What I was working on yesterday

This is what I was working on yesterday. It's my dads '98 Ford Escort rally car. These pictures are from the previous owner. It sat for several years, we are getting it ready to race for an upcoming rally.





Not that I did this week end, but scraping off all those old stickers was a pain in the ass.

Awesome ZX2! 2.0L Zetec FWD right? I've messed with several Contours and Focus's with that set-up . Specs? Engine pics?

Thats what it is. I don't have any engine pics, but the engine bay looks pretty ratty at the moment. It was sitting in this guys back yard for three or four years. On the engine side it has a K&N inlet, a Pacesetter header, and the head may have had something done to it by Gude but we don't have any details. It's pretty much stock other than that as far as I know. We have not even driven it yet so we don't have any idea of how powerful (or not) it is. You don't need as much power in the dirt anyway. The transaxle has had the "Lincoln locker" treatment, great on dirt but nearly undriveable on pavement apprently. The suspension and brakes are stock except for stainless braid lines for the brakes and Sway-a-way off road coil over shocks converted into strut inserts with limit straps. It has a cage, Sparco seats, the dash board, a couple of fire extinguishers and not much else for interior. The previous owner had put the right front corner into a dirt bank in '05 and broke the front strut, so we have been fixing that. We have been cleaning the car up, replacing safety items that are out of date (belts, fire extinguishers, and roll bar padding), and getting that stuff that stops working on cars that sit for years replaced.

Cosworth makes a crap-ton of parts for that motor. I wish I had my old computer; tons of good links I forgot. Buddy of mine has a PowerWorks supercharger on his Zetec Focus ZX3; almost as fast as my Mazda.


Post pics, I'd love to see it.

I will take some pictures the next time I am down at my Dad's. It might be two weeks though as I am thinking about going to a drift event this weekend (just to watch). What kind of Mazda do you have?

Mazdaspeed 6. Turbo AWD 6-speed 272hp. Wife helped me decide it wasn't family friendly, we just traded it in.

That sucks that you had to give up that car. It seems pretty family friendly to me, it has four doors and from the look of things a reasonably roomy back seat. It not like it's small car. Or is a vehicle not family friendly anymore unless it is a SUV or minivan that seats 7?

We needed something real big; my wife tends to carry lots of stuff with her. Plus she babysits a bunch of other kids, so more room is a plus. And she didn't like driving it cuz it was a stick. No big deal, I got a AE86 to play with now!

All right here are some really crappy cell phone pics of the car. I was going to take a real camera along but I forgot.


The car


The engine compartment




My contribution for the last two satrudays, the battery box. One good thing about the camera phone is that you can't see the details of my bad fiberglass lay up skills.

Looks good! I like the Windstar/F-series intake housing!

Sealed cell mud flaps and all lol the other owner must have had some fun! Your going to make it street only? Pretty cool project. Keep us posted on it with progress!

The mud flaps are new, it's one of the things we replaced. They are required by the rules. It's not being converted to street duty, we were getting it ready to rally once again. It's actually kind of done, or least we got it ready enough to run at a rally last week end. If you look in the Media section theres a thread titled "Idaho Rally 2009" there are some pics and video of it in action. I should have been there as the navigator (it's not my car) but it was on my wifes birthday and I had to work as well. I would have had to have taken a week off from work to do that one between driving time and the wednesday novice meeting. I should get to do the next rally though, either the North Nevada Rally or Gorman Ridge here in LA next month.