RS Motorsport :: Classic Speed Restored

A milestone weekend - the "new" car is off the rollover jig, doors, guards and bonnet have been fitted.



and some bling....






A few minor issues like the bottom radiator outlet fowling the dry sump pump but I have plenty of room to bring the radiator further forward. Now the dummy build can commence - wiring and plumbing first.

Where did you get you get your spit from as gave mine away after my last project but bought another escort so gonna need another rollover jig?

Moose: It's a homemade job from some scrap steel I got from the local salvage yard. It's over engineering structurally but not very well balanced (the car tended to roll onto its roof unless constrained )

It was Targa West this weekend - I sat in the silly seat next to Paul Bartlett in his regularity Mk1 (basically a road car):

Lovely looking car!

1 week late - but here's the Targa West event report.

Targa West started for us on the Thursday afternoon at a very wet RAC driving centre. Traditionally this had been the prologue, but for this years event they decided to make this stages 1 to 3. We had used the Escort for finally reccy that morning and driven back to rally HQ for scrutineering re-present (indicators) and the car felt good. Then on SS2 we lost all power down the straight. A quick check after the stage and all looked OK and the engine seemed to rev OK so we decided it was just a spot of water. Back out for SS3 and it was exactly the same (this time we got passed by two cars). Fortunately we did not have overnight parc-feme so we could take the cars home without penalty. After 4 hours of swapping out ignition components and replacing the fuel system we discovered the #1 venturi grub screw was missing.

Day 2 started well with the two Caversham stages and the famous zig-zag up Kalamunda hill. We then started the longest stage Kalamunda 1 and the throttle stuck at around 5000rpm. This made breaking for the low speed chicanes a challenge and at one stage we were driving along with the right foot under the accelerator pedal and the left on brake trying to slow it down. Back at service we noticed the cable sleeve had popped out of the ferrel at the carby end effectively reducing the free play by 10mm - an easy fix (or so we thought). We also got pinged for speeding in stage - bugger! Zig zag 2 went well with us taking 10 seconds off our first run time - we then headed back to Kalamunda 2 and had exactly the same issue. This time we cable tied the throttle cable to try to prevent bounce, taped the sleeve into the ferrel and add extra ties at the firewall to stop the cable slipping. The final runs back at Caversham seem to go well.

Day 3 was out to Toodyay for some fantastic stages. The first stage went well and we have a nice breakfast in Toodyay while the boys checked over the car. We took off on the start line for Racecourse 2 and immediately dropped into 3 cylinders - at the end of stage we found #1 lead flopping around on top of the extractors. Well an easy fix this time and a one carton fine to the service crew. We then headed off to the new Coondle stages and the throttle issue re-emerged. On having a close inspection I noticed the drop link between the linkage and carby had no tension at all, so the only effective return springs were the in board springs inside the webers - this started to make sense. We battled through the next 3 stages using the right foot to manually return the pedal to reduce the revs. At service we shortened the drop link putting tension on the two major linkage springs and all seemed good. The next stage had a nice long uphill start and the car was an absolute dog, downhill it seemed OK but still down on power. Of course in shortening the drop link we had reduced pedal travel and were only getting 3/4 throttle. Again back in service it turned out the pedal throttle stop was also loose and had wound itself out, so a slight bend on the pedal and an adjustment on the stop and finally all was good. We ended day 3 with 4 excellent runs through the Bullsbrook stages. Along the transport we noticed the diff getting very clunky, especially around slow low speed corners. Overnight (thanks to Racetune) we fitted a new centre ready for day 4. The old diff looked ok but we suspect the TranX centre had lost all pre-load.

Day 4 was 3 runs around the Malaga industrial area followed by 3 runs around the Perth foreshore. Again the car now performed faultlessly and we cruised home for a finish. So while it was far from a smooth run we did manage to complete every stage and to top it all off we even got a trophy:

A few pictures from Collie the other weekend - I had a good run but did miss one event due to a faulty alternator, a spare battery was quickly located and I managed to get out for the last two events.



I'm still progressing slowly with the new car:

love the pic of the mk1 corty all locked up
was he trying to keep up with you paul ??
ps
nice looking watts linkage setup

Last weekend I managed to tick off another bucket list item with an entry in Rally GB (albeit the National 3 Day event following the WRC). We finished a creditable 15th outright in an E36 BMW M3 with a 171000 mile old engine against a lot of much more expensive machinery. We had one off (on my side) which resulted in us running the last 4 stages without a rear left shock absorber after it smashed through the inner wheel arch. My aim was to reach the podium so I was happy.



Here’s some of the competition:


My favourite:


BDG anyone?

That’s a dream experience other than the cold weather . The beema looks like a sleeper rally car you could nearly getaway driving it to work and back

Dylan Davies ex-Solloway yellow Mk1 is my dream car to Paul. I hope my fellow country men welcomed you and let you experience some warm beer?

Mark

Paul whats the alloy tank in the engine bay for?

Hi Danny - That's the oil catch tank for the dry sump.

Yeah I know whats it doing there are you trying to make the nose as heavy as possible?

Plus it blocks the clean airflow to the intake....

Kick it to the boot

Not enough grunt!
If I was allowed to use a Cosworth alloy YB block then we're in business

A few pictures from last week.

I had a detonation issue which I'm hoping was just a bad batch of fuel. The rear seal appears to be leaking again so I'll pull the engine over the Xmas break and give it a once over. I also just found a dribble of gearbox oil on the trailer bed so that'll need checking out too.