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Jame Augustine / Carl Parsons
Australia, 1972 Escort Mk1 Cosworth, "Defuse
Diabetes" Sports Sedan
Here are the cars specs
1972 Mk1 escort 1100 (originally)
Engine:
- Normally aspirated twin cam YB cosworth
- Argo rods
- Cossie turbo crank
- Burton Valves
- Modified hydraulic buckets
- 1X Tighe cam
- 1X Wade cam
- Custom mandrel extractors
- Speed Technology throttle bodies
- bosch 803 injectors
- Custom Flywheel
- Burton 3 stage dry sump
- Autronic EFI
- Crank triggered ignition
- Sequential Injection
- Custom Alloy Radiator
- Ap twin plate clutch
- Aeroquip braided lines and fittings
- MSD ignition and coil
- Cosworth leads
- Custom Dizzy
Suspension & Brakes:
- Adjustable Konis shocks
- Willwood calipers Front
- Sigma calipers Rear
- Cart springs rear
- Adjustable height struts front
- Castor adjustable sway bar
- Quick Rack
Others
- Alloy bellhousing
- Quaife H/D 4 speed Straight cut Close ratio race gearbox
- Quaife alloy spool
- Assorted diff ratios
- 13X8 minilites
- 230 Bridgestone slicks
The Parsons/Augustine Escort story. (www.defusediabetes.info.au)
How did Mk1 Escort #55 go from a wreckers yard
in Dandenong to be travelling around the state as an under 2 litre
sports sedan? Well to start the story, I had no interest in cars
till after starting uni. Here another prospective university student
named Karl came along with an interest in racing, but no vehicle
to do so in. He was an Escort person, and I had no preference in
vehicle, so after much discussion on the relative merits of Datsun
1600’s and Escorts, we acquired a 1971 Mk1 Escort 2 door to
use in some sprints. We picked it up for nothing, as it has a crashed
front left guard, then exchanged our skills (none) for some panel
beating on our car (we cleaned the panel beaters yard of rubbish
for him, in exchange for the panel beating).
The first two cars |
First sprint |
Following this, we purchased a 1975 Mk1 escort
(late model with Mk2 type Chassis, ie has upright Mk2 style shocks,
high back seats, gearbox mounts further back etc) with a 2 litre
already in it for $250. It had all of the bits we needed for the
conversion, including the loom, it had extractors, and a 2 inch
system. The engine was an almost new reconditioned Pinto, running
very well, but the body was crap. So we swapped all of the mechanical
parts from the 2 litre into the other Mk1 1. We then dumped the
left over 1300 engine, gearbox, body and other bits.
We took it in its first sprint using an RPM 3 point
harness, and the standard low back seats. It did quite well but
was probably quite unsafe. We had a great time, especially with
the open diff, leaving big wheelie marks coming out of the corners
of Winton Raceway.
Before the next sprint, we painted blue Cobra stipes
down the length of it, put in a race seat, 13X7 Hotwires, a set
of Falcon FK06C’s. We had a full alloy cage put in it, we
also put in it a set of Autometer gauges, including a shift light,
and recallable tacho, plus a race seat and simpson 5 point harness.
We took it out in its second sprint, where at Calder Park Raceway,
I promptly rolled the car after clipping the inside curb at Mt Jane.
That was the end of the first car, as every panel on the car was
damaged, and it was well beyond repair.
The car after it was rolled |
The current car |
Over the next few weeks, we searched for a new
shell, and for $250, we bought another Mk1, this time a 72 model,
with high back seats, but still the old chassis. This is our current
car. We stripped it and had it painted, had the rear guards flared
in metal, and had fibreglass twin cam flares put on the front. The
roll cage was taken out of the last car, and put into the new shell.
The car was sprinted for a year, with small changes over this time.
It had twin 42mm Webbers put on it, Vented front rotors, Black Flash
Pads, Mk2 2 litre brakes all round, including lines and cylinders.
We also put in adjustable Koni shocks all round, a set of race springs
in the front, a re-rated, lowered set of leafs, and had the cross
member redrilled for more negative camber. We also machined the
front sway bar for caster, and had a few different diff ratios locked
up.
Next we started Club Car racing, and found that
we required still more changes, like a laminated screen(which broke
first race out), and other minor safety changes. We were, after
two seasons of racing, still using the stock pinto engine, we hadn’t
even taken the rocker cover off it. This went well enough for sprints,
but we were a long way off the pace in club car racing with a stock
engine. I started cross entering into some U/2 litre sports sedan
races, and found, to our amazement, that we had many cars racing
at the same level as us. It was close exciting racing, especially
compared to the Club Car racing, where unless you have a turbo 13B
RX7, you are not even in the hunt. The people there were so much
more helpful, with other Escort guys offering us assistance with
our car, including suggestions on mods, offering parts. All of this
lead to the car leaving club cars and joining the U/2 Litre sports
sedan series.
