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

 

Nice touchs and good to see someone doing something different with escos, you doing any power upgrades...

 

17x9 should look great on that, but I wouldn't be going for such a wide tyre myself.
A bit of stretch on a low profile 215/225 would look good I'd say. I'd be surprised if a 245 would fit if properly low, especially at ET10.

Try using an online wheel fitment calculator, and you could also ask on the split rim building forum on Wheel Whores.

Liking the look of this though!

 

As far as any power upgrades, I am very open but very cautious here..... I am in Japan and parts do not come easily, but I would like to do the conservative standard of say, a fuel pump, -31 actuator and ECU trim that should give me 295 BHP??? also a RS500 style alloy intercooler and radiator with a cat delete hopefully will keep the not-so-modified Lancers and Scoobies in my rear view mirrors! Last thing I need is a ticking time bomb that will have tons of turbo lag and other issues. Is there a good bolt on turbo for this car that would take me to the 350 BHP mark?

 

Very easy and relatively cheap if you you have a good base engine to get 300 brake from the small turbo which is a minimum for these cars .anything less and grannies pass you. Ill pm details

 

Nice car and plans, look forward to the updates

 

Kon'nichiwa

Nice Escort. I have a friend who works for "TRIAL" in Nagoya and he said there is an Imperial Blue Escort Cosworth in Nagoya!!

Escort Cosworths must be very rare in Japan?

 

There are a few Escort Cosworth cars here in Japan, not sure of the exact count.... It is the 3 door Sierra that is impossible to find! I have been searching for 4 years and no body is willing to sell their cars! I lived in America for most of my life and had owned numerous Capri II Ghia and Merkur XR4Ti imports.... For pure personal necessity and as a hobby, I started a company I called TKR Advanced Composites and we offered a CF bonnet for the 3 door Sierra many years ago. I had even sent a bunch to the UK back in 2006.... Yeah, my love is for the Euro Fords. I will probably have it etched on my tombstone. Please allow me to share photos of my past Merkur XR4Ti below. Thanks for the replies also!!! TK

 

Wow! love that engine bay too.... the mirror dual alloy tanks are sweet. Looks like I am in this for the long ride.... thank you!

 

What pcd are your rims? if 112 you could use Granada hubs.

These old cosies get everyware

 

Lovely car, thats going to look amazing on the bbs wheels.

 

You'll struggle to get anywhere near 300bhp without changing the management (or finding someone who can live map it) and changing the turbo.

Fitting a 500 intercooler will involve you loosing your aircon. As per my post above, the EECIV management will restrict you significantly. The only people who I've heard dealing with it are MSD and even then I'm not sure their 350 bhp EECIV package was ever finished.

If you change the management and fit say a t34 with a .55 exhaust housing, you'd get in and around the 350bhp mark. The standard intercooler would be fine at this power level.

 

Looks a nice car. Its got a weird spec though. No sunroof or rear pop open windows yet its got air con.

 

bbs will look great,i used to have 19's on mine but have gone back to standard nowadays

 

Thats stunning. Ive got a pic of your car on my phone.

 

Paul

Thought ggr and others had a 300 brake conversation sorted and selling ages ago....

 

Very nice car!

 

They do, it's realistically 290bhp but goes well enough

 

That will look lovely on your planned mods ,love the idea on the 500 lip for the top spoiler

 

Jimbo

Ye do a package too if I'm correct,

 

Nice car and over my side of the ditch as well. welcome to the site. PM me if you want a chat.

 

GGR/Superchips had it IIRC. It's a plug in chip, actuator and fuel pump for the '300' (but really 280ish bhp ) conversion.

MSD were developing package that used a T34 turbo but that was a few years ago. I don' think it was ever finished.

 

Love the wheel choice. You should join www.escortrscosworth.com if you haven't already. There are a lot of very useful guys on there.

 

This is awesome mate!!
I love the escorts when they are white!abit biased ,cause ive had one..almost all my past cars have been whiteexept for the Focus Rs

keep up the nice work!!

cheeers from norway

 

Where you bought the DFVs Ohlins ? I saw in the webpage and dont find the escort cosworth dfvs ... ?

Nice upgrades !! BBS looks nice.

Best Regards