Motorsport Tools Blog

First rally of 2019 in NLC, at Harlech Stages, our local single venue event held at Llanbedr airfield, North Wales, a great venue with some very fast stages, organised by the Harlech and District Motor club.

All went well without any issues with the car all day, only tyre changes and refueling required at service, a very enjoyable days rallying. We finished 4th overall and 1st in class so a good day all round, with excellent weather.

Image: Colin Matthews Photography

Image:Darren Wheatley Photography

The Escort Mk2 back at HQ in one piece 

Congratulations to the overall winners, Wil and Llion Owen, local crwe in a very quick Escort Mk2 powered by the ultimate Series 2+ Millington Diamond 2.5L engine

All new Escort Mk2, everything you see here is 100% brand new including the bodyshell:
So we finally got the suspension, steering and axle parts on the to shell so that we could fit the nice shiny gold Minilite wheels, and I must say its looking amazing! The deep red colour works so well with the gold Minilites. Parts fitted are basically top quality full Group-4 components from Rix Engineering and Bilstein, we have not yes decided the final spec, as in engine, gearbox etc, but its looking like a 2.5L Duratec and a 6 speed Mazda gearbox, and possibly built as a Group-4 fast road car on a 19 plate :)

Group-4 Rix Engineering struts with Bilstein tarmac inserts. 2.25" adjustable height coilover springs, alloy spherical bearing top mounts, in-situ adjustable bottom arms, 2.4 turns steering rack on Rix cross member base, engine will be chassis mounted.

Fully floating atlas axle casing (no diff or brakes fitted yet) twin taper bearing alloy hubs, Group-4 studs and alloy brace fitted.  4 link system with watts linkage via rear alloy diff casing. Bilstein turreted coilovers, 2.25" adjustable height coilover springs.

Manual steering for now: New steering column on billet alloy steering wheel boss. Motamec 3 spoke, suede rally steering wheel

Here we go, on its wheels: 8x13 genuine Minilite wheels, group-4 fitting, powder coated gold colour. Tyres are Kumho 215/50R13, an ideal size for the Escort Mk2 alloy tarmac arches
Full range of parts fitted to the Escort can be found here

Just back from a fresh coat of epoxy all white primer following its full group-4 fabrication by Meirion Evans at Wales Motorsport Fabrications. FIA Historic Escort Mk2 bodyshell, weld in cage, fully dry built, can be supplied fully painted to customer colour scheme, inside and out.
Price: £16,500 + VAT

The Mk2 Escort having a little refresh after being in storage, lick of paint inside, with new extinguishers going in. The original seats and harnesses will be going back in for now until FIA dated seats are required to do a rally.
Engine servide next, new oil, filerts, belts etc. ready for start up next week.
Engine spec: JRE  2.0 XE Vauxhall engine, all steel bottom end, dry sump,  touring car spec head, Jenvy throttle bodies, OMEX ECU, twin plate 7.25 clutch, currently mated to a Quaife type 9 dog engagement gearbox (H-pattern)

Nearly ready to start bolting some bits on to the red Escort Mk2 we had back from the bodyshop end of last year. We have decided to start building the car as a little show piece, to show whats possible with these new Escort mk2 shells. First parts to go on will be the axle and suspension. We will be using top quality Rix Engineering components with Group-4 Bilstein dampers and coilovers. The build will be based on tried and tested Group4 parts including a fully floating atlas axle, Bilstein coilovers on the rear with 4 loink and Watts linkage. Front will be Rix struts with Bilstein inserts, adjustable TCAs, compression struts, alloy top mounts and Grp4 alloy hubs. 

As part of our full range of Group-4 Escort range we can now supply brand new fully built BDG engines to complete the full car build package. These hand built BDG / BDA engines are available as a complete unit, usually assembled to order to customer exact specification, for either road, rally or full rack spec. The most common variant is the alloy block 2.0 BDG on twin 48 Weber carbs for use Historic Escorts, Mk1 and Mk. We can also supply the Lucas fuel injected version usin all brand new parts. Alternatively the kugelfischer injection system can also be supplied.

The ultimate BDG fuel injection engine. Historic legal Lucas mechanical system on slide throttle. Available as a unit fully dyno run for optimum power and reliability.
Alloy block with optional Nicasil liners. Steel crank and con rods, CNC machined full race or rally spec head.
Prices start from £21,000 + VAT for complete fully built/dyno engine. World wide shipping can be arranged

So here it is, a world first! The first fully built and finished 100% NEW Escort Mk2 modern rally car! Brand new build using one of our new Mk2 shells, built over the last year and ran on the rollers today, ready for its first event next weekend, Duratec engine: 324bhp and 230ft/lb. A video clip coming shortly. 
Brand new Escort Mk2 shell supplied by motorsport Tools in 2018. Car built by Rallyextreme for Shaun Weston

All welding and fabricating is now finished on our Historic Group 4 Escort Mk1 restoration project. A quick sand blast to clean the steel and into the spray both to be painted in primer to protect the bare metal bodywork before detailed bodywork begins, fitting front wings, doors, boot/bonnet etc. Final painting should be finished early in the new year.

Finally landed back with us from our local bodyshop, and the bright recd colour really does look lovely!

Here we have the new mk2 bodyshell fully painted, stunning red colour with satin black detail. We now have the rollcage bolted in and some basic trim fitted: windows, seals, bumpers, grill etc. If not sold soon we will be bolting on an Atlas axle and front suspension to get the shell rolling, cant wait to get the gold Minilites on :)