Escort MK6 Track Car

[onenastyviper]

Hi guys, here is my car (well, it will be once I find the cable to link my camera to my PC).

Story so far:

Three escorts in the family all 5 doorers, mines a GTi (R reg), my Dad's is an LX (also R reg) and the thrid is another LX but N reg.

So, the idea is to convert the Nreg into a track day car.
Today, we stripped out most of the main interior bits. The only bits we did leave were the door cards, headlining and front bulkhead carpet stuff (it was getting dark and snowing).

The dashboard needs to be taken out so that I can remove the rest of the sound deadening carpet stuff. I can't be bothered getting rid of the stuck-on dampening pads nor am I going to get rid of the underseal as I am not interested in total weight savings.

Last week bought 2 mondeo mk3 calipers (and carriers) to perform a front brake upgrade to focus ST170 300mm discs. Apparently this is a simple conversion as all that has to be done is to open up the caliper carrier holes on the upright (spindle carrier) from 10mm to 12mm, the carrier then should bolt on straight away.

Both me and my dad have noticed is that the car is very wheezy compared to the other two escorts. We think this may be due to the narrow bore exhaust fitted so are hopefully going to get this changed soon. It also has cold starting issues where it does not maintain revs and can die but if you try to push it, it seems to flood.

Enough rabbiting, the general plan is to finish stripping the redundant junk out, fit the front brake upgrade, sort the exhaust and engine breathing and maybe fit some coilover suspension and polybushes (choices are Gaz or Spax for about £500 budget). We would like to put full safety gear into it but escort mk6, 5door roll cages seem as rare as hens teeth so if anyone has any ideas for roll cages, drop a message!.

People may think it is a bit of a waste of time doing mods on a car like this when others are available. True, but that would typically involve the expense of buying 'another' car besides, we are doing this to learn, if we mess something up, escorts are fairly common so parts should not be too difficult to find.

Oh well, on with the adventure...

[RacingDave]

sounds like a sweet plan dude, like you found out so easy to upgrade using easily sourced scrapyard/motor factor parts and not too heavy either. is it running a crossflow or zetec? if crossflow (valencia) can u drop the crappy standard efi and fit twin webers? looking forward to pics

[Twiddle]

A 3dr cage would fit maybe, i guess if its used for track days and has a cage back seat passengers are not going to happen?

there are a few custom cage places dotted about but i have been quoted big money for these compared to ready made items, twice the price plus fitting.

Love the plan of making summats out of summats you already have too and its the fact when trashing on track you have the satisfaction of knowing you made it what it is.

the ford parts bin is great intit!

[AdamP]

3dr cage probably wont fit through the doors.

[Twiddle]

good point well made.....

might go thro tailgate???

[onenastyviper]

Why won't a 3door cage fit through the doors?
They come in pieces don't they?
If its regarding rear seats then these are out anyway.

[AdamP]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Trebuchet, Arial,Verdana" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by onenastyviper</i>
<br />Why won't a 3door cage fit through the doors?
They come in pieces don't they?
If its regarding rear seats then these are out anyway.

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

The cages usually come in pieces small enough to just about fit through the 3dr doors, which are bigger than the 5 dr doors as the only have to fit one per side...