In the search for more power, we went and bought
an already ported head, with a wade 520X cam, and group 1 valves.
We also got a friend who runs an exhaust place to custom make a
set of large diameter extractors for the Escort. This sounded like
a good combination, but in fact, the bottom end was stuffed (no
compression), so it didn’t go at all well. We also found that
the valves were standard, and the porting was very inconsistent
on the head that we had just purchased. So we kept the cam, and
took a fresh head down to get ported (actually about 4 till we found
an uncracked one). This was ported, and the group 1 valves were
put in. The inlet and exhaust were match ported to the head also.
This gave us about 10.75:1 compression. Cast pistons and standard
rods, dowelled flywheel also went on. With all of this balanced,
lightened, and put into a re-sleeved pinto block (to keep it under
2 litres). We had to use cast pistons, as we were unable to find
forged pistons that were of a standard bore.
Sprints at Winton |
First Club Car race |
From here we put in the adjustable ride height
spring platform on the front struts. On the fueling side we installed
a baffled sump, and twin 50mm Webbers with a Holley blue fuel pump,
regulator, and 3/8 fuel lines. Other changes included a Speed Technology
rev limiter and shift light, a new twin core close fin radiator,
a disc brake rear end, a pedal box, and put new brake lines throughout
the car. This all sounded good, but we struggled to get any balance
out of the brakes. We had the engine dynoed on a chassis dyno with
the new engine, and it had about 90kw at the rear wheels.
Second race since all of this work, the engine
blew up when oil surge coming onto the front straight at Phillip
Island, caused a bearing to spin up, and break a rod. This put a
hole in the block, and sump, destroying all but the head, which
was untouched luckily. So we rebuilt the bottom end, and bought
an expensive Hi Energy sump and modified pickup, in an attempt to
avoid costly oil surge blow ups…
The car was much faster now, moving up to mid field,
but still too heavy to be a challenger, so it was time for a diet
for the car. We put on fibreglass bonnet and boot, and changed the
car over from R’s to Slicks. A new triple core radiator was
also purchased to fix a problem with the car always running hot,
replacing the almost new twin core. For more of a diet, out came
the glass windows in favour of perspex and Lexan. The dash and the
rear panel was cut out, a new dash pod, fuel tank surround, centre
console, steering column support, were all put in. We also removed
all unnecessary bolts and brackets, and spent MANY hours removing
all body deadening from the whole car, inside, guards, underside,
etc, before repainting it. A new seat was installed (lightest and
lowest Sparco seat we could afford) and the front left rail was
replaced due to the amount of rust the original one contained. A
brand new Quaife 4 speed was purchased in from England (A heavy
duty straight cut close ratio race box) but we found that not all
of the bits were included that we needed. So after a few calls to
England late at night, we had shipped out the Quaife alloy casing,
and lay shaft to finish the box. A new front spoiler was also installed
before the race that weekend at Winton.
At winton with no power |
Also that day |
The engine was well down on power at Winton, so
we checked the compression, but couldn’t find any, so a re-ring
was done before the next round. The engine was re-ringed, and re
dynoed, this time with smaller chokes, producing more power, 92.9Kw
at the rear wheels. We got some 13X8 minilites in silver, making
the car look much better. "The Craftsman" Robbie put a
centre mount rear wing on the car for us, and a bigger front spoiler.
The front ground clearance was reduced to almost nothing….
The front brake pads were finally replaced (the original black flash
ones) with Hawk Blues, finally balancing out the braking problems
that we had been having since the rear disc conversion. We also
put braided lines on all of the flexible hose parts of the brake
system.
Finally the car started running well, doing a 1:52
at Phillip Island, and running in second place for a time, until
the engine blew up….again…from Oil surge…. Time
for the next go…..
