S1 RS Turbo
This 280 bhp Series 1 RS Turbo corners hot on the heels of a string of ill fated Fords at the hands of Ross O'connell. Thankfully he wants to spare this one a trip to the scrapyard ..
Truly immaculate Series 1 will blow you away.
Totalling a much loved Blue Oval is likely to be the lowest point in any Ford fan’s motoring history. Moreover, the hours spent building, modifying and detailing a project car can be erased in an instant as a moment of madness sees your pride and joy scattered across the nation’s highways.
Of course, many such incidents are utterly unavoidable as we take to the tarmac and are at the mercy of every other road user, but it doesn’t take much taxing of the ol’ grey matter to bring to mind a mate or two who have written off their motors as a consequence of some daft driving.
Joiner, Ross O’Connell, is refreshingly up-front about his chequered driving career and
lists a number of fast Fords that have met an untimely demise in his custody. “I had a mint XR2 that I crashed within a fortnight of getting hold of its keys,” he admits. “I was so thrilled at my ability to overtake a mate’s motor that I failed to notice that the road we were travelling along was still under construction. The asphalt came to an abrupt end, the car rolled down an embankment and came to rest in a neighbouring field,” he sighs.
roll with it
Fortunately, Ross escaped the unfortunate episode without injury, but the crumpled Fez didn’t fare as well and was pronounced dead at the scene. His Mk3 Escort Cabbie met with a similar fate, and he reels off a list of other apparently neglected Blue Ovals that have passed through his hands over the years. We draw a breath of relief, however, as he assures us that his car killing came to an end as the novelty of being behind the wheel wore off. “I guess you could say that I grew up,” he reasons, before telling us that he shifted his attention away from the Ford scene to BMWs.
With Dagenham’s finest finally given a reprieve, ze Germans tamed the Yorkshireman for well over a decade before he started to entertain ideas of parking another performance oriented Ford in his garage. “I’d always wanted an Escort Series 1 RS Turbo, but had immersed myself in the world of Beemers before ever getting around to buying one. I found what looked to be a fantastic example in late 2008 and bought it with the intention of undertaking a full restoration,” he tells us.
The new arrival seemed to be the perfect candidate for the proposed plan of action, and Ross enjoyed the five short journeys that he undertook in the car before stripping it down to a rolling shell. Unfortunately, he was faced with a bigger task than he had originally anticipated as the revealed chassis bore all the hallmarks of advanced heavy corrosion and slapdash rot repairs. Left with no choice but to re- evaluate the
condition of his retro ride, he returned to the drawing board as he considered his next move.
As luck would have it, a fellow Series 1 owner offered his own motor as a suitable replacement for the eroding Escort a short while later. “The guy had spent a fortune developing an engine and transmission setup capable of delivering a huge amount of horsepower and expressed concern about selling it as a complete project due to the amount of cash that he would lose on the running gear alone,” explains Ross. Its shell and exterior bodywork had been afforded a similar level of attention, and a plan to drop the rotten car’s powertrain into the minter’s engine bay was soon concocted between the two Escort enthusiasts. Subsequently, a deal was struck, and Ross was announced as the proud owner of a second – if somewhat impotent – Series 1 RS Turbo in late 2010.
Cosmetically, the car was in such good condition that it remains more- or-less as it was at the point of purchase, although its stunning Compomotive TH2 alloys were briefly separated from each corner. “I bought the car without its engine and gearbox, but was disappointed to learn that the wheels were sold to a third party before I had a chance to collect the keys,” recalls Ross. “I managed to track down the guy that had bought the rare rims and spent the following six months pestering him into selling them to me until he’d had enough of my constant badgering and gave in to my demands!” he laughs.
swap shop
His earlier RS Turbo’s 1.6-litre CVH lump was liberated from its original home and was sent to a local engine expert for a complete rebuild. It presented an opportunity to introduce parts that would yield more power, and Ross soon picked up the ‘phone to Jano at Odd Kidd Creations with a debit card keen to shed weight. “I wanted to buy as many items as I could from a single source and knew that Jano would be the guy that I would send the car to for its eventual mapping session. It made sense to order the required bits and pieces from him, and I was soon
“Jano reckons that we should be
seeing around 280bhp”
offloading a mass of forged parts in the workshop of my engine builder,” he says. Wossner oversized pistons, H-beam rods, all new bearings, pumps and gaskets join a ported and polished cylinder head with a rebuilt valvetrain and a Piper camshaft. A Stage 3 T3 turbocharger and actuator also make an appearance, while a Group A air filter, a Cossie throttle body and a modified Fiesta RST inlet join a Mongoose stainless steel exhaust system with a four-inch tailpipe in an effort to increase airflow.
The engine’s heightened fuel demands are managed by an EsCos P8 ECU with a Collins Motorsport chip running an Odd Kidd custom map. It’s connected to a bespoke loom with Raychem sleeving (a durable, lightweight wiring insulation solution found in many modern racing cars), and Ross is looking forward to a final mapping session now that the potent powerplant is bolted squarely into the pristine engine bay of his fantastic Ford. “Jano reckons that we should be seeing around 280bhp,” he smiles, although is wary of committing to a firm figure until he sees the results for himself.
transmission vamp
There’s a chance that a stock Series 1 gearbox might complain when dealing with much more power than it was originally intended to cope with. Ross has attempted to future proof the unit in his own car by installing a CTS Stage 2+ replacement equipped with cryogenically treated gears, a Quaife limited-slip differential, a lightened flywheel, an AP Racing four-paddle clutch and a Puma gear linkage. The Puma kit is a straightforward swap with the Escort’s factory equivalent (an item that many owners cite as delivering excessive play) and is said to improve shifting by introducing tighter gear changes.
The Escort’s stopping power has been suitably beefed-up with a Hi-Spec billet four-pot kit at the front, EBC pads and Tarox fluid, while Avo fully adjustable coilovers, an Odd Kidd steering column brace, and polybushes stiffen the car’s overall ride and sharpen its handling abilities.
Interior updates have been kept to a minimum with the only notable additions being Ford Racing boost and oil pressure gauges housed in a custom pod, a retrimmed four-spoke RS steering wheel and some Alpine ICE, though that’s not to suggest that there hasn’t been work involved in its presentation. “I bought the car with a stripped dash that had been chucked into the rear cabin. Screws and brackets were lying all over the floor and it took me an age to sort them before reassembly,” reminisces Ross, before confirming that it’s not a job that he wishes to tackle again in a hurry. We don’t blame him!
here to stay
Now that his superb Series 1 is up and running following the headache of dashboard installation, there’s another feature of Mr O’Connell’s colourful bygone driving days that we don’t want to see a repeat of. Can you guess what it is? “No fear!” he cries, as he realises that we’re referring to the fate of the unfortunate Fords that he’s despatched to the great scrapyard in the sky. “This car is only coming out during the show season, and even then I’m reluctant to take to the road!” he assures us. So it seems another tidy Series 1 RS Turbo is sticking around for the long term... we hope!