Jonlem
13-11-10, 12:47 PM
I thought I would start a thread on my "current" project as a few people have been showing some interest on another thread.
Many years ago, or early 2005 to be exact I finally finished my xe nova track car, the car was a run of the mill xe powered sr, built from a semi restored shell with the usual coilovers and big brakes as the main mods. Due to a mates car letting us down the week before the Total Vauxhall Donny trackday we decided to pull our fingers out and get my car back from the paintshop and finish it off aiming for its first outing to be Donny lol Well as it happened with not much sleep and a 3am stint on my drive the morning of the trackday we finally got it finished !
This pic was about 5am and we had only driven it no more than a mile, the fact the engine had been sat for 6 or more years was a concern but all seemed well and we got it loaded onto a trailer.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/My%20Novas/White%20Nova%20XE/donnyice.jpg
The day went well, managed to get a 1.28 out of it which was quick enough, had some pics taken for TV so all in all it was a great first outing !
As the year went by it got hammered around some airfields locally most weekends then later in the year I met up with some guys on here and headed over to Germany for my first Nurburgring experience, not without some major problems the week beforehand ! cruising home one evening the engine started to run on 3, then 2 then nigh on cut out.
The following morning the head was off, gasket and pistons were written off, with not much time I ran around finding the bits to sort it and within a day or two it was back together and covering some running in miles which we were still doing on the way over there lol
The car was probably at its best then, AP's on the front, well stripped and a reasonably sorted suspension setup, with some tuition and some experienced passengers I eventually managed to break the sub 9 min barrier with it not lonig before we were looking to head home.
A few pics from the PNG trip :
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/PNG%20Ring%20Trip%202005/ringtrip22.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/My%20Novas/White%20Nova%20XE/Ring639.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/My%20Novas/White%20Nova%20XE/dsc08117.jpg
By the time we were back I was dead set on rebuilding the car into a track based monster, on pricing everything up it quickly came apparent that this was going to be atleast another 10k and potentially even more so with regret I broke the car for spares and this is when the new project came about.
Since passing my driving test like many I had been big into my novas, but also I'd had a soft spot for the old Mk2 Escorts, in early 2002 I had actually owned this car for a while :
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/jonboyresisedescortmrk2.jpg
That however wasn't as nice as it looked underneath and once stripped it was clear the car needed masses of work and was not a good base to build anything out of.
Anyway in 2006 a shell I'd been watching for a while came up for sale on ebay, anyone that knows Escorts or old Fords will know these things don't come cheap and although this wasn't a bargain it was a nigh on fully restored shell that had been rebuilt with genuine Ford panels sourced from here there and everywhere :d
On top of the resto work it had also has the usual rally/race preperation done, a good cage, link boxes, had a good axle on it and so on.
This was the shell as it was when I got it :
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/mk2dri.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/Escort%20Build/06_1_b.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/Escort%20Build/esc2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/Escort%20Build/Picture896.jpg
The shell was good but I wanted more work done to it, namely arches, getting it fully stitched up and whatever else it may be in need of.
Firstly the shell was dipped just to confirm there wasn't anything too bad hiding under the paint, from there a load more fab work was carried out and some alterations made to the cage.
The spec of the shell is below :
1979 RS2000 custom
Acid dipped
New roofskin, genuine Rs inner wings, floor pans, splash panels
Ralloy big gearbox and diff tunnel
Exhaust tunnel
Chassis mounts
Double skin bulkhead
Seat bars
Round turrets
Gussetted
4 link boxes
Watts linkage towers
14 point cage extended through the inner wings
Tarmac spec arches
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/22012009240.jpg
My original intention was to fit a Cosworth YB running around 400hp, at the time I had an engine sitting in the garage but I eventually sold this to build a LET engine for it, that then changed to a big power xe and quickly realising how much money I was potentially going to spend on the engine build alone I sold up and went down a totally different route !
I had been waiting at this point for over 3 years to get my shell back and having lost my job and taking a massive pay cut I felt that the engine had to be sensible, useable and most importantly reliable.
I found myself a Honda S2000 engine for sale at a good price of £1800 with a 6 speed gearbox, 240hp in stock form, loads of revs and it could take it all day long.
The only mods I had planned for the engine was a dry sump as its a very tall engine and fouls on xmember if you keep it wet sumped, plus the fact at 9000+rpm any oil surge can kill the engine in a second ! As well as the dry sump setup I obviously wanted to throttle body it and sort out a custom ecu.
I have been expecting to get the shell back this year so I've started to get a lot of parts together to complete the build, my feelings are that even though the shell isn't here its reasonably obvious what I need to finish it so I've done my best to get what I can together for it.
