Its a Retro Ford....honest!

Ok, granted, it doesn’t look like any of the Fords we’re accustomed to; there’s not a hint of anything wearing Henry’s badge that’s visible to the naked eye. But look under the surface, peel back the skin and take a closer look. This beast has the Blue Oval in its DNA. What looks like a mechanical and skeletal box section frame is adorned with Ford parts, hanging off of its structure like Pat Butchers earrings. Its Blue Oval anatomy peers through the steel bars that hold it all together, like the heart enclosed within a human rib cage.

At the back hangs the trusty English axle, formerly residing under a Capri or a Cortina. Mk1 Fiesta front disks and callipers are grafted on either end to bring the machine to a halt when the middle pedal is applied in anger before a corner. Moving forward, the propshaft is a heavily cut down Escort item, and when I say heavily cut down, I mean it. It measures about a foot long! This then slots into a type 9 gearbox. At the business end, a trusty 2 litre Pinto with a bunch-of-bananas four branch manifold hanging off the side. Front hubs and brakes are from the later Cortina family, but that is where the Ford parts catalogue ends. Not much of a Retro Ford? Hear me out.

           

The example on these pages belongs to Trevor Drayner. Bought as a complete, but old and tired stock car, Trevor undertook a comprehensive rebuild of the car, principally for the most practical of reasons.

           

“I couldn’t get in it! I’m over 6 feet tall and quite a big guy, so I had to cut the whole cab off and rebuild it just so I could sit in it and drive it comfortably. After that, I repaired the damage to the rest of the car, then set about making it better.”

           

Trevor went over the car and set about bringing it up to scratch, although the running gear was pretty much bang on. Although not being a true Ford, the car utilises a lot of technology from a formula Ford had great success in: rallying.

           

The suspension in particular has drawn many of its principles from under the wide arches of Mk1 and Mk2 Escort rally cars. Out back, the axle is four linked, with coilover shocks, a panhard rod and rear anti-roll bar. Take a peak under many of the cars running in the Historic Rally series, and a similar set up will greet you.

“Everything being adjustable is a great help,” says Trevor. “I can offset the axle, change the damping either side to make the car flatter in the corners, and really make it handle nicely. The only thing I can’t really alter is the camber.”

Up front are double wishbones, as seen on the mk3/4/5 Cortinas. These are paired with compression struts, much like on the works Mk1 Escorts, and are also teamed with an anti-roll bar for extra stiffness. And they need to be stiff. Trevor’s car, which is going to be run on shale tracks, sits about 3 inches from the floor. Tarmac cars are even lower…

           

The transmission also takes it cues from worlds dominated by Fords. Gearboxes are Type 9 items, usually 4 speeds for their strength and favourable ratios. With Tran X internals, you can have a 70’s National Hot Rod style 2-speed affair, with 2 different second gear ratios to suit different tracks.

           

“I run a quick shift on mine as well, but that’s partly due to the gearlever being in between my legs!” Trevor laughs.

           

The differential bares transcendence from the rally world, but also the more modern drift scene, as a Formula 2 stockcar will either have a limited slip or welded diff taking the drive to the rear wheels. On the short ovals they race on, getting the power down quickly and efficiently is key.

           

“Because of the short wheelbase, if you light the rears coming out of a corner on tarmac, by the time you’ve corrected it, it’s already in the fence. It’s not exactly forgiving,” Trevor muses.

           

Now for everyone’s favourite bit; the engine. Most people use the trusty 2 litre Pinto, although the rule book lists specifications for engines from 1500 pre crossflows right through to the super modern Mazda derived Duratec!

           

A top spec F2 Pinto puts out around 160bhp, and Trevor’s example is bang on the money at 156. The bark from the Simpson exhaust system, which exits right next to his ear, is incredible.

“I blew the last engine up testing the car out though, the first day I had driven it,” he winced.

           

 After the months of hard graft, he said that the first drive was an “interesting” experience.

           

 “I was looking forward to driving an open wheeled car, having driven Sierras in the Lightening Rod formula before this, but the first laps were horrible!

           

 “I couldn’t keep it in a straight line, let alone try and set it up for a corner. It just kept bouncing and wallowing. I genuinely thought ‘What the hell have I gotten in to here!”

          

  A couple more test sessions and plenty of suspension and tyre pressure alterations got the car “100 percent better”, then the engine cried enough after being revved to 8200rpm! But Trevor is adamant there’s far more to come from the car.

“Everything is adjustable, so I’ve got to play with it a lot more to get it to turn in right, but it will get there. In 3 test sessions the other day we knocked 3 seconds off the lap time. It’s a big learning curve - I’m turning left instead of right for a start!”

“My car isn’t a big budget build at all, so I’m relying on getting plenty of track time and dialling the car in from there. After that, bravery and stupidity will have to do!”

Although bravery and stupidity may be what’s required to get one of these somewhat ‘lively’ cars around a track, it would be neither brave nor stupid to recognise that this is a retro ford. Yes, it is convention defying in terms of what normally graces these hallowed pages, but the very essence, the very underpinning of the beast is very much what you and I know and love.

As the saying goes, old Fords don’t die, they just get faster!

Check out where and when you can watch F2 stock cars at www.briscaf2.com

Check out the gallery on the site and see what these cars look like, and also just how different Trevor’s machine is!