So off we went to buy a dry sump system, just intending
to dry sump the pinto and put a better bottom end together…
Then along came a Cosworth Twin cam 16 Valve head, too good to pass
up, and this would all bolt on to what we were doing anyhow. It
is about here that things started to get out of hand. now we had
a Cossie head, we couldn’t just put rubbish in with it, so
off to get the biggest valves that can possibly fit in a Cosworth
head, and some big race cams to go with it. We purchased a Cossie
turbo crank, a set of Holbay rods and an AP clutch off this guy
from NSW, Neville Davis. So we sent the rods and crank off to get
machined and prepared. Whilst this was going on, 16 inlet valves
arrived from England They had gotten the order wrong, and sent 16
inlets instead of 8 inlet and 8 Exhaust….. Back into the piggy
bank for more valves. Then the dry sump that we purchased wouldn’t
fit over the rack on the dummy block we were using to test it…
We then purchased a brand new Cossie Sierra dry sump pan. This also
would not clear the rack, so this one was cut up and modified to
fit over the rack. Now we find out that the Crank is cracked and
useless, and the rods don’t fit a 2 litre crank, they are
for a 1600…. So, furious at the guy Neville from NSW, we asked
for a refund on the crank, but he refused to do this, even though
the crank was obviously useless. In an attempt to recoup some of
our lost money, we sent the crank back to him, and got another for
only an extra $500…. this one was ok. The rods had already
cost us a great deal being race prepared, so we didn’t let
him have them back, not that he would have given us our money back
anyhow, let alone more for what we had spent on them. In fact when
I complained to him about his latest rip off, he offered to sell
us more rubbish….
Cossie on its Dyno runs up to 8500 |
Very pretty! |
Off we went to Argo to get new custom rods. The
Holbay rods are an unusual length, and with the custom pistons already
finished, we had to stay with that length rod. The head was in the
mean time under way when I got another of the standard phone calls…
"Jamie I have some bad news….." this time it was
only that one of the Camshafts had snapped in half….. In an
attempt to make the upcoming race, I rang Bo Seton and got some
old cossie blanks from him, made originally for Glenn Seton’s
Sierra. Wade copied the cam specs from the broken Ivan Tighe cam
to create the new one. We had by this time, of course, decided to
fuel inject the engine also, so we went off to see Richard Aubert
about getting an Autronic ECU and loom. There was no problem with
the ECU, but the looms ended up being a 1 month wait. This caused
a few initial problems, but with the rods taking a month, it wasn’t
a big deal. Next came the phone call about the head. when the head
was returned to be assembled, it was noticed that the cam was wiping
off the end of the Volvo shims and buckets. This was another occasion
when we had to choose, leave it as it was and hope it would be ok,
or take them all out, throw them away, and do it all again properly…
and that is what we did… Out with the Volvo buckets and shims
and in with the modified Cosworth buckets and Shims.
At Phillip Island just before the end of the engine |
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The throttle bodies and inlet manifold had arrived,
and all was in readiness to assemble the engine. So with a fantastic
effort, above and well beyond the call of duty, from Stuey from
B&B engine Services, the engine was assembled. We went off,
engine in hand, to Dougal McDougal’s (from Victorian Go Kart
Centre) brand new DTS engine dyno. Even though this was only a week
after Dougals big crash at Phillip Island in the Aloe Vera VS Commodore,
everyone there was so very helpful. This made putting the engine
on the dyno far easier than expected, and after only a few days
for the required fabrication, assembly, wiring, and mounting, we
were ready to go.
With A great crowd amassing, the key was turned,
and it kicked and sputtered, but nothing. This was of course because
I had neglected to load the Ecu with our engine settings. After
loading these settings into the ECU, we tried again…. After
a short burst on the starter motor to get oil pressure up, it was
fired up. Almost 6 months in the making, and the engine began to
run…After preliminary checks, it was run in., and checked
for leaks. A few small leaks were to be fixed, and we were ready.
The rest of the tuning went without much trouble. We were running
short of time though, and we had to skip the attempts for max power,
leaving cam timing as per the initial specs, and being happy with
the 225bhp at 8000rpm on its first run. The fantastic help from
Gerry with the Engine dyno, and so much more was great. Richard
Auberts assistance with the engine Dyno work was also invaluable
and together, the two of them got the most we could possibly get
in the time we had.
Dyno Figures from Dougal McDougals Engine dyno in Melbourne
(now set up to run both pinto and kent) |
Off the dyno, and back to be installed in the car..
This was the Thursday night now, the race being Saturday, we looked
like being a good chance to make it, if we went without sleep for
2 day. So with more help from Gerry again, Trevor from TM Automatics,
Adam Russell and Kerstin Hahn, we worked through the night putting
the engine in. We went ahead, fitting the fuel lines, and fuel pumps,
fitting the dry sump, the lines, the covers, the wiring, the radiator,
the gearbox, the tails shaft, and the rest of the new bits. This
took from about 10pm until 8pm the following night when the engine
was fired for the first time in the car. This was an exciting time,
but proved to be a bit problematic, as it was first found that the
nose of the gearbox was hitting the crank. This problem fixed, we
tried again, and all sounded better. The new Willwood callipers
were installed in the mean time, ensuring that we could stop when
we had to. Kerstin sourced and fitted new stickers, and the whole
car polished to look better than it ever had. It went on to the
trailer for the drive to Phillip Island.
