With the arrival of the Ford Puma Millennium #300, the construction of the car for the 2014 Dunlop Ford Puma Cup will begin this month hopefully culminating in its completion in February.

For December we are looking at creating as much weight reduction as possible with the aim to removing about 180-190kg.
The running gear will receive new components along with the regulatory Ford Puma Cup suspension built by GAZ and a tidy up of service items in the engine bay.

January will see the car going to EMC Motorsport in Birmingham to have the multipoint CDS Custom Cages roll cage installed along with a painting of the interior and the seat to be installed, and looking to Chris Birkbeck Rally School for the construction of a custom S1600 competition seat.

February will see the last of the components to be fitted as to what finances may stretch to.


Regulatory Components

MSA Approved CDS Multipoint Roll Cage Procurred
GAZ Gold Ford Puma Cup Suspension
Ford Puma Cup Powerflex Rear Bushes Procurred
Ford Puma CUP Exhaust Manifold
Dunlop Direzza DZ03G R1 Compound 195/50/15 Tyres
Superchips Regulated Mapping

Essential Components

New 239mm Front Brake Discs Procurred
New Ford Spark Plugs Procurred
New Front Brake Pads Procurred
FIA Approved 6 Point 3" Harness Procurred
Fire Extinguishers - Plumbed In Procurred
Steering Wheel Procurred
Steering Wheel Hub Adaptor Procurred
Racing Window Nets
Bonnet Pins Procurred
Tailgate Springs Procurred
20.5mm Rear Axle Spacers Procurred

Stage 3 Components

Mud Flaps Procurred
Oil Cooler
Silicon Coolant Hoses Procurred
MSA Approved Rainlight Procurred
FIA Approved Battery Cut Offs
FIA Approved Battery Box
Air Feeds Procurred
FIA Approved Cobra Suzuka Pro Seat Procurred
Front Upper Strut Brace Procurred
Front Lower Strut Brace Procurred
Braided Brake Lines
Uprated Brake Fluid
FoMoCo Oil Filter Procurred
Motorcraft Fuel Filter Procurred
RAMAIR Air Filter Procurred
Oil Change
Magnetic Sump Plug Procurred
New Clutch & Slave Cylinder
New Gearbox Oil
New Coilpack
New Ignition Leads
New Wishbones Procurred
New Droplinks Procurred
New Aero Wiper Blades Procurred
New Brake Pipes
Adapted Front Hubs Procurred
10mm Front Wheel Spacers Procurred
LED Running Lights
Vinyl Graphics
Roll Cage Padding
Door Cards
Inner Door Pulls Procurred
GRP Bonnet
New Radiator Procurred

Below are some photos on its day of arrival, and with just a small patch of rust which will get rectified this month, she is an absolute beauty!



























So I've managed to get hands on the car now.

First began with stripping out the majority of the interior but still plenty of work remaining for the inside of the car.







I then made a start on the engine bay, stripping it down, giving it a good clean up, a service on the engine with new seals and gaskets and some service items, along with the cooling system being updated with silicon hoses and a new radiator. All the air-con components were removed along with the heater matrix components before putting it back together, so currently it is 95% complete with just a new battery, new ignition leads, new breather filter and some clamps to go.









Sound deadening finally came out of the car




And then we hauled her up to Birmingham to get the roll cage fitted and painted



Interior of the car has had some non essential metal cleared out and the beginning of the cage to be installed.







Some more pictures of the cage installation







Progress continues...

 

Looks good.
You do realise that your min weight is 1000kgs inc you in the car with yours brakes and your car with everything is is 1038kgs?
if you try to get rid of nearly 200kgs your not going to be able to enter.

 

As The car weighs more than 1038kgs as standard, weight is shed from the car but also take into account that an average man is 75-80kgs and the weight of the cage alone is about 56-58kgs it does actually balance out. I need to remove in the area of 178kgs to be on the mark, but also taking into consideration of corner weighing the car, we may be adding ballast to the relevant corners.

 

Cool project. Im thinking about fitting a cone filter to my puma.

How come all these millenium front seats have rips in them lol.

 

most properly built competition cars, the target weight during strip down is well below the regulated weight. As Mac eluded to, it helps to move weight around with corner weighting. Plus if youve taken off 100Kg off the shell and you put it as lead ballast in the perfect place, then it massively helps handling balance. Almost all big motorsport teams spend lots of time and money doing just that where the rules allow it.

