as we go along!
i love the mk1 , my mk2 1600s used to drift lovely but now they are such a collectors car dude, should have retored it , sold it and pocketed the money for a big instalment. good luck with the projsct dude.
bit of a shame to chop up and ruin a good mk1 shell, would have been worth £3-4k alone if it was as good as you say. not sure why people dont stick to tried and tested cars that work, and save a hell of a lot of time and money. i have a mk1 escort shell that i will convert to full grp4 spec, and i will sell the shell for £12-14k alone. enough to build a 500hp drift machine no worries, just by bolting bits on! each to there own, will watch the project progress, but seems a silly choice financially!
Cheers man, Ya should be pretty cool when it is done! Cheers! I have been round escorts for quite a while and know the value of them far too well! We didn't just throw the bits that were cut off in the bin though they all went to keeping another escort alive. As for tried and tested, well thats all a bit samey isin't it and at this point a bit boring to me. I belive this will show up any similar weight/power escort with the old 'tried and tested' methods on the track. Financially this makes huge sense, For what you will sell that GRP4 shell for (I thought they were a bit cheaper than that tbh) we will have this whole car built and some racing done. Paying 3-4K for a fully built Atlas axle has nothing financially sensible about it when you can fit a rear axle that has much better handling charteristics and with the addtion of GTR parts can take far more power. Anyway, bit more progress:
yeah its nice to do something different i totally understand that, when u say the 12-14k i will sell the shell for will pay for your car to be built, the difference is that it will cost me around £5k to build that shell, and sell for 12-14k so a large profit involved for the time i put into building the shell. anyway, i hope it turns out to be a monster and as long as you have fun and its what you want to do then who am i to says its not the right thing to do lol. will keep an eye on the project, hopefully i can actually start making some progress on my mk1 shell at last, concentrating on building a caterham 7 with 220bhp throttle bodies and 6 speed box atm lol. escort next in line!
I think this project shows that money isnt the most inportant factor to some people! Dont forget that with this being such a unique car the guy could stand a lot more of a chance getting a good sponsership deal than others because his car will stand out! Good luck with the build- i look forward to seeing it finished
Dont you get the vast majority of your torsional stiffness from the depth of your chassis rails - considering its a ladder frame? Why are yours square? Watching with lots of interest My frame is very very similar but uses 2" x 3" main rails.
first of all i doubt hes gonna get a good sponsership deal with a spaceframe car thats not eligible for any drift series and most msa/fia series. and what do you call a good sponsership deal? spending £20k on building something 'different' to attract sponsers, and get given £500 quids worth of free bits for the car! im sure it will be a cool car once its done whatever anyones views on it are.
Ya as has been said here, the car isint being built with sponsorship in mind at all although we do have a couple of people on board already but the main reason the car is being built is to full fill a dream build that has always wanted to be done. If companies want to get involved that is great but it is certainly not the aim of the build.
if your building it as a dream build then money and time doesnt matter. every1 has certain cars they would love to build, and if this is yours then fair play. hope the project gets finished and ends up awsome.
Oh thats true, i didnt think about meeting regulations. Will definately be a nice car once finished though!
Yes unfortunatley regs may mean this won't be able to compete in many drift comps but hopefully it might see some drift action at some practice days or something.
