My saph story
06-07-2008, 07:14 PM
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My saph story
Yes, after reading some nice stories there, decided to put mine. Not that much interesting compared to some user stories there, but will keep you busy few minutes hopefully heh.
All started in january 2005 when I bought my first Cossie. It was a sort of dream coming true, as I always wanted to buy that car, so saved lot of money for it, and finally bought it. Was a nice 4wd saph in diamond white, with konis and tinted windows with around 150'000km on the clock (just over 90'000miles for you english peps). Here are some pics from the first day :
Nice car, was running fine. Had to fit a radio :
Then it was time for my first "accident" when I reserved back into a small pillar which I couldn't see in the mirrors, and ended up with this :
I repaired it myself and, few weeks later, had to change the water temp sensor which failed. Other than that the car was running fine, had lot of pleasure driving her, despite she was still running a std engine. Was enough to beat an old BMW M3 E30 and an old Audi S6.
Then had a my second and last incident when I aquaplaned in a roundabout and went straight into the centre of it, damaging the front tyre, crossmember and the suspension arm. Was lucky to escape with the engine sump intact, and just 2 min after the incident, saw the police passing me while I was driving at 20kph with the left front puncture, fortunately they didn't see I had just crashed.
Changed the tyres for Toyo Proxes 205/50 R15, but then the brakes were starting to lose their power, with discs vibrating quite a lot.
Ended the year with a last trip in the snow :
And after just 1 year and 10'000km I removed the plates, and parked the car in my garage, for a small resto. I needed a car and I bought a VW Golf Mk2 GTI in april 2006 :
I started getting some money, but then I had a small accident with the Golf and some of the saved money had to go to pay the damages I did on another car when I hitted it in the back.
I decided then to go for a more "extreme" project, and started to plan a rally preparation for my saph, with some quite nice parts. A sort of mini-group A car. Bought a Mountune engine, group A suspension, racing seats, lot and lot of parts.
Then I sold the Golf in september 2007 just before going to army. When I got back from army I couldn't find a job, and I ended up putting my name on the list to start a high-school, because this was my aim, but wanted to work 1 more year to complete the rally-saph project.
As I won't get money from school, I decided to sell nearly all the racing parts I bought for my saph, and I want now to put my road Cossie back on the road again, after a small resto as I had planned 2 years ago.
This is her current state, after 2 and a half year in the same position :
Now all the interior has been stripped out and here are the modifications planned :
- revised engine with stage 2 T3 turbo
- new ignition parts (leads, distributor cap and rotor, coil, ...)
- stripped interior
- flocked dash
- sparco carbon racing seats
- compomotives TH 8x16 wheels
- antilag and launch control
- 4.44 diffs and uprated center VC
- group A quick steering rack
- group A bilstein front and rear watercooled coilovers
- clubman group A adjustable rear beam
- uprated brakes (but I have to keep the std size for MOT)
- mongoose 3" exhaust
- powerflex everywhere
- front and rear strut brace
- front Suhe compression strut kit
- samco hoses everywhere
- ...
I have to keep the car as std as possible for the MOT there because they are very restrictive, this is why I won't put the exhaust, the wheels for the MOT for example.
Pictures of the parts will come up soon, but the plan is to make that Cossie as nice as possible, keeping the std look as much as possible, with of course a little bit of "rally-touch".
Hope you won't smash me for my english, but only learned it during 2 years few years ago. I will go to Ford Fair this year, so hope to meet you there !
All started in january 2005 when I bought my first Cossie. It was a sort of dream coming true, as I always wanted to buy that car, so saved lot of money for it, and finally bought it. Was a nice 4wd saph in diamond white, with konis and tinted windows with around 150'000km on the clock (just over 90'000miles for you english peps). Here are some pics from the first day :
Nice car, was running fine. Had to fit a radio :
Then it was time for my first "accident" when I reserved back into a small pillar which I couldn't see in the mirrors, and ended up with this :
I repaired it myself and, few weeks later, had to change the water temp sensor which failed. Other than that the car was running fine, had lot of pleasure driving her, despite she was still running a std engine. Was enough to beat an old BMW M3 E30 and an old Audi S6.
Then had a my second and last incident when I aquaplaned in a roundabout and went straight into the centre of it, damaging the front tyre, crossmember and the suspension arm. Was lucky to escape with the engine sump intact, and just 2 min after the incident, saw the police passing me while I was driving at 20kph with the left front puncture, fortunately they didn't see I had just crashed.
Changed the tyres for Toyo Proxes 205/50 R15, but then the brakes were starting to lose their power, with discs vibrating quite a lot.
