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ESCORT COSWORTH V6: SHADOW PLAY

Jamie Kent’s silver dream machine appears at first glance to be a flawless Escort Cosworth converted to WRC body specs. But there’s a whole lot of smoke-and-mirrors going on here… Is that a V6?

Feature first appeared in Fast Ford magazine. Words: Dan Bevis. Photos: Paddy McGrath

There are things that we see in this world, and things that we don’t see. Sometimes things are deliberately hidden, sometimes we simply don’t notice what’s sitting right in front of us. We order a Friday night takeaway and don’t give a second thought to the moped rider’s horrible journey through the rain to deliver it; we leave our newspapers on train seats without wondering who’ll pick them up; we buy cheap milk in the supermarket without thinking about how the farmers are making any money. There’s always a story. Always something going on behind the scenes. Very little in life only exists superficially at the surface, beyond politics and daytime TV.

This Escort Cosworth is a case in point. If you were to see it out and about on the streets, you’d notice the aesthetic alterations immediately; the slippery silver form has been treated to the imposing smiley rear spoiler of the WRC Escorts in place of the iconic whaletail. The front wings and bumper are WRC items too, as are the stubby mirrors. It’s a strong look, as just 50 official WRC-spec Escorts were built between 1997-98, so it’s not like you’re always seeing them on the road. The comprehensive reworking of the Group A rally cars (which were, after all, the reason that the homologation-special Escort RS Cosworth road car existed in the first place) into the WRC-spec machines brought more power, better aero, and seismic chassis alterations. So when you see WRC aero addenda swapped onto a road car, a part of you tingles with anticipation thinking about what else might have been changed.

If you were to see this car parked up at a show, you’d be able to take a closer look – and that’s when alarm bells might start to ring. Peeking into the interior, there are two clues that all is not what it seems here. First of all, there’s the non-standard digital dash. And secondly, there’s the gearstick. It’s an automatic. That’s not right, is it?

Ah, but what’s ‘right’ is entirely context-bound, and it’s when you dig beneath the surface of this car’s story that you unearth the inherent and glorious rightness of it all. This isn’t merely a Cossie with WRC looks. This is a comprehensively re-engineered RS, built to suit the needs and lifestyle of the dyed-in-the-wool Ford enthusiast behind it.

It all starts, back through the swirling mists of time, with a chap named Jamie Kent and a business by the name of Autograph. The former is the owner of this car, and also the proprietor of the latter — a signage company specialising in automotive applications and, specifically, motorsport graphics. Applying tidy new liveries to the latest WRC cars was Autograph’s bread-and-butter back in the day, and Jamie was the vivacious driving force behind it; it wasn’t just a job, he was involved up to the elbows in motorsport at every given opportunity, and his obsessive passion for Fords was all-consuming. Back in the late 1990s and early ’00s, criss-crossing Ireland in his black Escort RS Cosworth, Jamie was a man living his own personal fantasy: the Cossie was his dream car, something he’d promised himself he’d own by the time he was 25 and, a few weeks before that milestone, he was able to make that dream come true. Fate, however, has a cruel sense of humour. Eighteen months into RS ownership, Jamie made the difficult decision to sell his dream car in order to grow his increasingly successful and demanding business. That’s not fate though, is it? That’s just rational business sense, heartbreaking though it is. No, fate’s intervention came during a national rally event, when our man was navigating, and the car was involved in a substantial accident. It was touch-and-go, and things were looking distinctly murky for Jamie throughout his lengthy and troubled recovery, but he’s a battler. While there was talk at the time of how he might not even make it, he pushed on through and came out the other side with fresh perspective and an eagerness to crack on with life.

There was just one problem: the accident had rendered him unable to drive a manual transmission car — from this point on, it was an automatic only.

Lesser people might have thrown in the towel at this point, settling for an automatic Micra and just giving up. But not Jamie. He knew what his dream car was, and he wasn’t about to let this setback slow him down. And he had a plan.