So the spending begins and finally some more pictures to wet your appetite :)
Many years ago, or early 2005 to be exact I finally finished my xe nova track car, the car was a run of the mill xe powered sr, built from a semi restored shell with the usual coilovers and big brakes as the main mods. Due to a mates car letting us down the week before the Total Vauxhall Donny trackday we decided to pull our fingers out and get my car back from the paintshop and finish it off aiming for its first outing to be Donny lol Well as it happened with not much sleep and a 3am stint on my drive the morning of the trackday we finally got it finished !
This pic was about 5am and we had only driven it no more than a mile, the fact the engine had been sat for 6 or more years was a concern but all seemed well and we got it loaded onto a trailer.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/My%20Novas/White%20Nova%20XE/donnyice.jpg
The day went well, managed to get a 1.28 out of it which was quick enough, had some pics taken for TV so all in all it was a great first outing !
As the year went by it got hammered around some airfields locally most weekends then later in the year I met up with some guys on here and headed over to Germany for my first Nurburgring experience, not without some major problems the week beforehand ! cruising home one evening the engine started to run on 3, then 2 then nigh on cut out.
The following morning the head was off, gasket and pistons were written off, with not much time I ran around finding the bits to sort it and within a day or two it was back together and covering some running in miles which we were still doing on the way over there lol
The car was probably at its best then, AP's on the front, well stripped and a reasonably sorted suspension setup, with some tuition and some experienced passengers I eventually managed to break the sub 9 min barrier with it not lonig before we were looking to head home.
A few pics from the PNG trip :
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/PNG%20Ring%20Trip%202005/ringtrip22.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/My%20Novas/White%20Nova%20XE/Ring639.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/My%20Novas/White%20Nova%20XE/dsc08117.jpg
By the time we were back I was dead set on rebuilding the car into a track based monster, on pricing everything up it quickly came apparent that this was going to be atleast another 10k and potentially even more so with regret I broke the car for spares and this is when the new project came about.
Since passing my driving test like many I had been big into my novas, but also I'd had a soft spot for the old Mk2 Escorts, in early 2002 I had actually owned this car for a while :
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/jonboyresisedescortmrk2.jpg
That however wasn't as nice as it looked underneath and once stripped it was clear the car needed masses of work and was not a good base to build anything out of.
Anyway in 2006 a shell I'd been watching for a while came up for sale on ebay, anyone that knows Escorts or old Fords will know these things don't come cheap and although this wasn't a bargain it was a nigh on fully restored shell that had been rebuilt with genuine Ford panels sourced from here there and everywhere :d
On top of the resto work it had also has the usual rally/race preperation done, a good cage, link boxes, had a good axle on it and so on.
This was the shell as it was when I got it :
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/mk2dri.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/Escort%20Build/06_1_b.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/Escort%20Build/esc2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/Escort%20Build/Picture896.jpg
The shell was good but I wanted more work done to it, namely arches, getting it fully stitched up and whatever else it may be in need of.
Firstly the shell was dipped just to confirm there wasn't anything too bad hiding under the paint, from there a load more fab work was carried out and some alterations made to the cage.
The spec of the shell is below :
1979 RS2000 custom
Acid dipped
New roofskin, genuine Rs inner wings, floor pans, splash panels
Ralloy big gearbox and diff tunnel
Exhaust tunnel
Chassis mounts
Double skin bulkhead
Seat bars
Round turrets
Gussetted
4 link boxes
Watts linkage towers
14 point cage extended through the inner wings
Tarmac spec arches
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/Jatec/22012009240.jpg
My original intention was to fit a Cosworth YB running around 400hp, at the time I had an engine sitting in the garage but I eventually sold this to build a LET engine for it, that then changed to a big power xe and quickly realising how much money I was potentially going to spend on the engine build alone I sold up and went down a totally different route !
I had been waiting at this point for over 3 years to get my shell back and having lost my job and taking a massive pay cut I felt that the engine had to be sensible, useable and most importantly reliable.
I found myself a Honda S2000 engine for sale at a good price of £1800 with a 6 speed gearbox, 240hp in stock form, loads of revs and it could take it all day long.
The only mods I had planned for the engine was a dry sump as its a very tall engine and fouls on xmember if you keep it wet sumped, plus the fact at 9000+rpm any oil surge can kill the engine in a second ! As well as the dry sump setup I obviously wanted to throttle body it and sort out a custom ecu.
I have been expecting to get the shell back this year so I've started to get a lot of parts together to complete the build, my feelings are that even though the shell isn't here its reasonably obvious what I need to finish it so I've done my best to get what I can together for it.
So the spending begins and finally some more pictures to wet your appetite :)