Ended the year with a last trip in the snow :
And after just 1 year and 10'000km I removed the plates, and parked the car in my garage, for a small resto. I needed a car and I bought a VW Golf Mk2 GTI in april 2006 :
I started getting some money, but then I had a small accident with the Golf and some of the saved money had to go to pay the damages I did on another car when I hitted it in the back.
I decided then to go for a more "extreme" project, and started to plan a rally preparation for my saph, with some quite nice parts. A sort of mini-group A car. Bought a Mountune engine, group A suspension, racing seats, lot and lot of parts.
Then I sold the Golf in september 2007 just before going to army. When I got back from army I couldn't find a job, and I ended up putting my name on the list to start a high-school, because this was my aim, but wanted to work 1 more year to complete the rally-saph project.
As I won't get money from school, I decided to sell nearly all the racing parts I bought for my saph, and I want now to put my road Cossie back on the road again, after a small resto as I had planned 2 years ago.
This is her current state, after 2 and a half year in the same position :
Now all the interior has been stripped out and here are the modifications planned :
- revised engine with stage 2 T3 turbo
- new ignition parts (leads, distributor cap and rotor, coil, ...)
- stripped interior
- flocked dash
- sparco carbon racing seats
- compomotives TH 8x16 wheels
- antilag and launch control
- 4.44 diffs and uprated center VC
- group A quick steering rack
- group A bilstein front and rear watercooled coilovers
- clubman group A adjustable rear beam
- uprated brakes (but I have to keep the std size for MOT)
- mongoose 3" exhaust
- powerflex everywhere
- front and rear strut brace
- front Suhe compression strut kit
- samco hoses everywhere
- ...
I have to keep the car as std as possible for the MOT there because they are very restrictive, this is why I won't put the exhaust, the wheels for the MOT for example.
Pictures of the parts will come up soon, but the plan is to make that Cossie as nice as possible, keeping the std look as much as possible, with of course a little bit of "rally-touch".
Hope you won't smash me for my english, but only learned it during 2 years few years ago. I will go to Ford Fair this year, so hope to meet you there !
04-09-2008, 05:29 PM
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Heh no I'm keeping the car. Here are 90% of the parts I took back from my trip to Ford Fair :
- 4x Compomotives wheels
- kevlar bonnet
- kevlar boot
- alu/steel group a engine guard with group a mounts
- alcon clutch
- 909 seat mounts
- group a fuel pump
- group a steering rack
- group a early rear beam
- std tank (yea, a std part
)
- few other bits
Never mentionned I had also a carbon light pod with nice lights that I will fix onto my kevlar bonnet. I have started to work on the car loom to get it lighter (removed quite some useless wires lol), and suspensions will be sent to STAC in france to have them checked and have the electric rear ones checked so I finally can connect the wires.
Should get that Suhe front setup this weekend, and also bought front group a 315mm AP brakes (rears should follow soon).
So all going well, I hope to really get the work started before this winter, tho
- 4x Compomotives wheels
- kevlar bonnet
- kevlar boot
- alu/steel group a engine guard with group a mounts
- alcon clutch
- 909 seat mounts
- group a fuel pump
- group a steering rack
- group a early rear beam
- std tank (yea, a std part
)- few other bits
Never mentionned I had also a carbon light pod with nice lights that I will fix onto my kevlar bonnet. I have started to work on the car loom to get it lighter (removed quite some useless wires lol), and suspensions will be sent to STAC in france to have them checked and have the electric rear ones checked so I finally can connect the wires.
Should get that Suhe front setup this weekend, and also bought front group a 315mm AP brakes (rears should follow soon).
So all going well, I hope to really get the work started before this winter, tho
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but still got so much to do. Basically the target is now to build both front and rear ends but with group A stuff. So I will go to MOT with std car, and then remove the whole back end and fits the "group A" one, same for the front.
10-09-2008, 04:00 PM
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Ok so tomorrow is a day-off for me, so will remove gearbox, front diff, steering rack, and the bottom of the engine (crank, pistons, rods, ...). Should be a busy day, especially working alone under the car, without a lift lol. Will keep everyone updated. Also I've managed to mount my carbon lamp pod onto my kevlar bonnet, and finally got that Suhe setup. Will post pictures of the lot tomorrow evening.
11-09-2008, 04:38 PM
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As expected, busy day. Took the gearbox off, front diff off, antiroll bar, front arms, front brakes, steering rack, propshaft. Worked all day long flatout lol. Not easy conditions and did all that myself heh, so quite happy to have all that shit removed. This weekend will remove the rest of the engine (block and bottom), make electric loom for lamp pod, incar stuff, will put back fuel tank with new 044 and filter. Busy weekend expected but I have let that car so long dying in the garage that I cannot hurt her anymore. Will get the Cossie back on the road before winter !