Now, if your eyes have scanned ahead to the engine bay shots, you’ll have already seen that this Escort now runs a V6 motor. And as a diehard Ford fan, you can be sure that Jamie agonised endlessly about ripping out the YB and replacing it, questioning how he could rationally justify it, but it was all part of the bigger picture. You see, an automatic gearbox was required, and the BOB V6s sit neatly with the auto trans, and Jamie had discovered something fascinating: back in the mid-1990s, Ford had experimented with a rear-wheel-drive V6 Escort prototype — an Escort Cosworth chassis with Scorpio Cosworth running gear (see boxout). So that, essentially, is what he sought to recreate.

Not sacrilegious then, but a faithful tribute to a Ford prototype, made with all-Ford parts. It’s still a real mover too; while the BOB is about 15 bhp down on the YB, there isn’t a complex 4WD system to run through so it actually tallies up around the same at peak and, crucially, he’s actually able to drive it thanks to that self-shifting transmission!

If you comb through the build, you’ll find a remarkable dedication to keeping everything just as it would have been if Ford themselves had built this car. That original prototype played to the Escort Cosworth’s strengths while also fundamentally altering its character, and this usable tribute employs only genuine Ford parts throughout; in fact, the only part you’re likely to find without a Blue Oval serial number is that digital dash, and that’s only because the YB has a mechanical speedo and the BOB and its gearbox have electrical sensors. In essence, this is the rear-drive, V6-powered Escort RS Cosworth that Ford never built. Or, more specifically, that they built once but abandoned. Jamie’s taken that idea, made it into a daily-driven reality, and at the same time made his own dream car achievable in the face of great adversity.

So yes, there’s always something going on beneath the surface. And while the cynics may scoff at the idea of converting a genuine Cossie to RWD and sticking a V6 and an autobox in there, they don’t know the full story. This isn’t sacrilege. This is a dream come true.

Tech Spec: Escort Cosworth V6

Engine:

2.9-litre 24-valve V6 Cosworth BOB, K&N air filter, Ford EEC-V engine management with sequential multi-point fuel-injection, uprated VibraTechnics engine mounts

Transmission:

Fully-electronic, automatic Ford A4LDE gearbox with external oil cooler, complete OE Escort Cosworth rear end

Suspension:

Bilstein coilovers all round, Sierra crossmember and steering rack, independent rear transverse arms, 22 mm anti-roll bar

Brakes:

Stock Cosworth brakes: 278 mm (front), 273 mm (rear)

Wheels & Tyres:

8x18in wheels, 225/40R18 Uniroyal RainSport tyres

Exterior:

WRC front wings, WRC door mirrors, WRC front bumper, WRC rear spoiler, Morette headlights

Interior:

Cosworth Hex cloth Recaro interior, Acewell digital speedo

Source

May 6, 2021
TUNED LEON CUPRA: THE SHARPEST TOOL

It might’ve been built to take a pounding on track, but Jairm Wooldridge’s tuned Leon Cupra also retains the looks to make even the finest show car red in the face. Because, after all, image is everything…

Feature first appeared in Performance VW. Sam Preston & Adam Walker (flatoutmedia.org)

Those who haven’t attended a local track day before might be surprised to learn that it’s not normally a sea of Italian hypercars and spanking German super-saloons pouring out of the paddocks at these ever-popular events.

Instead, it’s the tight-knit community of ‘caged Clio and slick tyre-adorned Caterham owners that form the backbone of this scene, relentlessly hammering their steeds around their favourite circuits come rain or shine.

Unlike other automotive sub-cultures you may be more familiar with, this is a group where members are usually far more concerned with the likes of tyre pressures and spring rates than with paint finishes and the perfect fitment. Unless you’re Jairm Wooldridge, that is…

If there’s anyone who knows about how to make a car look good, it’s Berkshire-based Jairm. One half of Detail my Car – the first dedicated detailing studio and car care centre in the local area – he’s spent the last few years dedicating his life to the art of making vehicles appear fresher even than when they left the factory.

It’s probably little surprise to hear, then, that when it came to developing his own track day toy – that would be modified to within an inch of its life before being used and abused on a regular basis – the process would be carried out with a little more class and attention-to-detail than your regular track driver would ever dream of.