On the morning of the race also |
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Off the trailer in the morning we found that we
had no drive though the engine and clutch seemed to be working fine.
So our with the gearbox to find that the clutch fork was fouling
on the back of the bell housing. So with a nip and a tuck on the
bell housing, it was all ready to go again. This time it all worked.
The spoilers were added, the tyres put on, pressures done, and driven
straight to scrutineering, then straight on to the track for race
1. Starting from the rear as we had missed qualifying due to the
gearbox problems, the Mk1 took off slowly as a systems check for
the first bit of the race. On lap one the car sounded fantastic,
and it all seemed to have been worth the effort. On lap 2, the car
sounded a bit off beat, and in a familiar sight, we watched the
engine explode in a cloud of dollars (smoke) to pull up in the same
spot it had the first time….
This was a big bang, only 7000rpm max on the tacho,
and the the block had about 5 holes in it that were not meant to
be there, including one big enough to put your hand in. To show
we are suckers for punishment, we were immediately on the phone,
sourcing replacement parts to see try to hurry the return along.
We organised the new parts in no time, actually
taking delivery of them is another story. After 5 months, the engine
was back together. It wasn’t as easy as you would guess though.
On inspection of the top end, thigs were not quite how they should
have been. The buckets were wearing very badly, and so was the cam.
We found that the valve spring/collet/retainer combination was just
plain wrong. The valve springs were all different heights, and pounds
at the seat. It seems that the Mini cooper S collets and retainers
were not the way to go. They held the retainers about 2 mm too low,
causing the valve spring pressures to be way too high, as well as
looking like they were coil binding. In all, the work on the head
has been a complete disaster. It cost $2000 for the porting and
setup of the cams, buckets, retainers and shims. Of this, all but
the porting has been replaced or fixed. So time to replace the items,
After a long search we found some appropriately sized shims, and
some cosworth valve stem seals from S&M Motorsport. Next we
found some APE Kawasaki Z900 valve springs, to replace the rubbish
that was in it. Then more searching found some more Kawasaki collets
that held the retainers exactly 2mm higher than what they were.
Finally a setup where everything was where it should be.
In the mean time, another block was sourced, after
the original one we got was found to have been cracked down one
of the bores already. This new block was well seasoned, found in
long grass in a friends back yard, but surprisingly it did polish
up quite nicely. The rods finally arrived, well before the pistons
which took take far longer to finish than originally expected. A
trip to England supplied the new Dry Sump kit (pump, sump, pulleys
belts etc) 8 Valves and a Cosworth 4X4 Crankshaft. Of the engine
hardware, the only items not replaced were the retainters, the cams
and the head itself.
The engine was completed with one week to go before
the comback race at Phillip Island. The engine was installed across
the weekend, with a small problem being traced back to the clutch
plates on the AP twin plate clutch being installed in the wrong
order, stopping the bell housing from properly pulling up. By Sunday
Afternoon, the engine was ready to be started, so the computer map
was installed in the ECU. Whilst preparing for the dyno on the Tuesday,
We purchased the Self Mapping software for the Autronic ECU, and
the new version of the tuning software. This later proved to be
certainly worth the cost, showing us a few little problems before
they became bigger problems.
The 50K plate at phillip Island in 1999 |
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The dyno session came and went uneventfully at
Bog Cog Offroad in Clayton. The engine was run in, then tuned up
to 8500rpm, getting 121Kw at the rear wheels. This compared to the
last engine that got 225hp at the flywheel on Dougal McDougals engine
dyno. During Sunday of the first event at Phillip Island, the cam
cover was removed from the engine to check the clearances on head.
This found a new problem for us, with the case hardening chipping
off the exhaust camshaft. After much discussion, it was found that
the Cosworth buckets are a hard metal, as are the Cosworth Cams,
once they have been welded up to build them up from standard. This
is causing a problem as the two hard surfaces are causing the cam
to come apart.
Where have we gone into the year 2000 with the
Mk1?? Well here we are in Mid April, and still waiting for the cams
from Tighe Cams. There have been many reasons for this, but all
I know is that we have had to pay $200 to repair the cams, which
we have wrecked again due to the lateness of the cams. Another $250
for lash caps that we shouldn’t have had to buy, plus another
$200 or so to repair the old ones again once the new cams arrive…
Most unsatisfactory I do believe. I have also heard from a few others
that this cam breaking up stuff is a known problem with this cam
and bucket combination, though it does not always happen. It would
have been nice to have known this up front.
With help from Defuse Diabates, we have made changes
to the car, in the form of new panels, forest arch flares, new paint
job, cut from the struts forward off the car and added a new spoiler.
