I just wanted too share, after somethng like two years, all the problems, nasty surprises and all that the Cossies finally moves on it's own, I have done about 150km's so far, the ride is nasty as the suspension is dead - waiting for pacel from Mike R, bt apart from that it looks VERY promising. It is not a Evo for sure but if I think if it as a historic car it's nice nevertheless

Suprisingly my account has become empty as well ;(


Thx goes to Mike R., Chip, NuTS RUS, cossymad, ozcos, and great many people whose nicks I cannot remember who helped me with know-how, documentation and everyone who still believed it's going to work.


If the parcel comes on time it's seeing track action on saturday

 

Nice 1 dude get some pics up.

 

Nice one Jakub, bet you're a very happy man at last

 

Whayyyy ! About time.....

 

Pictures or STFU !

 

Mike you got.....MMS

 

OK only have this one for now:

 

The coilovers came to late to be fitted, so no track action in Escos this weeked, but I will post about how it drives after the weekend.

 

The suspension setup from Mike R' fitted and I must admit it's superb for what it is. I only done maybe 40km's but on some of the very bad and some of quite good roads in the area and seems to work exceptioonally good for what it is. Never driven an Escos that drove like that myself.

 

What damper settings have you got it on?

I forgot to say for really bumpy roads to put it on the softest settings front and rear and then stiffen up a couple of clicks at a time on the front and one click on the rear until you get where you want to be.

With fractionally stiffer springs, I run the front on position 7 and the rear on zero (B-road settings - probably equivalent to your motorways ). I designed yours to have slightly softer springs so you might need to start a fraction higher on the settings.

Can we have some decent pictures now?

Not sure if I like the "for what it is" comments . You obviously can't compare it to the Proflex / Ohlins / Reijger you're used to seeing on the rally cars .

 

To be honest - I have no idea, I just drove it back home from our workshop, haven't had a look yet. It feels very promising that's all, I am not happy with the overall balance of the car as yet and I think I need the rear a bit higher, but I must get used to the car as it is hard to compare to what I am used to. I haven't driven a Cossie in 2 years.

I will check the options, as I am limited to driving slowly (engine has 700km's on it and still on running-in oil) I am not trying to take corners agresively as I cannot use throttle for rescue

Good, I feel that it's exactly what I wanted.

Sorry can't afford a camera, everything spent on Cossie I will try to provide semi-decent ones soon. I have to sort ugly registration-plate sticker that I stickered on it today to be at least half-legal on the road.


It's exactly what I was thinking about, it's not 5k quid Ohlins, but it is very good I have direct comparison as I have driven to pick the car up in our show-car Impreza which runs incredibly good JRZ RS-pro suspension, with remote canisters and seperate rebound/bump adjustments. I think the suspension setup for you is better for Cossie shell and it's a bit different character and dampers seem to be less harsh in their high speed characteristic, of course low speed is surely worse but that is a tradeoff on more comfortable road damper.

I will post more for sure when I get to drive it some more.

 

OK, there are many things to be done still so I will be asking lots of questions to you helpful people.

What do you think:

-Of the shelf exhaust or custom one? I am 99% decided to give the car to our exhaust maker and make a new one, but maybe there is some good argument why not. Cost should be roughly the same, but I would have to wait for anything of the shelf.

-Mike is your race-shifter thing only for racecars or would it fit nicely to a road car? I cannot get used to the shonky feel of MT75 again ;(

-How big a difference will rear beam make - a) huge, it transforms the car b) big, but only when driving at the limit, c) don't bother get some wheels and tyres and drive it instead of keeping it in workshop


-Anyone with huge stok of spare interior parts? Every small bit in my interior seems to have something wrong - most annoying one is the part where the switches for electric windows and tailgate are - it keeps falling out - should I have replacement made of carbon or what, it annoys me a lot when I see such things.

-Useless set of mint Escos 16's or gravel 15's anyone?

-If taking it to Stu's for setup in not an option what can I do when running-in is finished. We will check it for AFR and det on rolling-road for sure, we can probably plug into wires and check sensor signals, but I don't think we can connect to the ECU anyhow.

-My alternator belt is noisy, changed to new one, still noisy, stops when weather is damp - any ideas? Maybe it's just missing english climate? ;(

 

What do you think:

-Of the shelf exhaust or custom one? I am 99% decided to give the car to our exhaust maker and make a new one, but maybe there is some good argument why not. Cost should be roughly the same, but I would have to wait for anything of the shelf.
Off the shelf, unless your guy can replicate a system for cheaper money, as the standard ones are more than adequate until you start pushing big numbers .