“I’ve had a fair few VAG cars in the past,” Jairm recalls. “I’ve always thought that Cupras offer great value-for-money, though.” Snapping up this second-generation SEAT Leon Cupra a few years back and initially intending to use it as the fast hot-hatch daily that these celebrated machines are so effective at being, it didn’t take long for the modifying potential of this platform to pique his interests.

Also purchasing a clean Mk3 Leon Cupra to take over the day-to-day driving duties, Jairm soon got stuck in to the task of taking this TFSI-powered Mk2 to the next level. The plan? To create an incredibly fun and competent track build, that would also retain his company’s famously impressive levels of cleanliness from top to bottom, of course.

Keen to build on the potential-packed 2.0-litre turbo unit sitting under the bonnet, Jairm enlisted the help of Nuneaton-based R-Tech Performance to help safely ramp up the power. It’s why you’ll now find a super-effective TTE420 hybrid turbocharger unit from The Turbo Engineers sitting pretty in the engine bay.

Supported with a Relentless de-cat downpipe and Milltek exhaust, as well as the likes of Audi RS4 fuel injectors and a huge R-Tech intercooler, it’s helped the SEAT develop peak performance of 426hp and 411lb ft of torque once dialled in on R-Tech’s rollers with one of their bespoke ECU calibrations.

Certainly colossal numbers from a relatively lightweight FWD hot hatch, but headline power figures were never the top priority for young Jairm. Instead, he wanted to ensure he was left with a car that was fully useable and exploitable when being given a pounding on his local race track.

Luckily, R-Tech was there to help once again, building up the impressive engine with plenty of other goodies that would ensure it kept its cool even when the going got tough. Goodies such as a trick Devilsown methanol injection system to accommodate more ignition timing without the risk of overheating, for example.

With such a significant hike in power to play with, it’s probably not a shock to hear that the car’s six-speed manual ‘box has also been bolstered up to help it continue performing at its best. Adding an all-important Wavetrac LSD to improve on-track driver thrills no-end, it also features a sturdier Helix clutch, stronger internals and a short-shifter system, too.

Sounds pretty impressive so far, right? This theme continues to the underside of the competent tuned Leon Cupra, where BC Racing coilovers, H&R ARBs and tough Revo engine/gearbox mounts keep things in check when it comes to the more twisty Tarmac. Especially when set off by those thoroughly motorsport ATS DTC wheels shod in sticky Yokohama rubber. Drool.

Keeping his sensible head on, Jairm’s opted for some pretty formidable brake upgrades, too; the front units taken from an Audi TT RS and the rears from a Golf R32.

Up until now, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was turning into just another functional track steed that Jairm would next rip the innards from in the pursuit of ultimate performance. But in fact, you couldn’t be further from the truth.

Just one look at the tuned Leon Cupra’s impressively plush and beautifully presented body and interior are enough to confirm that, somehow, this is one owner that’s managed to successfully span the notoriously fine line of maintaining a show-worthy track car.

“My favourite bits are the carbon fibre bonnet and boot lid… these took me a long time to source and came from a Supercopa race car, so are extremely light!” Jairm grins, touching on what is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sumptuous exterior upgrades. There’s also some boxy widened front arches, and a full body wrap in Audi’s Nardo Grey hue to give off an unbeatable military aesthetic to the whole thing.

Talking of military, this ties in nicely to the location of Jairm’s business: Detail my Car. “We are based at the former RAF Greenham Common site, where we occupy a 4000-square-foot workshop that was previously used to maintain the cruise missile launch trucks during the Cold War,” he nonchalantly explains. We reckon these effortlessly cool surroundings played more than a small part in the way Jairm was inspired to style his SEAT, don’t you?

In the cockpit of the beast, there’s a classy ‘clubsport’ vibe that takes the do-anything theme of the hot hatch and cranks it up to 11. Think sumptuous fixed-back Recaros, a carpeted seat-deleted rear section and a killer ICE system to ensure this is no one-trick pony and retains the comfort factor for the odd long journey here and there, too.

