Tuesday 2nd September 2014

Ford Escort RS Group 4: PH Fleet

Did the mid-season fettling pay off? Brands Hatch will provide the answer!

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The Hutton Kitchens Brands Hatch Summer Stages organised by Chelmsford Motor Club is one of my favourite events of the year. A mixture of Indy circuit and the twisty rally circuit at the back with a car park in between gives a great mix of high speed and twisty stuff to get properly stuck in to.

Jesse's Escort doing what Escorts do best

The previous two events (Down Ampney and Abingdon Stages) had shown the new setup with the 15-inch wheels was working well. There was the neutral balance I was after with much more positive turn-in than on the 13-inch wheels and that meant being able to carry more speed into corners and steer it more on the throttle with no fear of pushing on. The new AP Racing front brakes should then add unlimited stopping power without fade and finally that new, lower 5.1:1 rear axle ratio should provide much better acceleration.

The day dawned sunny and dry at Brands, ideal for giving the car a quick final check. I badly needed a dry day as new setups have to be tested in the actual events as I don't have the time or budget for test sessions. The bigger brakes needed to be balanced but the good news was I could get full benefit from the engine's 295hp. Tyre choice is important and while on the abrasive surface at Abingdon I'd opted for medium compound front and harder on the rear, this time a soft front and medium rear was required. Some part worn Kumhos from previous events did the trick and were nicely bedded in. I had a new set in reserve for when they passed their sell-by date which I reckoned would be after around six of the eight stages.

The first stage (SS1) effectively used the Indy circuit back to front. We started downhill, halfway round McLaren pointing at the Cooper Straight, then headed round Graham Hill Bend and Druids down Hailwood Hill, but at Paddock we take a 90 right off the circuit onto the outfield.

We had a good start to the day, the Escort launching nicely on the downhill start and getting into 6th before Graham Hill so it looked like the gearing was working well. Entering left into Paddock is a bit weird because the speed is quite high and it's difficult to get braking done in a straight line. The handling feels really stable now so I get some of the speed off on the brakes before turning right and then another quick dab before leaving the main track.

The glamour of motorsport!

The handling balance is sweet, the Escort turns in well with a touch of understeer but the trick is to remember how high the powerband sits on the JRE engine and I aim to be near the rev limiter (8-9,000rpm) on the exit of tight bends like Druids. That pushes the tail out and the car steers nicely on the throttle in a tidy four-wheel drift.

Some of it was properly off-road this year too as the organisers had created longer sections by using a new gravel link. This made for an interesting course taking us through the tunnel back onto the circuit, but my Tarmac spec Escort on slicks made slow progress on it and, if you were following another car, the gravel threw up an opaque blanket of abrasive dust that wouldn't disgrace a Bond movie car chase.

Still, the Escort was going like a train and all the handling and electrical problems seemed to be behind us. That didn't stop the problem we'd encountered at Abingdon cropping up again though. A fuel injection seal popped out of its seat spraying the engine bay with petrol under high pressure when we were lining up for SS5. I finally worked out what was happening though; the engine has been fitted with the wrong fuel rail for the injectors but a small mod should fix it forever.

We soaked up the fuel on the track using the spill kit that all rally cars must carry, but I thought it was game over for us. Then a hold-up gave me enough time to do a 'bare hands' fix and we got going again. It says a lot for the sport that within a couple of minutes of the bonnet going up, five or six competitors and marshalls turned up to help. One bloke even asked his crew back at the pits to try and organise some tools for us!

At the time we were heading for another good result, lying 12th overall. And we did finish to make our target of the top 10... just. We finished 10th from a field of 90-odd and a start position of 25th. Hopefully as results improve so our start seeding will also; the higher we start, the more progress we can make.

A few minor issues on the way to tenth

The engine stayed on song apart from the fuel thing, which I now have a fix for and, as predicted, the new brakes produced massive stopping power all day without any fade. Some coolant loss was apparently down to a dodgy radiator cap so I'm fitting a nattily-named, 18lb, Stant 'Lev-R-Vent' item to fix that.

If anything the Escort's gearing might be a tad short now, but sixth gear is so close to fifth there's room for a slightly higher top gear ratio. Have a look at the DIY budget video highlights below and you'll see what I mean. The organisers and marshalls did a great job (remember, these guys do this in their spare time for fun) and it's the same Chelmsford team who organise our next event, the Woodbridge Stages in Suffolk on September 21. Looking forward to that.

Motorsport should be about having fun and anyone can do it. If you want to find out how to get involved in yourself, the RAC Motorsport Association has set up 'Go Motorsport' which tells you all you need to know. You can find that at http://www.gomotorsport.net.

Brands Hatch video here.

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FACT SHEET
Car: 1978 Mk2 Ford Escort RS
Run by: Jesse Crosse
Bought: January 2010
Mileage: 1,000 (or so) stage miles since 2009
Purchase price: £36,000
Last month at a glance: A super result at Brands makes the Escort's foibles easier to ignore.

[Pics: Andrew Manston, external video from MAD video]

Previous updates:
Enter the Yellow Peril! An intro to Jesse's Escort
A solid early outing, or would have been if not for electrical gremlins
Abingdon stages a proper workout for Jesse and the Yellow Peril
Summer break? Perfect time for some upgrades then!

[drakart]

Good to finally meet you and have a swift nosey around the car. Great result for you two, just a shame that our engine died and robbed us of some fun/giant killing. I'll definitely go back to Brands to have another go. Andrew

[sideways man]

Well done that man! As a fellow escort owner I can't wait for the next installment. Love the colour too

[soad]

Is there any footage to watch?

[Matt Bird]

Video added now! YouTube was being especially slow in its churning apparently.

Cheers,


Matt

[anonymous-user]

Paddleshift required next to make that close ratio box come alive!!

[HDM]

Nice driving Jesse, the transition into gravel and zero visability takes a big leap of faith nothing has broken down in front of you! Very imaginative course layout.

Edited by HDM on Tuesday 2nd September 17:38

[garypotter]

Great bit of driving, great video please keep the stories coming
As mentioned the car looks great in that colour

[nedge2k]

295BHP from a 2.0L XE?

Think you might wanna get that checked...and your internals as they prolly won't be what you think they are