13-09-2008, 07:15 PM
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Removed the rest of the engine, cleaned underneath of the car (wasn't too dirty anyway, but now looks quite mint imo), removed front bumper and will repair mounting points (rust 
).
Tomorrow : disassemble bottom of the engine to have it ready to be balanced, clean engine bay and rest of underside of the car, repair 2 cables of the engine loom which have been damaged somehow, and some random stuff. Should have engine ready to go in again next weekend.
And will post pictures tomorrow this time, I promise.
).Tomorrow : disassemble bottom of the engine to have it ready to be balanced, clean engine bay and rest of underside of the car, repair 2 cables of the engine loom which have been damaged somehow, and some random stuff. Should have engine ready to go in again next weekend.
And will post pictures tomorrow this time, I promise.
14-09-2008, 02:29 PM
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Ok today I was a bit tired, so only opened the bottom of the engine, adjusted the solid mounts for the steering rack onto the crossmember, and "fitted" the powerflex front antiroll bar mounts. Here are few pictures, as promised :
Quite a mess around, but its where I work
Yup, engine has gone, now I have to clean all that
Bloc doesn't looks good, but don't worry, it is just light rust heh
More work to come during next week, and will have the bottom of the engine balanced next saturday.
Quite a mess around, but its where I work
Yup, engine has gone, now I have to clean all that
Bloc doesn't looks good, but don't worry, it is just light rust heh
More work to come during next week, and will have the bottom of the engine balanced next saturday.
20-09-2008, 04:16 PM
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Haven't done much this week/weekend. Should have had the bottom engine balanced, but had to delay for some reason, so should be done next week. In the meantime I changed the gearbox cradle bushes by the powerflex ones, cleaned the right side of the engine bay, repaired my engine loom (had 2 wires damaged by the heat). Here is a picture of the right side cleaned. Ok, not concours, but should be ok for my use.
And fitted also these air/air injectors :
Tried to hidden them as much as I could, and quite happy with the result. You can barely see them while standing in front of the car looking at the engine bay and with the escos airbox, turbo hose, escos chargecooler, the air/air should be really hard to see then. I want to add you cannot mount these if you do have std headlights, as the Morettes does offer a nice extra space. I want to keep engine bay as std as possible.
Will continue to clean engine bay tomorrow, will repair both front and rear bumper mounting brackets, clean inside the car, and should be all for this week.
Oh and bought that pectel monitor I waited for so long, so very chuffed !
And fitted also these air/air injectors :
Tried to hidden them as much as I could, and quite happy with the result. You can barely see them while standing in front of the car looking at the engine bay and with the escos airbox, turbo hose, escos chargecooler, the air/air should be really hard to see then. I want to add you cannot mount these if you do have std headlights, as the Morettes does offer a nice extra space. I want to keep engine bay as std as possible.
Will continue to clean engine bay tomorrow, will repair both front and rear bumper mounting brackets, clean inside the car, and should be all for this week.
Oh and bought that pectel monitor I waited for so long, so very chuffed !
24-09-2008, 03:35 PM
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Thank you guys for the support !
Got a cold this Monday after I worked outside this weekend (temps were as low as 3°C but I still decided to work only with a t-shirt, stupid me ).
Still, ordered lot of parts this week :
- oil cooler and fitting (to be used as a water cooler for the escos charge-cooler)
- 3x 1m2 of nice heatshield (to remplace my damaged one under the battery which is located over the turbo, as my car is a LHD)
- new adjustable pulley
- complete breather system
- new set of hydraulic tappets
- steering column repair kit
- sabelt harness
- fuel filter, gearbox oil, some seals for the gearbox and transfer box
- 2wd driveshafts for my 7,5" Quaife rear diff
- twin ign amp setup with lambda sensor as for wasted spark and closed loop features
Some work to do this weekend, but most of the parts are on the way so I don't know if I will have them before the weekend or not. Also due to a change in plans I won't have the bottom of the engine balanced this saturday, so it is delayed again by 1 week.
Got a cold this Monday after I worked outside this weekend (temps were as low as 3°C but I still decided to work only with a t-shirt, stupid me
).Still, ordered lot of parts this week :
- oil cooler and fitting (to be used as a water cooler for the escos charge-cooler)
- 3x 1m2 of nice heatshield (to remplace my damaged one under the battery which is located over the turbo, as my car is a LHD)
- new adjustable pulley
- complete breather system
- new set of hydraulic tappets
- steering column repair kit
- sabelt harness
- fuel filter, gearbox oil, some seals for the gearbox and transfer box
- 2wd driveshafts for my 7,5" Quaife rear diff
- twin ign amp setup with lambda sensor as for wasted spark and closed loop features
Some work to do this weekend, but most of the parts are on the way so I don't know if I will have them before the weekend or not. Also due to a change in plans I won't have the bottom of the engine balanced this saturday, so it is delayed again by 1 week.