We also repaired panhard rod, added an oil cooler, repaired the
gearbox, replaced the lay shaft, and added lowering blocks to the
rear of the car.
The car was stripped back to bare white by Wayne,
a new team member, Kerstin, karl and myself over a few weekends.
Below is how it looked when we finally finished removing all the
blue stripes from the car, sitting in the painters garage ready
to be done.
With the paint job completed, it was the beginning
of the refitting process. The engine, and the repaired gearbox went
in, along with the wiring, and the oil cooler, and the mounting
of the spoiler was completed.
The car had then to be sent off to get the stickers
made, including the numbers, the defuse diabetes logos, the TM Automatics
stuff etc. This finally made the car look more how we had intended
in the first place.
A rundown of the first few rounds:..............................................................
So off to Sandown for the first round of this year,
with a car that was untested, due to waiting for the cams stuffing
up our timing for dyno testing and track testing. So we turned up
on the Friday, and practiced, finding that the car was overheating,
and not sounding quite on song. The overheating was the main problem,
so we worked on that all weekend, changing many items across the
weekend, trying to bring the temps under control. After qualifying
in 6th place, Karl moved up a few spots until Proudfoot decided
to turn across the front of the car into turn 3 (causing the broken
spoiler shown below with Barry just behind). After stopping to remove
the spoiler, Karl dropped back a few spots, only to be worsened
by the fact that he was black flagged for speeding in pit lane.
So when he came back in again, he decided to DNF as he thought the
car was running too hot.
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Over the Saturday night, we repaired the spoiler,
and tried to fix the overheating problem until late into the evening,
eventually getting it looking almost respectable. The second race
had Karl starting from the back of the grid, moving quickly through
the field up into 4th place, with the car running much better. After
passing the MR2 of Ken Hastings, Karl moved into the 3rd place,
where he looked destined to stay, until Trevor’s car caught
fire down the back straight, and Karl moved into 2nd place. This
is where he stayed until the finish of the race 2 laps later. Although
most of his race was well done, Karl was able to destroy a few hours
work by hitting a witches hat, and bending the spoiler right back
to the tyre again. This time it was just race tape to finish the
job. In the last race, Karl went straight to the lead, but had to
battle overheating, which was causing the rev limit to come down,
to a point where the car would not rev over 4000rpm. He battled
on to the finish, ending up 4th in the race, and 3rd outright for
the weekend. The first real racing trophy we have ever won as a
team.
Next it was off to Winton in early April.The Weekend
started with the Cams once again not arriving, though we are getting
used to this now. So off to the Dyno we went on Wednesday night,
just to check that it was running ok. Unfortunately, it was not,
the engine was off song a little, and the power was down by 30kw
at the rear wheels. It was determined that it may have been a broken
valve spring causing this problem, so the head was removed Wednesday
night, and taken done to BnB Engine services for checking. Stewy
and Joe were, as usual, extremely helpful in getting this done in
the rush that it had suddenly become. The car was then moved down
to TM Automatics where we did the rest of the preperation work on
the car. With an enormous effort from all, the engine was completely
checked over mechanically, and given a clean bill of health. This
took till about 3am, and we then reassembled the engine. By 5am,
the engine was together, and the final work was done. The cars were
loaded, and we left as the sun rose at 6am on Friday morning in
the pouring rain.
The Friday practice was interrupted by constant
rain. with pools of water across the track. During this practice,
we determined that the engine problem had not been fixed, but had
at least determined that it was not a mechanical engine problem.
All that was left was to check the fuel and ignition systems. We
found that the fuel pressure was fine when the problem was occurring,
so we now assumed that the engine problem was ignition.
Saturday morning, after changing the ignition coil
and after checking as much of the ignition system as possible, we
started our qualifying session. With a final one lap run, the car
did a 1:34.2, to qualify in 3rd place on the grid.
Starting from 3rd place, the car jumped well off
the start to be equal second into turn 1, but a slide on turn 1,
pushed the car back to 4th place. Unfortunately, the car was deemed
to have jumped the start, thanks to a clutch that graps when revved
over 7500. So into the pits for a stop go penalty, losing 2 more
spots. The escort raced out of the pits to retake 6th place, then
5th place before laps stopped the persuit of 4th and 3rd places....
Race 2 sunday morning left us still with the engine
missfire up high, but still able to run the car. This time the start
was without incident, keeping the engine revs down till the green
light was on, to avoid creeping. Unfortunately, the car was blocked
by a poor start from the car in front, and we again dropped down
the field. From 6th place, we made our way into 5th quickly, but
took some time to pass proudfoot into 4th place. The persuit of
the 3rd place car was then on, but we again ran out of laps, ending
up 4th.