 

liking what I am seeing so far

 

This looks like a very cool project

 

Very nice build so far

Absolutely the right thing to do to fetch out all the weight you can, then put it back where you want it

 

Well by the looks of it you have made me scrap my toy car for a puma cup car lol.

But I wont be running this year ill be in 2015.

 

Its looking well mac and has come along way since i saw it

I still think the 239mm brakes are too small but there's nothing stopping you changing mid season and adding the 50kg is there

Best of luck

 

should be a tipo..
Nice project

 

Looks like a nice little build have fun with it.
Have always liked Pumas have had 1.6, 1.7, Milleniummand a couple of FRP's. The millenium always felt much nicer to drive as the recaros gave a nice low driving position when normal 1.7's always had the seat too high.

Shame they didn't include a proper diff in the championship spec - they will be useless in the loose stuff with a standard diff.

 

really good looking project. look forward to seeing more work

 

Yes, the standard Puma seats I personally find to be awful to sit in especially on long journeys.
I too share your thoughts on the diff but the entire grid will be in the same predicament as each other and should be interesting racing to say the least.

Unfortunately it is not a typo. The series is designed as a budget series to attract more people into motorsport. The less to change on the standard car the more likely people will be to construct and race within the series.

Cheers mate. Yes the 239mm brakes to me are a little small and we have opted for the lesser weight by keeping the smaller brakes, but choosing the correct pad compound will come into its on own on this matter. The puma generically is not a fast car at all on only a few circuits will produce the chance to get to the highest speeds that the Puma will push to.
This being the first year that the series will be running it is also a trial year to see what does and doesn't work and without giving away the organisers ideas, there is scope to uprate a number of components for later years.

It would be really good for you to start constructing your own and more the merrier into the series. At track capacity you can be looking at 30-40 cars on the circuit and with the costs of someone else providing you with a race ready car at £6500 maximum, this opens many doors to other interested.
So get yourself a shell and start building!

Cone filters are good for the aspiration of the sigma engine but don't waste your money on something so commercial like a K&N filter that are targeted towards your 'boy racer' market with ridiculous costs of £70-90.
With the leather seats, simply that the leather left untreated and cared for, over time they degrade and youre most likely to find the tears on the outside edge of one side of the seat where people get in and out of their cars and their belts scrape on the leather.

 

milly seats always go on the same place on drivers side bolster for wear reasons above.

No one treats the leather until they show signs of wear by which time its too late.

 

Interior now painted

 

now thats what you call yellow!!!

 

Looking good. Ive got a pipercross cone filter to go on. Do you think this will be any good.

 

Are you meaning for a Puma in general or for a Cup car you're building?

If it's a Cup car, then no, regs actually have it as original panel filter.
If its a Puma in general, I know people do like them but specifically which one you have and what the internal core is like I would have to see it. I use RAMAIR religiously as they have in my mind the least restriction and the most surface area to allow filtered air in.

 

Dash back in and other parts refitted.

 

Some more for viewing

 

looking great.

 

Thats looking brill. I was wanting the cone filter to go on my daily driver.

How much does this roll cage weigh.

 

Thank you very much, really pleased with it so far.

The cage is 56kg for this one

 

Hi did you say you went Birmingham to have you cage fitted?
As isn't Custom Cages in Daventry?
As I would be good for me if someone in Birmingham did cages.
Rich

 

Yes, EMC Motorsport in Birmingham are a distributor of them. Call Alex on 0121 328 2225

 

i love the yellow! something about yellow cars that does it for me!

how much was the cage if you dont mind me asking?

 

Cheers mate i'll give them a bell.
Rich

 

£600 to buy and £600 to fit.

 

cool cheers mate. not cheap although i dont know what cages normally cost in fairness. that looks pretty comprehensive though.

 

That's a great price for a multipoint and for fitting, normally looking at 2k

 

That looks really well mate

 

Thank you very much, very pleased so far.

 

A couple more pictures for you... lots done, only a little left to do...

 

Looking good.

 

So a little update on the Cup Car... It's race ready!
Got an MOT for it so it can be used on the roads too.

I've got a few more minor odds and sods to do but nothing drastic.

The car drives fantastically! Much better than any Puma I've ever driven, absolutely incredible handling!!

















Some of the nearly completed interior..

Just waiting for carbon fibre door cards to arrive, fit the door pulls, drivers window net and some panel covers for the dashboard.