Ross Faggotter

Body/chassis purchased, still at Peter's awaiting crating/freighting to S. Australia. Will be powered by Nissan CA18DET 1800cc Turbo engine, 175hp standard, 200+ with a bit of tinkering.  Esky diff to be replaced with Ford Motorsport 4 pinion steel, LSD unit. Will be first one into Oz.  Lots of problems getting it to pass Australian Design rules, & lots of costs.

Update info 22/10/02
The Body/Chassis kit arrived months ago, with a "crating/freighting Import duty & tax bill much higher than the Kit price. The Nissan Front Cut was stripped, new engine & G/box mounts designed, built & installed, then the engine installed. That was after the chassis on the centre right side just forward of the firewall, was cut & widened. To clear the clutch hydraulic
slave cylinder. Even though the engine was placed 1" to the left !

The Escort steering column is straight, Yeah, straight thru the oil filter. So this is gone in lieu of the Nissan setup, which uses two small universal joints to offset the column about 4 inches, then using a modified Honda light van steering column, thru a self centring
eyebolt, & another uni joint close to the Escort box, the Honda spline actually matches the Escort spline !!

This little bit took over three months of searching, talking to wrecking yard blokes & two trips to Adelaide, (300 miles round trip each time) to get the required parts !! Oh! & about $250 for parts.

Next, the Nissan G/box spline had to be matched to the Escort drive shaft & universal joint flange on the diff. Thankfully, Hardy Spicer Specialists, again in Adelaide, could match & make all this, for "only" $242. Months ago, I had bought a Mk2 rear axle, stripped it, welded on the necessary brackets & had it ready for installation. However, after fitting new bearings, I found that both axles were bent & so are the brake drums. I have replaced the axles, but can get no straight drums, as yet.

Incidentally, NO NEW Escort axles are obtainable in Oz. Except on special order from a custom builder at about $1000 per pair. Very high quality, very strong, but very expensive.
What is the supply like in your part of the world ?

Both front lower A frames & all 4 rear leading/trailing arms were built from stronger material. The front lower tube is one gauge heavier & was carefully hot bent to Peter's specs. before being welded into a shorter outer threaded tube that takes the lower rod end. Then the rear tube was welded on, still straight. although with a cut & weld 45 deg. bend to a straight piece only 3/4" long that is welded to the poly bush tubes.

The rear Trailing tubes are 50x20x2mm instead of 40x19x1.6 as Peter advised that the lighter ones bent with us "heavyweight" drivers. The Leading tubes are 20mm square x 2mm instead of 19mm round x 1.6. The Panhard rod has been made with a 5/8 whit. threaded section
added near the chassis end & the axle brackets were shifted out as far as possible & down an inch. On full axle travel the Rod rotation causing sideways movement of the axle has been reduced by a half. The chassis end has a 40x40x3mm tube that lowers this end enough such that the rod now clears the bottom of the diff front housing by 1/4" As it was, it hit before the axle reached full down !!

Front brake disks were ditched in favour of custom built, from the correct cast iron, to 12" diameter by 11mm thick over the braking pad area, thinned to 8mm thick for the centre section. (reduce weight !) The standard 2 piston callipers are being used with a 10mm extension plate to shift them out the required distance.

The Nissan CA18DET engine is a turbo driven type. 18 is 1800cc, D is double overhead cams, E is electronic injection & T is turbo !! The Turbo was taken to the Adelaide Turbo Specialists, found to be wanting, so was upgraded !!! Free Flowed, larger compressor wheel,
higher quality turbine wheel & then the turbine housing "high temperature ceramic" coated.
Bill, at ATS said that "upgrade" was good for another 40 BHP per normal dyno tests. It will need to be, it cost over $1000 !!!!

From 3" x 14g. steel bends & pipe, I have created a "luverly" free flow dump pipe, which has also been hi-temp coated. Cost this time, only $140 or so. Bill advises that this should be worth another 30 HP. A 3" exhaust system is yet to be built.

That just about gets me up to date ! Oh! Patterns have been designed & made for the new clutch & brake master cylinder housings, ex the Nissan, as the Escort ones do not match any more. Clutch is hydraulic operation & the Nissan pedals are "stronger & newer looking than the old "bent tin look" Escort types. They are the next job to be attacked !!