-Mike is your race-shifter thing only for racecars or would it fit nicely to a road car? I cannot get used to the shonky feel of MT75 again ;(
It will give a nicer feel, but you have to fit a Vibratechnic gearbox mount, which puts more vibration into the car and it won't make the change quicker, as you will just beat the syncros.

-How big a difference will rear beam make - a) huge, it transforms the car b) big, but only when driving at the limit, c) don't bother get some wheels and tyres and drive it instead of keeping it in workshop
Will remove a huge amount of understeer, so yes - but only worry for track / high speed driving.


-Anyone with huge stok of spare interior parts? Every small bit in my interior seems to have something wrong - most annoying one is the part where the switches for electric windows and tailgate are - it keeps falling out - should I have replacement made of carbon or what, it annoys me a lot when I see such things.

-Useless set of mint Escos 16's or gravel 15's anyone?

-If taking it to Stu's for setup in not an option what can I do when running-in is finished. We will check it for AFR and det on rolling-road for sure, we can probably plug into wires and check sensor signals, but I don't think we can connect to the ECU anyhow.
Fit aftermarket ECU.

-My alternator belt is noisy, changed to new one, still noisy, stops when weather is damp - any ideas? Maybe it's just missing english climate? ;(
Misaligned belt / squeaky bearings - needs use and lubrication (not on the belt though ).

 

Yes the guy can replicate just about anything. And is very good at keeping it at set noise levels, should be cheap for me too.


I am not after faster shifts, I know better then that I have vibratechnics mounts all around.


Removing understeer is what I like, I think it's next on the list. Can it have rose-joints with doost boosts so that they don't squeel or anything?


I feel I'll end up Motec customer.... or something. It's pretty frustrating that there isn't anyone to be able at least to pull error codes from OEM.


There is this special spray for belts it makes it silent for about... 1 day. Maybe it will fix with use, otherwise I will go mad.

 

Well you know where I am if you need anything .

 

For now I only need standard Ford parts (indicator, anti-fogs, some small interior plastics, new keys, and a door lock, rear openning quaters rubbers etc.), I hope to source them from....Ford, but this may not be possible.


By the way is there a manual for the suspension I bought somewhere?

 

Some people have to buy lots of jap-crap parts or decide to build Evo 10 rallycars so that I can afford to put money into the Cossie

 

If you have any problems sourcing these, then I can put you in touch with someone in Germany that should be able to help (and the parts are more readily available there).

There is no manual - sorry.

 

Another 60km drive. Feels nice, I need to get myself to experiment a bit with settings. Should I be able to get to the adjustment knobs with car standing on flat ground?

 

Yes, rears need you to get on your hands and knees and fronts you have to put on full lock each side to reach .

 

OK, cool, I will try some options later today or tommorow. How many clicks there are and is it clockwise for more damping or anticlockwise?

I will update when I drive some more. Probably not interesting to anyone, but maybe...

 

24 positions and anti-clockwise = soft / clockwise = hard.

 

Halo Jacob

good to hear that your car is now back on the road, I hope you enjoy the driving although winter is just around the corner, it's winter tyre time again. Will you put the car into the garage over winter?

did you buy 'Leda' suspension from Mike? Is Leda still available?

If you want to put some 'running-in' Km onto your car, just drive over to Dresden to visit some time.

regards

Kenny.

 

Hello Kenny,

I will use the car, but it will spend much of it's time in the garage, I have Impreza company car, so Cossie is for fun only. I am thinking about new set of winter wheels,l but my funds are mostly depleted for now.


The suspension is not Leda make anymore but it looks like Leda units.

The car is almost run in, it wil get new exhaust this week, oil change and will be checked on rolling-road so no running in anymore I am away though and all this is going on without me seeing it unfortunately.

I would love to visit bt I don't think it will be possible this year, I have a lot of big things to do and not enough time. If I manage I should be more free after new year. I am not sure if I would drive the Cossie that far... :-/ Maybe I will when I have all the small problems sorted.

 

Hi Jacob

I always thought your address was Wroclaw, but I see it's Warszawa, my mistake.