“I love the balance of power and handling the car now offers me. For me, it ticks all the boxes,” Jairm proudly tells us. “I use it for spirited drives and a couple of track days a year, and despite it being heavily modified it remains fairly comfortable on long runs and is no worse on fuel than it was stock!”

What is it exactly that’s so effective about Jairm’s tuned Leon Cupra here, then? Some would say the bulletproof and hilariously rapid powerplant that R-Tech has developed is undoubtedly the highlight of the entire build, and quite rightly so. But it’s the little details that Jairm has painstakingly kept to such a high standard elsewhere on this masterpiece that also wow in equal measures.

Put it all together, and you’re left with what is usually the most unforgettable machine to grace the pits at any track event it visits. The moral of this story? Track toys deserve to look awesome, too!

Tech Spec: Tuned Leon Cupra

Engine:

2.0-litre TFSI turbocharged four-cylinder (BWJ-code), The Turbo Engineers TTE420 hybrid turbocharger, custom R-Tech ECU calibration, Revo intake system, 3.5-inch Relentless de-cat downpipe, Milltek Sport cat-back Cupra R exhaust system, B8 Audi RS4 fuel injectors, Deutschwerks low-pressure fuel pump, Loba high-pressure fuel pump, R-Tech ‘Welly’ intercooler with hard pipes and bayonet delete, AKS Tuning throttle body spacer/meth port, pre-intercooler methanol nozzle, Devilsown Progressive water/methanol injection kit with Devilsown tank, solenoid and filter, WMI methanol kill switch, AKS Tuning 160bar fuel pressure relief valve, Forge Motorsport Supersize diverter valve, intake runner flap delete, Forge Motorsport coolant bottle and washer bottle pipe, Audi R8 oil cap, hydro-dipped Audi TTS engine cover, six-speed manual gearbox, Wavetrac LSD, Helix organic clutch, short-shifter with AKS Tuning solid bushes, fourth gear support, steel selector forks, brass shifter bushes

Chassis:

8.5×18” ATS DTC alloy wheels, 235/40/18 Yokohama Advan Neova AD08R tyres, Garage Midnight stud conversion, BC Racing coilovers and drop links, Superpro Anti-Lift Kit, H&R anti-roll bars (front and rear), Revo engine, gearbox and dogbone mounts, Audi TT RS four-pot brake calipers with AKS Tuning 345mm discs (front), Golf R32 brake setup with 310mm discs (rear)

Exterior:

Full Hexis Graphics vinyl wrap in Audi Nardo Grey, widened front wings, LineaR front grille, Supercopa race car carbon fibre bonnet with AeroCatches and carbon fibre boot lid, Aero front splitter and canards, BTCC rear spoiler and side skirts, Cupra R rear diffuser and splash guards, 8000k xenon DS1 bulbs, Nighteye LED full-beam bulbs, light smoke tinted rear lights, custom Cupra 420 badge

Interior:

Recaro Pole Position fixed-back bucket seats, Sabelt 4-point harnesses, rear seats removed, Tylah Motorsport bolt-in harness bar, custom flocked rear brace, removable 300mm OMP steering wheel, flocked/hydro-dipped dash trims, Hertz HDP1 amplifier, door speakers and Mille 8 sub-woofer in hidden enclosure, Pioneer DAB head unit, interior LED lighting

Source

May 5, 2021
WIDEBODY R32 GTS-T: WRENCH 32

For Jake Crouch, owning a Skyline was the be-all and end-all, so when the opportunity arose, he couldn’t resist. With years of dreaming about modifying one, it’s culminated in the widebody R32 GTS-T you see here.

Featured first appeared in Banzai magazine. Words: Joe Partridge. Photos: Chris Presley.

