Thursday 30th April 2015

Ford Escort RS Group 4: PH Fleet

Well who needs wet weather tyres for mid-year rallies anyway?

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With the freshly rebuilt engine good to go, I was raring to go and tackle the Cadman Construction Woodbridge Stages in Suffolk at the end of March. The first chance to test the car would be immediately after the light turned green on SS1 but that was OK, the weather forecast was dry, just what you need in a freshly set up car, especially first time out after six months.

Hand-cut inters not exactly useful here

The dry tyre setup and Kumho C03 moulded slicks work brilliantly, but I had had no chance to test for the wet. Space is tight with room for one set of five tyres on the car and another eight wheels and tyres max. So I have a simple strategy for the rain, keep just one set of the Kumho K11 soft compound slicks hand cut to intermediate and beg for mercy from the Rain God. This has worked fine so far but did he listen this time? Did he heck.

Two days before the event, BBC weather announced monsoon season would begin at exactly 9am on Sunday March 29 in Suffolk. Which as luck would have it, was our start time on SS1. You can picture the scene. Me poking at the weather app on my phone like some latter day witch doctor. Amazingly that didn't work and I couldn't get hold of a tyre cutter in time so had to settle for the tyre man at the event doing his best, minutes before the start.

You may be wondering why I didn't just opt for a set of Kumho's TW02 moulded full wets and that's a good question. The answer is, since we rarely see any serious rain in mid-year events, I thought I'd risk the hand cut intermediates, the theory being they might offer more grip in moderately wet conditions.

Ah, the glamour of motorsport

The tyre man's efforts brought the intermediates up to a sort of intermediate plus, but way off Kumho's 'full wet' spec or what we really needed today, the three radial-groove 'monsoon' cut with all sipes joined up. So plan 'A' was to run the C03 slicks with the usual soft compound if it got a bit damp then fit the intermediate-plus if the rain came down hard. Plan 'B' was... OK, there was no plan 'B'.

We started SS1 just as the rain began and although we weren't quick, conditions were driveable. Then the rainfall quickly reached Biblical proportions so we switched to the wets for SS2 and tried again. Pretty soon the stages were awash and the carnage started with cars going off left right and centre. I pushed as hard as I could. Straight line braking stability was further hampered by the large amount of negative camber on the front suspension which, ironically, is such a perfect antidote to understeer in the dry.

I made a mental note to dial that back for the next wet rally and dealt with the increasing aquaplaning moments with old-school cadence braking. Eventually, approaching a large bus stop chicane with the track ahead blocked by heavy markers, I got caught out.

Just in case Escorts didn't go sideways enough!

Water coverage was now much worse here than we'd encountered yet and the Escort aquaplaned in earnest and transformed into a giant yellow jet ski. We may have well been on an ice rink with bald tyres. The speed came down but no amount of cadence braking would get us round the 90 left. I won't dwell on what a couple of those heavy track markers did to the alloy spoiler and front valance, but suffice to say that the guys at Spraytech Aylesbury quickly had it looking good as new.

That's the way motorsport goes. What we'd hoped would be a dry track triumph turned out to be, well, not a triumph. But as another unlucky driver said afterwards, "if you're not going to try, what's the point in turning up?" The upside is that when it all comes together - right place, right conditions, car running well, good result - it's all worth it and I love it.

Next stop is a closed test session at Curborough Sprint course in May with some mates. That will give us all plenty of 'seat time' before the Abingdon Carnival on June 7. I'll have a more suitable tyre choice ready if it rains there, but I'll keep consulting the Rain God for a dry day anyway (are you listening deity?) as that's when the rear-wheel drive Mk2s can really slay some giants.

Very sideways onboard 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 car beautifully prepped for dry success... arrives at a soaking rally

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!
Brands Hatch Summer Stages gives the Escort a proper workout
The coolant issue returns and a winter project beckons
Yellow Peril heads to the stages after a winter rebuild

[Images: Andy Manston]

[threespires]

Fantastic

[confucuis]

Brilliant love reading about these. Any more videos? Or pictures?
PH should do more stuff like this, get a few competitors to keep an active blog on here. It would be great to read about!

[budgie smuggler]

Enjoyed that

[s m]

Great stuff

[jamespink]

Serious car, serious owner. Thank you, you just made by day much nicer!

[DAVEVO9]

Would sell body parts for that
Fantastic

[J4CKO]

I had headphones on and fell into a trance watching that

[Housey]

Fantastic fun, this is what motoring is all about. Go to Phil Price Rally School and have a go yourself if my advice, though Phil isnt running the Mk2's anymore, it is still fantastic fun!

[Mr2Mike]

Good stuff I'll be servicing at Abingdon, provided the new engine for our entry is ready in time.

[ciandon]

Car looks well and seems from the onboards that shes running preety decent aswell but Im sorry but that's an incredibly watered down version of rallying to me being from Ireland. Spectated once at an airfield/single venue 'rally' and was not much more than a sprint. We might be spoiled in that we can spectate and compete nearly every weekend for 7/8 months on public roads with not a single traffic cone in sight. Best job would be to stick the yellow beast on a trailer and set the sat nav for Carlow, Ireland for next Sunday if you could for the Mk2 Escort Challenge. Great spectacle and one of the better one day rallies although to see the best Mk2 driving then Donegal in late June is unbeatable

[Ranger 6]

See you at Abingdon