SR20 Mk2 Escort

Here is one of the high speed entries into Brooklands.. It just nips the limiter on the flick, flat in 5th. With current gearing, this means around 135mph

Also, for a further sense of speed, keep an eye out for the bridge which the BDC lot used as their start line.. by the time they would be setting off, I was already over 100mph and accelerating hard

Following Ford fair, car was parked up for a bit and used for a few trips to work.


Yesterday, I made the trip up to good old Buxton to have a play and get some stress free twinning practice with Mike now he was ready to test his SR-E30. Got there in the morning and it was hot (For Buxton) and sunny. We got a few runs in, messing around which were great fun but I was having trouble with the front brakes grabbing and binding.

Chasing Mike…





IMG_1140 by Alexander Dunlop, on Flickr

Next session out it spat all its water out and the front brakes jammed on, leaving it marooned in the gravel car park…. Arse. We free’d off the callipers to move it and then started stripping it to find the problem. The callipers were fine so it all pointed to the master cylinder. I had a spare so we set about pulling the pedal box out to replace it (ball ache of a job to do in a windy gravel car park. There was a big airlock so the coolant was all bled through until it was all good again.

Managed to get the brakes all back together just in time for the comp, so loaded up with tyres and drove over to the holding area, hoping it would now work! During the briefing for the track layout, it absolutely pissed it down, turning the rubber covered track into an ice rink. The track layout flowed really well with a good mix of speeds tbh. Off start line, roll round corner one then pin it at drag cone into bottom corner, link diagonally across infield, outer clip on entry into top corner, into infield on exit then flick right then slow it down into hairpin.



The hairiest bit was the diagonal across the infield as this is a quick entry into a steel/concrete wall across a big bump and change in surface.

Haven’t given it full abuse in the wet for ages so the first battle (no practice laps) was a bit sketchy. I set off from the start saying I would take it easy but it didn’t really work out haha. Grip was up and down depending on the surface so it made the track even more technical.

I had some great fun battles and ended up taking the win. ?

I think a lot of people turn their noses up at Buxton but with track layouts such as this it can be very challenging/rewarding and is great fun to drive for any level of car / driver. In the dry you can get some serious speed entries if you are brave enough. It was great to see a load of old faces there and also the new faces too. There was some great driving (hats off to the MX5 lads that were wicked to watch with proper driving styles) and it was also good to see a few “shiny” cars there being driven hard (dispelling the myth it is a missile track).

 

Since it’s last drift day I have been sorting out a few problems on the car.

I noticed at Buxton it was randomly running like absolute crap, mega rich and miss firing. I used it for work one day and ended up turning round and leaving it at home as it was so bad. Looking over the car there was nothing obvious so I plugged in the laptop to the DET3 to see what was happening. Straight away, I noticed that the voltage was at 16,8 volts when running! Traced this down to a break in the alternator wiring so I repaired that and tried again.. all sweet now.. phew. It destroyed the battery but thankfully all of the other electrical equipment still works.

The next outing was at Castle Combe for Rallyday, a big yearly show for rally (and other cool) cars. Combe are strict on noise so I re-fitted the quiet exhaust. I had only ever mapped it on the 3” straight through so I spent a few days logging and tweaking with the quiet exhaust on to ensure it was running nicely. Boost was set up around 1,0bar on the mbc. This gave a peak/spike of 1.2 then tail to 0,8 at high rpm (Next year I will control this with the DET3 and make it more consistent.) The result was around the 300hp mark and it drove really really well.

Rallyday started well. Was out on track for the opening session at 9am. Track was patchy as there was lots of mist and dampness the night before. The car was mega and despite being on budget 175/60r13s at the back, it was doing very well compared to the rally cars. Towards the end of the session, I was coming down into camp corner and on the downchange from 5th > 4th it had a bit of trouble going in.. Next lap round, did it again and when clutch was back out again… nothing.. Doh. 3rd/4th selector had broken, leaving just 1st/2nd/3rd left 

I got to the end of the session and headed back to the paddock. Some phonecalls around and there were a few options for the box but it would take a few hours until it would be back on track. With the next session approaching I though fuck it and just headed back out, just using 5th.. This wasn’t actually that bad tbh! It required some aggressive lines through the chicanes and a bit of clutch kicking but still managed to overtake pretty much all.

We were specifically told “DO NOT DRIFT” in the briefing so I tried not to go mental. From in the car it felt more like slight rally style power slides, but from outside looked like this haha



After this, had a go at the rally stage which was a fairly tame thing with some tarmac, some mud and some hay bales. Went at it flat out which was great fun combining drifting wit going as fast as possible down a thin lane. Then, right by the finish there was a sort of roundabout made by some bales, on some broken tarmac/mud. I drifted in and round then on the joint between the loose and the tarmc.. BANG.. halfshaft smashed..

After this, the 1 wheel drive, 3 speed escort was loaded back onto the trailer and I then had the rest of the day to wander around.

Shame the car broke and due to lack of garage yet, this will be the last time it will be used this year.  Next stage is to get garage built (Planning is submitted, just waiting on result) then crack on with a full strip and rebuild in the new year.

I will update with some pictures how it stands now, after enduring all the abuse. Plans for next year will be to sort the body shell, develop the suspension further and have a proper play with the ALS

Cheers