My Lemons Escort

[coolhand454]

Hi, My some of my friend decided to enter the 24 Hour of Lemons. We started with a 89 Mercury Tracer that sat in customers yard for 5 years before we got it.



This car was terrible on the track. Underpowered. Handle horribly.

The next move was to upgrade the drivetrain and suspension and a clapped out Escort GT would do the trick.

When we found the "donor" 92 Escort


a race opened up at Gingerman in April of 2011 we had to scrap the Tracer (R.I.P.)

The race at Gingerman was a little better. More power. The car handle horribly cause of the bad struts (we a $500 limit per race) but the car had potential.



You are probably wondering about the car paint and missile. Lemons encouraged this stuff.

Unfortunately, the engine blew:







After replacing the engine and struts (With ZX2 in the front and wagons in the rear) we return to Gingerman in Julyand came in 23 out of 60+ cars





For the October race at Autobahn we lowered the car





And came in 19th out of 95+ cars







I need some ideas for power upgrades and handling upgrades. Any ideas.

[progt91]

do the exhintake cam swap.

[coolhand454]

Is there a supplier I can call? What would this upgrade give me in HP/TQ?

[MD323]

its a swap involving taking a spare exhaust cam, removing the disty drive and instaslling it on the intake side and adjusting the timing. there are a few threads on it here if you search around.

looks like a fun lemons car. im suprised to see that BP let go so easily, Eyesore Racing's ghettocharged miata did evil evil things to their 8psi BP turbo and the bottom end held together.

http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_articles/id/889/eyesoreracingcom.aspx

[Racerboy]

Advance the timing to 18 degrees, have the flywheel taken to a machine shop and have it lightened by taking the lip off of the back of it, and then have it rebalanced. Become a paying memeber on here and you will have access to the cut intake how to. The cut intake is free besides the paying membership, so I'm guessing it won't count towards the $500 rule. If you haven't already, run at least a 2" exhaust. 2.25" is ideal.
And as mentioned, do the exhintake mod.

For handling, rear tie bar from a mazda mx3, and if you can get away with it, run control arms and lateral links from a mazda mx3, as it widens the stance. I don't know if it will count against your $500 rule.

[coolhand454]

im suprised to see that BP let go so easily, Eyesore Racing's ghettocharged miata did evil evil things to their 8psi BP turbo and the bottom end held together.

That engine had 170,000 miles on it and was drag raced before we got it. Thanks for the info.

[coolhand454]

Advance the timing to 18 degrees, have the flywheel taken to a machine shop and have it lightened by taking the lip off of the back of it, and then have it rebalanced. Become a paying memeber on here and you will have access to the cut intake how to. The cut intake is free besides the paying membership, so I'm guessing it won't count towards the $500 rule. If you haven't already, run at least a 2" exhaust. 2.25" is ideal.
And as mentioned, do the exhintake mod.

For handling, rear tie bar from a mazda mx3, and if you can get away with it, run control arms and lateral links from a mazda mx3, as it widens the stance. I don't know if it will count against your $500 rule.

We are planning the exhaust mod from the header cause it reduces to 1.75 pipe.

Thanks.

[atomicEGT]

Cut intake merely requires eyes and common sense.

Do you intend to play by the rules or cheat?

[coolhand454]

Rules are whatever mod you can make that is in your budget. They count part cost not you labor time.

[atomicEGT]

I know that, and I also know they are unlikely to tear the motor apart or know the difference between various Escort suspension components, which means you can get away with **** over budget if you want...

[The Pile]

That blue 92.... Thats the donor?? That looks like nicks old car... poor escort.

[dustinlib]

pretty sure the blue 92 is the racecar, just painted up differently.

[The Pile]

oh i didnt really put 2 and 2 together.. but i think that is nicks old car.. lol that thing was pretty nice

[coolhand454]

I know that, and I also know they are unlikely to tear the motor apart or know the difference between various Escort suspension components, which means you can get away with **** over budget if you want...

We kinda did

[XelderX]

If you aren't cheating in Lemons you are doing it wrong. Slot the front strut towers to get some negative camber up front. Run a stock rear swaybar and I think the Escort wagon front bar (whatever the big stock FSB for the BG chassis is. Make your front springs about 75% stiffer than your rears. Cut out/remove anything that isn't structural. Lemons races are won in the pits. Make your pitstops under 3 minutes and you'll be in the ballpark.