Some people like their cars simple. Manual choke, wind-up windows, push-button radio… everything very basic and elemental. But these people are not R32 drivers. The R32-generation Nissan Skyline is to its 1970s forebears what an iPhone is to a pair of tin cans on a string. It positively bristles with ingenious tech, surfing the zeitgeist of what’s possible in terms of geeky innovation. When it was launched in 1989 it offered a world of gizmos seldom seen in such a heady combo on a road car. Look at the ATTESA E-TS for a start – a four-wheel drive system with an active LSD that has its own computer, monitoring the car’s movements ten times every second, measuring individual wheel speed via the ABS sensors, factoring in lateral and longitudinal movement and shuffling different torque ratios to each wheel… this is some kind of sorcery, no? The sort of gadgetry you might expect on a Le Mans racer, perhaps, but surely not in a Nissan showroom, in something with number plates and a tax disc. Then there was the HICAS four-wheel steering, and all sorts of other nifty tricks. It was Inspector Gadget on wheels.

In no time at all, a generation of young enthusiasts knew every nerdy detail of the tech spec thanks to the videogames of the era, and now those whippersnappers have grown into adults who still harbour a yearning for the road-going racers of their youthful digital dreams. Just ask Jake Crouch – he’s the owner of this brutal widebody R32 GTS-T, and it’s very much a fantasy realised. “The dream from a young age was always to one day have a Skyline,” he says, “so when the opportunity came up I couldn’t resist.”

Don’t blame him really, although it’s fair to say the car you see today was quite different back then. It’s taken a huge amount of hard graft and ingenuity to transform that ugly duckling into this beautiful Midnight Purple swan – but that’s very much the name of the game for Jake’s business, 365 Performance, and all of this has been in the game-plan from day one.

“When I was a kid, my dad was always into cars,” he explains. “He was forever doing stuff to them, and he used to import a lot of cars and bikes too – so I loved them from the start. I worked on cars with him from a young age which taught me a lot, and I bought my first car when I was 16 and started modifying it straight away! I took my test three weeks after my 17th birthday, and it went from there.” In subsequent years Jake’s owned a whole host of thrilling performance machines, from Nissan Silvias to all kinds of Euro fare, and when the opportunity arose to finally acquire his very own R32 he immediately ditched his BMW 6 Series without a second thought. Because lifelong dreams are an unstoppable force… and when you know, you know. And he also knew full well what he wanted to do with it. “Within twelve hours of buying the Skyline I had changed all the seats and interior panels out for the GT-R bits, changed the wheels and bootlid, the exhaust, and fitted a front-mount intercooler,” he grins.

Time waits for no man, eh? It seems that all those years of yearning had built up a solid backlog of hopes and dreams, and Jake was champing at the bit to make stuff happen.

“When I bought the car it was about four different colours, from different panels being swapped onto it,” he continues. “So a month after buying it we set about fitting rear overfenders, fabricating wider metal front wings, and painting the whole thing one colour – which back then was its original TH1 Midnight Blue. I used the car like that over the summer and loved it. Then over the course of 2018 I slowly bought parts to do some basic power bits to the RB20 in the car, before deciding instead to just buy a forged RB25 from a friend… and things escalated from there! I ended up buying all of the power parts necessary to get a safe 5-600bhp.”

The engine spec today makes for pleasing reading, with the RB25 straight-six wearing a single custom-built Holset HX35 turbo along with a Turbosmart 45mm external wastegate and screamer. There’s a Q45 90mm throttle body and a smart fuelling system featuring Sard 1,000cc injectors and a boot-mounted swirl pot; the rebuilt head is stuffed with Supertech gear (and topped off with an RB26 cover for kicks) and the forged toys in the bottom end ensure impeccable strength. Managed by a high-end Link G4+ standalone ECU with switchable maps, it provides GT-R-shaming thrust and, of course, the drivetrain’s had to be bolstered to suit: an RB25 big-case Nissan gearbox joins a Cusco twin-plate clutch, with a custom two-piece propshaft running back to a Nismo diff. There’s absolutely zero cocking about here, this is all deadly serious stuff.
So, job done then? It might have seemed that way; a lifelong keenness for an R32 had been satisfied by a visually perfected example with a big-power heart. No more worlds to conquer? Ah, there’s always something more to do… and it turned out that the sniff of a set of supremely wide wheels led Jake to have a dramatic rethink about the Skyline’s aesthetic approach.