Thats about 700km from here so a long drive.

as Mike said, get some pics up when you have time. Put up some pics of the Impreza also, maybe some sideways ones.

regards

Kenny.

 

I will ask our staff to make some nice pics of the Cossie this week so I can post something. Looks nice. Needs good polish though as it sat in different workshops for 2 years...

 

Me in the Impreza company car:



another Impreza company car



(not me driving on this picture though, I haven't got one with me behind the wheel)

My daily driven Impreza



My driving a pace-car (0) on rallysprint we sponsor (another company car)

 

I will post Cossie pics as soon as I have any.

 

Kenny,
The suspension is Black Art Design, which was set up by one of the guys who left LEDA, so basically the same, bar the fact that John was prepared to take on my comments and fit high speed valving - something LEDA weren't interested in doing at the time .

 

Hi Mike
Quote
"The suspension is Black Art Design, which was set up by one of the guys who left LEDA, so basically the same, bar the fact that John was prepared to take on my comments and fit high speed valving - something LEDA weren't interested in doing at the time"

then Jacob has some pretty good units on his car. I like my Leda's and have managed to sort out some reasonable handling, (I think) the only thing I dont like is the remote reservoirs. It would be better if the hose was attached at the top of the damper units rather than the bottom. Problem is locating the units.

so the original Leda's has only slow speed valving. If possible I would sell mine and buy new units the same as Jacob, but I would simply lose too much money changing over.


Jacob

nice cars, you are indeed fortunate to work such cars in your day job.

 

kennyA, if I get to get from the pile of problems I'm stuck with now I can get you a go in my Cossie to see how this suspension works. As I wrote before I have direct comparison to both tuning and rally suspensions of top companies and it seems after brief rides very good for the money it costs.

The units don't have remote canisters though, I suspect they are twin tube design. I wonder how will they cope with Polish road conditions. I have history of broken Bilstein dampers and one of my AVO's cracked.

 

Jakub,
You could have gone with the remote canisters, but that would have been an additional Ł500 .

 

If this spec is good enough for you it should be good enough for me (although I have seen you are going for something better ).

 

I won't know it's better until it's on the car (and I'll be fucking gutted if it's not ), but I have to keep improving the car, as it is what I enjoy. Next will be compression struts whilst retaining an ARB of some description, but obviouly I need to check out the suspension first so I know where I'm at .

 

Probably bladed bars is the way to go. Shame that you cannot get aftermarket bars that would be bolt on for the Escos. they make massive difference on SUbaru and Mitsubishi, and Escos seems to be out of balance with 28mm bar in front and 22mm (?) one in the rear. On jap cars have experimented with dozen different setups and same diameter or even slightly thicker bar on ter rear with the rear beeing adjustable seems to work nicely on road cars with some track-day capability.


Anyways - what would you do on my car apart from rear beam? Two things I cannot get used to is not much feel through the steering - I am wondering maybe steering rack mounts? although I have brand new rack with new mounts and the rear end not feeling properly attached to the chassis - maybe new beam should be solid mounted (I have it polybushed)?

 

My rear beam is polybushed and for a car mainly used for the road (especially bumpy ones!), I wouldn't be prepared to compromise the ride NVH for the marginal improvement in beam location.

 

NVH is terrible TBH. Maybe new exhaust will help as I think current one does not remove any noise, especially in low registers (infrasounds). Anyways I consider wearing Peltor ear protectors while driving, it's worse then our show-car Impreza from 1st photo, even though that one is far quicker and more modded. I am not that much bothered TBH, it's ment to be hardcore car

Anyways, I will fix all the small problems and replace the rear beam and then maybe just use it for a little while.

I may need to replace exhaust manifold as mine is starting to crack in usual place- does anyone know if new ones are available for ST cars?

I forgot - I instaled 304mm K-sport brake kit - the taiwanese thing, it seems to be working, I will put it to hard tests and see if it it's any good as it might be very nice VERY cheap option to upgrade. It costs barely more then good set of discs and pads.

 

The Jap people seem to rave about these and there is even a few competing in time attack so equipped .

 

Brakes? They are not AP racing good, but they are very very cheap. I have tested a set to destruction on our company car and it's equipped with AP's now, so I have direct comparison.

The thing is they DO bolt on kit for Escort Cosworth, which is quite surprising.

 

Even better that the 304mm kit should fit behind your standard size wheels .