Hello community, I am a newbie to this forum and I am currently building a Escos here in Japan. I just wanted to share this project and was wondering if anybody had some input or opinions on this tale....
Firstly, my car is a series II small turbo built in 12/1995 in Germany and it is private import from that is a strange combination of equipment.
I am not sure of the exact spec but this car is hex cloth with Recaro seats, no sun roof, and it does not have the pop out rear 1/4 windows. Not a motorsport shell as it has a proper build plate but i am still scratching my head on this build package. It has power door locks and A/C and came with a alloy coolant and power steering pump reservoir that is not from Bailey, not sure who made it... and it also had very stiff rancho suspension in the rear with strut tower bars both front and back. A single large diameter exhaust system may be a scorpion? If you have any knowledge of this build spec, please chime in and shed some light for me.
I decided to bite the bullet and had some one-off Ohlins DFV coilovers made for this car. These are fully adjustable full tap with 20 way combined compression and rebound clickers. I have initially set this car at a 45mm drop from start. Here are a few photos of the dampers.
The front spring perch is small enough to accomodate the wide wheels I have planned next.
The rears were specifically designed to be placed inverted as to not interfere with the inner sheet metal upright of the rear turret.
As you can see, the damper placement and configuration is completely different than the Gaz or other off the shelf coilover that is available. The best thing is that this ride is amazingly supple and compliant and is beyond my wildest expectations as to what a coil-over will fee like on a Escos. Best dollar I have ever spent on a car. Period!
So, now that I have achieved the target ride height, the next order of the day was wheels... It is my personal opinion that a 40 series tire will offer better grip than, say a 35 aspect ratio..... correct? It appears that every body in Europe builds the Escos on 18 wheels now days with a 255/35 on 18 wheels with a few brave souls venturing on 19 wheels... News flash! my build is on 17 wheels shod with 245/40 tires on 9J width. I will have to settle on a 114.3 bolt pattern and use PCD changers to make this work, but it should be OK..
BBS never built a 4 lug 17 inch LM beyond 7J width.... The wheels pictured above is a 9 inch width that I have achieved using a 4 lug center disk, mated to a 9 inch barrel that is reverse mounted... my target offset is planned to be ET10-15 and the lips will protrude 2 or 3 mm and the 245 tire shoulders should, if all goes as planned, contour back inside the fenders with the camber I have with this reduced ride height... Any experts out there that can offer me wisdom on this? God-for-bid, this is a JDM rice stance.... but, it does look the part,
For anybody that is going to say that a 17 is too small, here is a photo of the wheel, still at a 5 lug, placed in front of the stock wheel for size comparison.
This is where I am today... Next will be the AP calipers...
I am also having molds made to extend the main wing similar to the 3 door RS 500 in carbon fibre... will call it the 500 Escos CF Rear Lip.... Should look wicked when mated to a CF lower Wolf extension.
pictures on this and future developments as it arrives..
Thanks for looking,
TK