Race 3 Sunday afternoon left us starting in 4th
place. A good start had the escort alongside the leading escort
into turn 1, but on the outside, and left to drop back to 3rd when
unable to hold the outside line through turn 2. The fast running
Trevor McGuiness went passed us into second, when we also moved
up into third place. This is how we finished the weekend.
So the result for the weekend for us was great,
with an outright third place in the category, and a third place
in the 1600-2000cc class.
Ahead of us we have Phillip Island on the 10th
and 11th of June, with not too much work to do. The cams need replacing,
the engine misfire needs finding and fixing, the front spoiler needs
remounting, some diffs need setting up. Also, the front shocks need
adjusting, and we need to buy a new race suit each as CAMS have
changed race suit regulations, and we all now require new ones
- Name: Jamie Augustine
- Birthdate: 28/09/72
- Birthplace: Melbourne
- Occupation: Test systems Co-Cordinator (IT)
- Goals: to win u/2 litre national series
- Favourite Music: Nrivana
- Favourite Food: Pizza (is there anything else)
- Favourite Drink: Scotch
- First Race: Winton 1995
- Current Car: Mk1 Escort as above
- Sponsors: TM Automatics, B&B Engine Services, McDougal
Engine Dyno Services, Rowville Exhausts
- Best Result: Last to 4th in the wet at Winton this year (then
crashing whilst leading in the next race)
- Biggest Thrill: Doing a 1:52 at the island with a carbied pinto....
- Favourite Story Coming from 4th place in the pouring rain in
someone elses car, passing the car owner, then in half a lap,
catching and passing into second, then in 2 corners catching and
passing the leader, only to slide off into the wall 1 corner later,
throwing away the easiest win, and the only chance I have ever
had at winning so far....
Here is a photo of the start of the race, then me going into 2nd
place in that race.... (Inspired by Ayrton Senna 1993 British GP
??)
Race Diary (Follow the Defuse Diabetes Mk1 Escort's
2000 Season)
Round 1: Sandown
The Defuse Diabetes Escort shows promising form
in a positive start to the season.
The week leading up to the race included a night
at Moonee Valley at a dinner to show the car, where it looked great,
all shiney and new.
Wednesday night, worked till 5am putting engine,
gearbox, wiring, plumbing and fuel lines in the car.
Thursday night, started car, loaded it onto the
trailer, went down to TM Automatics to finish work on it, put in
Gearbox fluid, diff fluid etc. Got home at 3am.
Friday Morning, up at 6am, drive to Sandown, get
car ready to race. Do wheel alignment, ride height, fuel car, do
tyre pressures, wheel nuts, final checks. -car overheating during
the practice, otherwise fine.
-Second Practice, car still getting hot, decide that we need to
do something more about it.
-Go to TM Automatics to get bits to insatll a thermostat, and ducting
to force air from the brake ducts to in front of the radiator.
Saturday morning.
Slight teething problem with car earth wire causing guages to read
inaccurately, disrupt qualifying, still qualify in 6th place.
Race 1, car up from 6th to 4th, when Barry Proudfoot
decides to turn in on a corner when there was already a car along
side him, and breaks front spoiler off car. Karl pits, we pull front
spoiler off car, and he heads back out again. Karl comes in with
the car getting hot and we DNF.
Saturday night, the pit crew work till late fixing
the spoiler, making almost half of it out of aluminum, by Sunday
morning it looks much better.
Sunday
Race 2 for the weekend, the car starts in last, and is in 4th by
half way round the track. The car moves into 3rd place by passing
Hastings down the back straight. Trevors car retires with a heating
problem, and we move into second place. Finish the race in second.
Race 3
Start off the front, and move straight into the lead, leading for
the first 2 laps. The car starts to overheat again, and we have
to slow. 3 cars pass us before the finish, and we end up 4th. Not
the finish we would have liked, but none the less, we are still
in a reasonable position in the championship after the first round.
Thanks to all who helped us reach the first round,
including Stuart Thomas, Wayne Zaccaria, Kerstin Hahn, Adam Russell,
Trevor Mcguiness, Danny Mischok, Danny Pullens and Robbie Pullens
amongst many others.
To do for the next round.
Sort out the Overheating problem
Change Camshafts
Dyno Engine for more power
Get spoiler repaired and a spare one made
Round 2: Winton
Round 2 of the Under 2 litre Sports Sedan series
saw the first ever Outright and Class podium finish for the Defuse
Diabetes Mk1 Escort.
The Weekend started with the Cams once again not
arriving, though we are getting used to this now. So off to the
Dyno we went on Wednesday night, just to check that it was running
ok. Unfortunately, it was not, the engine was off song a little,
and the power was down by 30kw at the rear wheels. It was determined
that it may have been a broken valve spring causing this problem,
so the head was removed wednesday night, and taken doen to BnB Engine
services for checking. Stewy and Joe were, as usual, extremely helpful
in getting this done in the rush that this had suddenly become.
