Roger Miller
Adelaide South Australia
Mk1 Escort RS 2000 class 2E
Class 2E 1600-2000cc Escort Club Car
I guess automotive flair is in my blood, as my
dad was always interested in cars and motorbikes. He used to race
TQ's (three quarter- midgets )which are now called formula 500 at
the now defunct Rowley Park Speedway here in South Australia.
I purchased a Ford MKI Escort sedan 1974 model
in August 1997. I have always been a "Ford man" building
up a MKIII Zephyr and Ford Fairmont XR from scratch.
I knew very little about Escorts. Two of my brothers
had MKII Cortina's and one of my mates had a MKI Escort, which I
did some work on.
Escort was set up for Club Car use, and was actually
raced in 1990-91, however was rebodied after an accident. It has
a Ford 2 Liter Single Over Head Cam engine, 4-speed gearbox, Banjo
style differential, and brakes from a MKII Escort. Engine was built
by Adelaide's Bill Hanson. It produces 175hp at 7200rpm + 152ft
LBS torque at 5200rpm. It is equipped with 2x45mm DCOE Webbers on
Lynx manifold complete with K+N filters. TRW high compression pistons,
standard conrods and crankshaft, with ACL bearings, all balanced.
Original head, fitted with 38mm + 44mm valves of
stainless steel. Crane 310-8 with 3500 - 7500 rpm effective range.
Head has been extensively modified, with putty added to inlet tract
to "trick" airflow. Inlet ports flows 106 CFM at 10"
of water and exhaust ports flows 81% of inlet to produce a theoretical
horsepower figure of 183. Compression ratio of 11.8:1 dictates that
engine runs on Aviation fuel of100 octane.
Gearbox is mostly standard except for high ratio
gearlever system. Differential is equipped with varying ratio limited
slip centers, as required. It is attached via reset lowered springs
of 120lbs per inch of travel,
Twin Cam Escort style traction bars and single
piece tailshaft.
Rear brakes are mainly standard parts. Front brakes
consist of standard rotors, standard calipers with Ferodo competition
pads, which work very well I might add, no vacuum servo is fitted.
Front suspension alignment varies from standard,
in that now Castor = -4 degrees, camber = -2.5 degrees, Toe = zero
( straight ahead ). Twin sway bars and 480lbs per inch travel springs
are fitted. Pedders modified, very stiff struts with roller top
mounts from MKII GT Cortina are employed.
Wheels and tyres are performance spitfires of 13"
x 7" with Yokohama 205 x 60 x 13 in A008rs.
A 4 point mounting roll cage is fitted to interior
with race style seat and
4 point mounting harness. Electrical switches are
mounted onto a panel on transmission tunnel so they can be accessed
when strapped in.
Twin cam type front mudguards [body style type
49] are fitted with similar fiberglass flares fitted to rear.
Current best lap time for Mallala is 1min 28secs.
Car is currently undergoing complete rebuild incorporating
many changes, all with close reference to CAMS rulings for the class.
Body is seam welded with over 300 welds, this is said to stiffen
car by 10% alone. Roll cage is being redesigned to stiffen body
further. It incorporates 10 mounting points.
I have replaced early MKI rear shockers with ones
from later MKI as these are more vertical. A pan-hard rod is being
incorporated into the rear suspension, along with sway bar and later
type angled traction bars.
Front cross-member is being modified to allow for
camber adjustment. Adjustable castor will be incorporated into body
mounting points to sway bar.
A high ratio steering rack has been built up and
will be fitted, this has been modified to decrease steering wheel
turns from lock to lock, mainly to keep front tyres away from front
guards. Will replace front mudguards with standard type as twin
cam style guards are quite rare/expensive. Will modify standard
to clear tyres.
Car will be repainted then. I like the yellow so
will redo the same color, with black accessories e.g. front rear
air spoiler and rollcage etc.
I would like more horsepower from engine and know
it is capable of same, as others have developed this engine previously.
The main focus of modifications will be along the
lines of higher flow capacity head. I have already looked into this
with good results. A spare head that I modified has developed over
200 theoretical hp, via flow bench testing. A more competition styled
camshaft will be needed with the resultant increase in rpm limit
to approx. 8500rpm. Obviously the components will all have to be
centered around this, so better connecting rods will be required,
possibly the Sierra turbo twin cam style connecting rods.
I have recently purchased some 50mm DCOE SP Webber
carburetors to add to the package......................and there's
about a thousand other jobs to do......…….……….like
cut the lawns!
Yes dear I will get around to it!
October 98
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Roger gets some tips from a secret mentor... :) |
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since
above was written. The car has been running for quite a while now,
though I doubt if it will ever be finished.
Some of above pictures show car with white front
guards. This was because car was lowered and I was unsure of tyre
clearance, at that stage.
I have since fitted “bubble arches”
to the front and rear of car. They are fiberglass. I have also modified
a spoiler to fit the front of the car. I also fitted round head
lights and grill to suit.
I bought a straight cut close ratio gearbox and
after reconditioning it, fitted it to car along with rose jointed
gearlever.
I have reconditioned the diff center, shimmed the
clutch pack so that it takes 90 lbs. of torque to slip it. I have
fitted 4.44:1 gears to this centre.
The braking system has come in for some changes.
It is now fitted with Capri 2.8 Injection rotors and Volvo series
2 calipers with Race Brakes RB 74 pads. The rear has still got drums
on it, but now 9 inch diameter ones from a MK 2 escort. The front
cross-member has been modified to allow major camber adjustment,
similar to a Falcon. The minor adjustments are done at the strut
tops. the sway bar mounts also modified to provide major castor
adjustments. Minor adjustments are made at the sway bar ends.
I now have 3 sets of wheels for car. 2 sets with
Yokohama street rubber and one set with slicks.
A six dial dash has now been fitted, though this
is only for aesthetics, as none of it is hooked up. The rules state
that the instrument are not to be modified, and I wanted better
gauges and switches that I could reach whilst strapped in, so I
made the other set, closer to me. The interior is quite sanitary.
You can read about the engine here.
I entered the car in the 2001 All Ford Day, static
display, here in Adelaide. Although there was stiff opposition I
won the Competition section . It was good to see so many people
interested in the Escorts.
By the way............. I did all the work on
the car, other than the engine machining.
Next step is to get some use out of it and maybe
another engine. I would love to do some serious competition work
with car, though this costs even more money.
Roger Miller
Many thanks go to these accomplices:-
Debbie [wife]
Dean [bro.]
Dennis [bro.]
Capri Craig
Everyone on the web board,
and especially
Wayne and the Osella team
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