“My friend Sean Malone put these incredible wheels up for sale,” he recalls. “I did some workings-out, and figured that I would be able to make them fit if I fitted a Pandem widebody kit… so that became the new plan, with everything escalating from what was going to be a quick and simple build into stripping the car down to a bare shell, replacing almost every part, powdercoating everything and doing a full respray in Midnight Purple. It took three-and-a-half months of every single hour I could possibly have free to build it, from driving the car into the garage to driving it back out almost completed and onto the trailer for its first show, which was Gravity.”

It’s a pretty damned confident way to do it, pulling the fresh build straight from the garage to the showground, but this is all justly backed up by the skills of Jake and all at 365 Performance. The car received a rapturous reception at Gravity, then went straight to the Birmingham NEC for display at a round of the BDC before scurrying up to FittedUK. With the fat purple vibe at front-of-mind for every showgoer on the scene, the Skyline then went to Abbey Motorsport for final tuning and alignment. “After I got it back from Abbey, I took it out for the first time with a friend of mine, and wow – what an experience that first drive was!” Jake smiles. “I can’t even explain the pride and level of joy of knowing you’ve built something that drives amazingly and looks exactly how you hoped – it was unreal.”

Indeed, ‘unreal’ is the perfect term for this car. The R32 is already a ludicrously beguiling thing from the start, with its hyperintelligent gadgets and jewel-like chassis, and what Jake’s achieved here is to build on seeming perfection to create something astonishing. “The car was a dream project for me and is also testament to what we do here at 365 Performance,” he says. And that wraps it up in a neat little package. Sure, some crave the simple life – but where’s the challenge in that?

Tech Spec: Widebody R32 GTS-T

Engine:

RB25 straight-six, 87mm Wiseco pistons, Manley rods, Nitto crank collar, rebuilt head with Supertech components, ACL race bearings, all ARP hardware, 6Boost exhaust manifold, GReddy intake manifold, custom hybrid Holset HX35 turbo, Turbosmart 45mm external wastegate with screamer underneath, Q45 90mm throttle body, Sard 1,000cc injectors, Sytec fuel pressure regulator, Link G4+ standalone ECU with switchable maps, RB26 rocker and timing covers modified to work with RB25, Tomei valley cover, large alloy radiator with electric fans and viscous fan, large front-mount intercooler and custom pipework, Torques swirl pot with Bosch 044 pump and 400lph in-tank pump, AN6 Teflon fuel lines from tank to engine, RB25 big-case Nissan gearbox, Cusco twin-plate clutch, custom 2-piece propshaft, Nismo 1-way diff, custom gearbox mount, Hardrace engine/gearbox mounts, part-smoothed and painted engine bay

Chassis:

Custom 10×18-inch ET0 (front) and 14.5×18-inch ET-43 (rear) WEDS Kranze ERM 3-piece wheels, 265/35 (f) and 315/30 (r) Toyo Proxes R888R tyres, HSD coilovers with 12k (f) and 10k (r) springs, Chase Bays power steering reservoir and AN lines conversion, all suspension arms adjustable and bushed via Driftworks and Hardrace, polybushed throughout inc. subframes, steering rack and anti-roll bars, Driftworks front Geomaster knuckles, Hardrace HICAS delete (all lines and solenoids removed), Brembo Motorsport calipers, PBS Pads, 365mm Mercedes-Benz ML55 AMG discs, Chase Bays brake booster delete with braided lines and bias valve, calipers refinished in Milano Red, tubbed front inner arches, rear tubbed arches to allow for kit and wider wheels, chassis bracing from legs to subframe and subframe to tension braces, underside and inside arches bare-metalled and refinished

Interior:

Bride Low Max seats, R32 GT-R rear bench, GT-R interior panels and knee cushion, Takata harnesses, suede-trimmed dash, Sparco steering wheel, Kode harness bar, Braille Battery relocated and mounted in boot, fuel swirl, AEM oil temp, pressure and AFR gauges, Defi coolant temp and boost A-pillar gauges.

Exterior:

Respray in Midnight Purple, Pandem widebody kit, DMax roof spoiler, GT-R rear spoiler, smoothed boot, LED rear lights, Knight Racer/Nismo bonnet

Source

May 4, 2021