Pe-arce's Mk1 Ford Escort Beams Powered Race Car

[pe-arce]

Hey everybody. Thought I should update this as things have progressed a lot. 

Its been an eventful last few months.

I got the car finished and on the dyno in April.

First test drive up the road I lost oil pressure as the dry sump pump got jammed by a rogue piston oil squirter, ecu limped and i hit the killswitch within seconds.

Pulled the engine to inspect and thankfully it happened at low load and low rpm so we got away with only a single worn big end. Would've been catastrophic if it had happened a minute earlier when I was giving it death.

Got the engine back in the car with new big ends and a rebuilt oil pump at midnight before the first track test at Ruapuna.

First lap went out for a warmup, got round to pit straight and buried the foot, about half way down smoke started billowing out and filling the cabin. Everyone thought I'd lunched the engine but thankfully was only a loose oil return line spraying the headers. 

After a cleanup at motorsport solutions I got back out and got a solid 10 laps in. So much fun.

The test highlighted a few niggles that needed sorting but decided to race the following week at the ashburton street sprints.

Was having a shit load of fun but battling issues under brakes. Should've backed off for the weekend but pressed on until on run 3 I went into a corner too hot, got upset under brakes and hit the bails.  

Sooo gutted. 

Thankfully the people around me egged me on and I decided not to trailer it and got it fixed enough to head out for my 4th run. Still felt like there were some issues in front so pulled out of my run to prevent any further accidents/damage.

Back in the shed now and have started to panelbeat it. Hopefully have it fixed up over the winter and ready for testing before next season. 

Got a list of things to change and improve but will chip away. 

 

I can't be bothered sifting through my photos at the moment but will do soon.  If you want to follow what I'm up to there's a heap of photos and videos on my Facebook page Chopshop Motorsport. 

https://m.facebook.com/iamchopshop/

[pe-arce]

First event, run 2.

 

Dammit.

 

 

Quick string line wheel wheel alignment before heading back out after replacing a few bent and broken bolts.

 

Still got problems in the front. Better quit while it's only partially damaged. 

[pe-arce]

Couple of other pics 

 

 

 

[pe-arce]

Autosparks ashburton street sprint 2017 - Run 1 

 

This was about 10.30 in the morning on a cold drying track. First competitive outing on brand new semi-slicks. Was pretty tentative due to lack of grip.

 

 

[pe-arce]

Autosparks ashburton street sprint 2017 - Run 2

 

This was an absolute shocker. So many gear changing fails. Factory altezza gearbox and hilux diff not coping. Synchros were playing up and diff was behaving like an open. Need to make some changes.

 

 

[pe-arce]

 

 

 

[pe-arce]

Autosparks Ashburton Street Sprint 2017 - Run 3.

 

Unfortunately the gopro's sd card ran out of memory about 10s before i hit the bails. Bit gutted, wouldve like to see what the car and i were doing at the time.

 

 

[pe-arce]

Found the money tree again so I got the escort back to Burke's metal works for the fix up. 

 

 

Home looking sharp once again. 

 

 

all back together ready ready for testing again at ruapuna. 

 

[pe-arce]

Out for a wee hoon last Friday. 

Here's one of the better laps  

 

Still need to to increase the oil cooler size and add fuel surge tank. 

Youll hear I'm struggling to get power down with the hilux diff so got a Modifed centre from Rae emmerson that will go in on Friday with a new cw&p ratio to try get into 6th.