The car was then moved down to TM Automatics where we did the rest
of the preperation work on the car. With an enormous effort from
all, the engine was completely checked over mechanically, and given
a clean bill of health. This took till about 3am, and we then reassembled
the engine. By 5am, the engine was together, and the final work
was done. The cars were loaded, and we left as the sun rose at 6am
on Friday morning in the pouring rain.
The friday practice was interrupted by constant
rain. with pools of water across the track. During this practice,
we determined that the engine problem had not been fixed, but had
at least determined that it was not a mechanical engine problem.
All that was left was to check the fuel and ignition systems. We
found that the fuel pressure was fine, even when the problem was
occurring, so we now assumed that the engine problem was ignition.
Saturday morning, we started qualifying after changing
the ignition coil and after checking as much of the ignition system
as possible. With a final one lap run, the car did a 1:34.2, to
qualify in 3rd place on the grid. Starting from 3rd place, the car
jumped well off the start to be equal second into turn 1, but a
slide on turn 1, pushed the car back to 4th place. Unfortunately,
the car was deemed to have jumped the start, thanks to a clutch
that graps when revved over 7500. So into the pits for a stop go
penalty, losing 2 more spots. The escort raced out of the pits to
retake 6th place, then 5th place before laps stopped the persuit
of 4th and 3rd places....
Race 2 sunday morning left us still with the engine
missfire up high, but still able to run the car. This time the start
was without incident, keeping the engine revs down till the green
light was on, to avoid creeping. Unfortunately, the car was blocked
by a poor start from the car in front, and we again dropped down
the field. From 6th place, we made our way into 5th quickly, but
took some time to pass proudfoot into 4th place. The persuit of
the 3rd place car was then on, but we again ran out of laps, ending
up 4th.
Race 3 Sunday afternoon left us starting in 4th
place. A good start had the escort alongside the leading escort
into turn 1, but on the outside, and left to drop back to 3rd when
unable to hold the outside line through turn 2. The fast running
Trevor McGuiness went passed us into second, when we also moved
up into third place. This is how we finished the weekend.
So the result for the weekend for us was great,
with an outright third place in the category, and a third place
in the 1600-2000cc class.
Ahead of us we have Phillip Island on the 10th
and 11th of June, with not too much work to do. The cams need replacing,
the engnie missfire needs finding and fixing, the front spoiler
needs remounting, some diffs need setting up, the front shocks need
adjusting, and we need to buy a new race suit each as CAMS have
changed race suit regulations, and we all now require new race suits....
Thanks to Stewy and Joe from BnB for their extrodinary
help when we really needed it, along with Gerry for his tuning and
fixing help, Ian from Bog Cog for his dyno time, Trevor, Scotty,
Adam and Kimon for their hours of assistance and advice, Wayne for
is invaluable pit work, Kerstin for her assistance, and of course
Peter Arnold from Defuse Diabetes for his help to get us here...
Round 3: Phillip Island Raceway (10-11
June)
The Defuse Diabetes Mk1 Escort sports sedan finished
on the podium again this weekend at Phillip Island. With 3rd place
in class and 3rd place outright from the just completed round #3
of the Victorian 2 litre and under sports sedan series. This places
the car in equal second place in the series with four rounds left
for this year.
Race week started with the new camshafts arriving
from Qld, and being installed by Stwey from BnB Engine services
in time for our first dyno session on Wednesday. The missfire that
dogged the car throughout the last two races was still there at
the dyno, and left us wondering what might be causing it. After
replacing the ignition system from the 1 year old MSD to a Bosch
HEI, suddenly the missfire was gone... So the mystery was solved...
Away we went to purchase our own HEI module, wiring, connectors,
and alike. After taking half of Thursday off work, the new ignition
system was installed, the dizzy repaired by Gerard Rattigan, and
I installed the lot in preparation for the next dyno session. Here
the car was checked for full power, which it had, and the fuel mixtures
were adjusted.
From here the new hawk brake pads were installed,
causing much drama as they seized themselves onto the rotors after
only a few medium pace uses on Thursday night. Working right through
o remove the pads and rotors to have the checked. Installed the
brakes and pads friday morning, retested the brakes, fine this time,
fitted new spoiler, did wheel allignment, ride height, camber and
caster, loaded the car and tools into the trailer, and off we went.
Qualifying went well with the car running well,
beating the cars previous best lap time of 1:51.1 with a 1:50.3.
