TRACK READY
Mark gives the EsCos some overdue love and attention as he gets everything prepared for some summer track action…
QUICK SPEC 577bhp and 558lb.ft Cossie YB ■ DPE big tooth gearbox ■ Quaife diffs front and rear ■ Black Art Designs coilovers ■ six-degree rear beam ■ AP Racing 380mm 6-pot front brakes ■ 300mm rear discs ■ Carbon roof, WRC rear wing, and bonnet vents ■ Porsche Acid Green ■ WRC kit
It’s been a quiet few weeks for the EsCos, after replacing the broken front diff I had hoped to get out on track as often as I could, but I’ve been quite busy with one thing or another lately (not least of which, helping Hannah with her Cossie-powered Focus build) that I’ve just not had the time. But, with show season and the warmer summer weather now upon us, I thought it was about time I got the ol’ green machine ready for action again.
After laying dormant for a few weeks, when I went to start the engine I found that the starter motor had packed up. ‘No worries’, I thought, ‘I’ll just order a new one’… yeah, right. What a drama that turned out to be – wrong parts delivered,
incorrect auction listings, the wrong part numbers, everything! After the wrong part had been delivered numerous times, I lost my patience and decided to pull the old starter apart and see if I could fix it myself. Surprisingly, it was quite a nice job to do, certainly a lot less stressful than opening a box to find out it was the wrong part yet again anyway!
With that all fixed and bolted back in place it was just a case of a quick oil and filter change, top up the fluids, and it’s all good to go again. I would love to say that I’ll be thrashing it around my local track at RS Combe in a couple of weeks’ time, but the reality is that as one of the organisers of the event I’ll probably be too busy. The car is likely to be out on track a fair bit, however, as Hannah has already commandeered all the track passes and says she’ll be taking the EsCos out until her Focus is fully finished and track-ready…!
I am hoping to see a lot more track time after RS Combe, though, once I have a little more time on my hands. One of which will be Ford Fair in August – you may remember that at last year’s show was the first time I took the car out, and my very first time on the Silverstone circuit, so I’ve got unfinished business there. Hopefully Hannah will be able to join me in her Focus too, as I’m sure these two brightly-coloured, Cossiepowered track weapons will be a sight to behold.