05-12-2008, 02:50 PM
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Ok not a lot has happened since the last time. Mostly because I have been very busy with the school, and hadn't lot of money to put in the car. Still, I booked a live-mapping session at MSD for July next year (the week of the Ford Fair show !).
I bought some roof vents, works OZ brake cooling ducts, works group A rear view mirrors, and works front morettes-type lights.
I bought some roof vents, works OZ brake cooling ducts, works group A rear view mirrors, and works front morettes-type lights.
08-05-2009, 05:16 PM
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Haven't done much over the winter, coz it was really COOOOLD but now I've started to work on the car again.
I removed all the surrounding inside (at least the major useless part of it), it will be covered by a black carpet so it will looks neat and clean. The inside will be stripped, what will remain is the door cards and 2 front racing seats. I will take pictures when I'll have put the carpet, as 1 picture speaks for thousand words.
I'm also doing the wiring for the "center additional console" which will regroup all switches for the car. I won't have any switch on the dash itself, because I don't think I will be able to touch them when in the racing seat with the 6pts harness on as I like to have the seat really back in the car and as low as possible. Will take also pictures when I'll finish this.
I still need to do some wiring (lamp pod, ...) but everything is going quite well now. The engine will soon have the bottom end balanced so I can put it together and back in the car.
The car has to be std to get MOT and then I'll put all the rally parts on it. Here is a picture of the inside in its current state
I removed all the surrounding inside (at least the major useless part of it), it will be covered by a black carpet so it will looks neat and clean. The inside will be stripped, what will remain is the door cards and 2 front racing seats. I will take pictures when I'll have put the carpet, as 1 picture speaks for thousand words.
I'm also doing the wiring for the "center additional console" which will regroup all switches for the car. I won't have any switch on the dash itself, because I don't think I will be able to touch them when in the racing seat with the 6pts harness on as I like to have the seat really back in the car and as low as possible. Will take also pictures when I'll finish this.
I still need to do some wiring (lamp pod, ...) but everything is going quite well now. The engine will soon have the bottom end balanced so I can put it together and back in the car.
The car has to be std to get MOT and then I'll put all the rally parts on it. Here is a picture of the inside in its current state
08-05-2009, 05:48 PM
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Just wanted to put a sort of summary of the car's specs :
ENGINE
- Fully balanced engine with std internals
- Gr.A head gasket with Gr.A nuts
- Siemens 55lb injectors
- ALS throttle body and ALS valve
- T34 0.63 Gr.A turbo with 247 shaft
- 044 fuel pump
- Escort chargecooler with separate cooling system
- Water/methanol injection, antilag, launch control, air/air injectors, wasted spark
- Pectel monitor
SUSPENSION
- Front Gr.A/N Bilstein 50mm coilovers
- Rear Gr.A Bilstein coilovers
- Rear Gr.A early specs beam with escort 22mm antiroll bar
- Front Gr.A strut brace
- Suhe compression strut kit
- Eccentric top mounts
TRANSMISSION
- DOME semi-straight cut gearbox
- DOME front diff
- Quaife rear 7.5" diff with 4.44 ratio
- Drop gears 4.44
- Uprated center VC
- Alcon 6 paddles clutch
BRAKES
- Front Gr.A AP 4pots 315mm gravel specs
- Rear Gr.A AP 4pots 285mm gravel specs
WHEELS
- OZ 8x17
So here are pretty much the final specs, hopefully will get a very responsive car, which won't break when driven hard
ENGINE
- Fully balanced engine with std internals
- Gr.A head gasket with Gr.A nuts
- Siemens 55lb injectors
- ALS throttle body and ALS valve
- T34 0.63 Gr.A turbo with 247 shaft
- 044 fuel pump
- Escort chargecooler with separate cooling system
- Water/methanol injection, antilag, launch control, air/air injectors, wasted spark
- Pectel monitor
SUSPENSION
- Front Gr.A/N Bilstein 50mm coilovers
- Rear Gr.A Bilstein coilovers
- Rear Gr.A early specs beam with escort 22mm antiroll bar
- Front Gr.A strut brace
- Suhe compression strut kit
- Eccentric top mounts
TRANSMISSION
- DOME semi-straight cut gearbox
- DOME front diff
- Quaife rear 7.5" diff with 4.44 ratio
- Drop gears 4.44
- Uprated center VC
- Alcon 6 paddles clutch
BRAKES
- Front Gr.A AP 4pots 315mm gravel specs
- Rear Gr.A AP 4pots 285mm gravel specs
WHEELS
- OZ 8x17
So here are pretty much the final specs, hopefully will get a very responsive car, which won't break when driven hard
Last edited by Mad Matt; 08-05-2009 at 05:53 PM.
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