This was still only enough for 4th place on the grid for race 1,
but the car was a bit lose in the rear, so more time would come
with some changes.
For race 1, we added more rear downforce, evening
the cars handling out, seeing the car race up into 2nd place early
in the race. The fastest lap time dropped to a 1:48, the fastest
lap of the whole race, but still too far back from the leader to
challenge
Race 2 was intended to be more of the same, but
didnt end up that way. Both Trevor McGuiness and The Defuse Diabetes
escort jumped the start with their clutches creeping the cars when
they were revved. This earned the two drivers stop/go penalitys,
pushing them to last place. From here they raced hard, pushing back
through the field, to finally finish in 11th place, a slightly disapointing
finish, but better than a DNF.
Race 3 saw the car start 11th, and power quickly
into third place, and get stuck behind the MR2 of Ken Hastings.
The race was then stopped at half way due to oil down on the track.
On the restart, the Defuse Diabetes Escort rocketed into the lead,
only to run wide through turn 2 and let Trevor and Ken back through.
Only a lap later, and The #55 Escort was trying to pass Ken Hastings
when they touched, and Ken went off the track backwards. With only
one lap to go, we held second place, to take third place for the
weekend.
Another good finish for us, with the car becoming
more reliable, and having a pace to match it with the fastest cars
in the class. The next round is at Calder Park Raceway on the 5-6th
of August. The challenge for us till then is to sort out the creeping
problem evident during race starts, and of course, search for more
power... you can never have too much power...
Round 4: Calder Park Raceway (5-6 Aug)
Another Solid 3rd place for the Defuse Diabetes
Mk1 Escort.
After problems withe jumping the start over the
last few rounds of the series, we have been making a few changes
to the car to ensure clean getaways. This along with changes to
the fuel lines, axles, and battery location have been the total
of the changes made to the Escort between rounds 3 and 4 of the
series. Reliability rather than more speed has been the emphasis,
and seems to be getting us at least reliable, if not gaining us
race wins.
Friday 4th of August
Private practice on Friday the 4th of August gave
us clear skys and good weather. An excellent chance to test where
we were in terms of speed compared to others in the championships.
The Under 2 litre Sports Sedan lap record was 1:04.37, but we had
not been here for a few years so didnt know what to expect. We started
doing times of 1:06, but got down to 1:04.7 by the end of the day,
only .4 off the lap record. Over the day we had an Exhaust break
and bounce down the road (due to a broken locator tab) and a starter
motor give up working. Both quickly fixed.
Saturday 5th of August
Qualifying started with us getting stuck in traffic,
giving us plently of slow times. Finally a few clear laps saw us
get a 1:04.3, equalling the lap record. A slight problem during
qualifying was a dogy stopwatch, showing times about 3 seconds slower
than the actual times. So the lap board was showing 1:07 when the
laptimes were 1:04. this problem aside, we ended up qualifying in
third place, with the front 2 cars running times in the 1:03's,
under the lap record by a second.
Race 1 Saw us go from 3rd on the grid to almost
last, as I almost stalled the car on take off from the line. From
here we pushed back past the traffic as fast as possible, making
it back up to third place with 1 lap to go. On the last lap, whilst
slowing down with no one behind me able to catch up, The lead car
came back upon us. He had been in for a stop/go penalty for jumping
the start, and was coming back through the field. I was able to
just hold him off to take third place in the race, a good comeback
considering how poor the start to the race
was.
Sunday 6th of August.
Race 2 meant starting from 3rd place and was an
enthralling battle for the lead. Peter Elvey took off into the lead,
with Trevor in second, with me in third, and Luke Mcpherson off
a bit in fourth. The first few laps saw me pass trevor into second,
then push Peter around the lap till all 4 of us came into turn 1
together. In a high speed braking duel, Elver repassed Trevor, whist
I ranged up alongside them. Then from behind came Luke who dived
up the inside of me, leaving the Diabetes Escort pushed back to
4th place. From here I battled to find a way passed Elvey into 3rd,
but ran out of laps to finish 4th.
Race 3 we started from fourth, and with a good
start, jumped straight into third place. From here I battled with
luke for the first lap until something went bang in the rear of
the car under brakes behind Luke. I slowed, trying to determine
what the noise was, letting the field behind catch back up. With
the noise going
away, I sped back up, just enough to hold the rest of the field
back, and maintain 3rd place for the rest of the race.
A third place outright, and third in class for
the Defuse Diabetes Escort was a strong outcome, leaving us well
in the hunt for this uears championship. The current pointscore
is as follows
Luke McPherson 204
Diabetes Escort 55 200
Trevor McGuinness 200
Mark allan 174
For next round, a new Exhaust is in order, and
an investigation into the noise from the last race.
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