October 2002
Thursday 31st October 2002
There's an advert in this Months REVS magazine, in the For Sale section, where someone is selling a vehicle, and they've used a doctored picture of my Fiesta from this website to illustrate their car. Fear not, it's not me selling my Fiesta. My car is definitely NOT FOR SALE
Sunday 20th October 2002
The new ECU map works beautifully. I loaded it in to the ECU, pushed the starter button, and the engine started first time, and idles better too, I didn't even have to press the throttle pedal to coax her in to life.
I have noticed a small misfire when she's ticking over. This was present previously, and if I turn the lights out in the garage you can see sparks jumping from the HT leads to the rocker cover, which means that the spark plugs and leads probably all need changing. Not to worry, I'll stick that on my list of jobs to do.Changed the oil and filter in the Mondeo. The 1800 Zetec has now covered 85600 miles, and is still very quiet. Hardly any rattle from the camshafts. I had a few problems starting the engine during the week. This is a sure sign that the oil needs changing on the Zetec, particularly with the colder weather in the Autumn. Use a good grade of 5W30 and you won't suffer from the sticking valves that the Series-1 is susceptible too. She certainly starts easier now. I also changed the rear engine mounting, as I had a spare from the 2.0 thats in the Fiesta, and the one on the Mondeo had perished. She now changes gear easier, as the engine doesn't twist as much when I lift off. I can certainly feel the difference.
And finally, here are two pictures of the latest Fiesta concept vehicle to come from Ford. Wonder how much these'll cost? Details are emerging about this amazing vehicle. Using a Duratec 1600 engine, producing 200 BHP and a Hewland 6 speed gearbox. It will be developed next year for use in the Super 1600 rally class I want one!
Saturday 19th October 2002
I've had the ECU MAP altered this week. I've had tremendous problems starting the car from cold, and with fuel injection it should just be one push of the button and away she goes. Anyway, Allan Warburton at DTA kindly modified the various fuel settings at startup, and I'll upload the map in to the ECU today, and see if it's cured the problem. It's my own fault really, when I had the engine tuned at Owen Developments, we had a overheating problem, so concentrated purely on max power runs. I've since cured the problem, but have yet to return for the remainder of the rolling road session.
I'm in November 2002's Performance Ford magazine 5 times in all. Theres even a mugshot of me on page 32, photographed at the RSOC Nationals at Donington in August!
Saturday 12th October 2002
My father returned from the Targa-Liege rally a few weeks ago. It ran across Europe, visiting places like Austria, Germany etc, and it was the second year in a row that he's entered the event. In 2001 he won a Silver Medal for finishing in his Liege Kitcar. This year they entered in a 1960's Gilbern GT (orange), owned by friend John Reeve. They had a puncture on the penultimate day, so didn't finish the event this year. Pictures of the event can be seen at the web site of this years winner. Go take a look at speedyseven.com and check out the Targa-Liege 2002 pictures.
I've had some of the colour slides sent to me by Performance Ford magazine, scanned to CD and enlarged and printed too. (Good for the ego). The scanned pictures are available on the links below. Ultra professional quality, and I am indebted to Performance Ford magazine for sending them to me. I'll always have a reminder of how the car first looked when I completed her back in April. Enjoy.
Higher resolution images of the photos above, and other photos taken during 2002, are on the Hi Res images page, within the Photo Gallery.
Thursday 10th October 2002
I competed on the Edinburgh Trial last weekend. Starting in Measham, at the M42 Motorway Services, our start time was 05:39hrs, so it was dark and quite cold when we set off! The route doesn't take you any where near Edinburgh, but it's kept the name used from previous years. We headed off in to Derbyshire, climbing up in to the Peaks, for 10 tremendous hills. I've never done a trial before, they're very similar to Production Car Trials, where you have to drive up grass hills, but Classic Trial hills are amazing. Imagine a dirt track, just wider than the width of your car, and made up of rocks, tree roots, mud, loose gravel, polished stones, or a combination of any of the above. You'd think that a car wouldn't be able to traverse such a hill, but our Liege just climbed up them without a trace of a struggle. The car is based on the Reliant Kitten, which has an 850cc engine. But with the big 16" spoked wheels, and low gearing, the car trickles along up the hills, at 2000 RPM. Incredible. The hills aren't timed, so you can go at your own pace, but you do get penalised if you come to a standstill, unless its a Restart Section. These Restarts are evil. You're driving up the hill, and you have to come to a stop in a marked out section, wait for the marshal to drop his flag, and then try and get moving again. We were doing really well, restarting without problems on two earlier hills, but on Putwell 2 we couldn't move off again, and lost our chance of getting a Gold Medal for clearing all 17 hills. I now know how severe Great Hucklow is, and just how steep Litton Slack can get, but we cleared these with no problems. A good event, and we may be back next year. The weather was awful, with freezing winds and sideways rain, but thats part of the fun of travelling in a open top car I suppose!
