By last October, the FRST started to look like a car again! It’s is in paint, it’s on wheels and it moves under its own steam. Almost… Neil explains.
To give the big build a huge shove forward I sent the car over to Forge Motorsport so that their team and the clever bods at Hose Technik could sort out a full braided brake system and some hard boost pipes. I was well impressed when it arrived, not least because possibly the most dodgy ‘tow-man’ in history took my rather expensive rolling shell down to Forge. But besides the car arriving safely, what impressed me most was that the M&J lads had worked all night to get it painted, and on arrival at Forge the team just set about it!
Hose Technik relished the challenge of making up a proper race-spec system for it in record time too! They make some seriously nice off-the-peg replacement hoses, but can make things to suit your requirements, as they have done here. It really is slick and with them being proper lines, I know they are safe and strong so will last forever. The Forge fellas mocked up some boost pipes and will be sending them over shortly. When looking at the boost and water pipe layout, I was left scratching my head. The water pump to lower rad hose is often a big issue on ZT-converted cars. I previously ran an abortion of a hose that was chopped up and joined in around four places. Not ideal and certainly not pretty!
As luck would have it Roose Motorsport have a perfect solution for this, they stock a Zetec Turbo rad hose and besides the obvious Roose quality, it fits perfectly with no nasty kinks or bends. Problem solved and something you probably need to consider if you’re doing a ZT conversion yourself.
It really is a case of tying up loose ends now. The battery was originally mounted in the boot and on one side – I never really liked it and when I removed it, the plastic cracked. To save this happening again I got a neat alloy one from OBP. It fits in perfectly with the rest of the alloy parts on my interior and is now mounted behind the driver’s seat.It’s positioned at the lowest point of the car, so it will help weight distribution and the centre of gravity – especially with most Ford owners (i.e. my passengers) having an obvious love for pies, it helps even out the weight differences between my ‘race-spec’ athletic frame and the more chunky chaps on the Ford scene. In further anticipation for the succession of shakedowns and trackdays I am intent on doing, I have ordered some new rubber: some highly rated Yokohama A048, and more on those next month.
When the car returned back to SRMC from Forge, I went up for a big weekend of finishing the final bits. Matt and John did the painting, but I mucked in as best as I could. The finish was exactly the way I pictured it in my mind. I don’t know why people complain about watching paint dry, I found it incredibly exciting! The next stint saw the kit and doors back on. I stayed on my own one night, fiddling with the rad and cooler. Around 4am in the morning I stood back, feeling very content with my work. A real sense of pride and achievement. The pictures tell a story themselves – dig out your copy of Fast Ford issue 310 to see.
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