1.7 Puma Track&road

[BiscuitPoo]

Picked up a 1.7 Puma not intending to track it but attended my first trackday a few months back, certainly enjoyed it even though I was nervy, true be told but knew there was a fair few things I realised I could do modifying the car to boost my confidence and enjoy future ones even more. Its not going to be an all out and out track car as the title suggests, but not a daily at the same time. I love the track/rally look too which is a bonus.

Plan now is to get the kerb weight down to around 950kg without replacing panels for lighter ones which is a reduction of 80kg which I worked out is very possible (standard kerb weight is 1035kg) Standard bhp is 123 and bhp/ton is 118, with my current mods I only need FRP (ford racing puma) cams to give me at least 140bhp. with the reduction in weight I'll definitely be near my target of 150bhp/ton which will give me that little bit more poke on the straights which coupled with it's great corning ability as standard will show up much more powerful machinery. Next big addition along with the FRP cams is ap collies which are arriving end of March. Next trackday will be in May/June most likely at Brands or Bedford Autodrome.

Anyway this is what it looked like when I picked it up, and main changes with pics

So first things was full service incl cambelt change rocker gasket and waterpump. Added some mudflaps, Eibach springs (hated the BIG arch gap), rear beam/front lower/front rear powerflex bushes, piper panel filter, gel bages, flat wipers, smoked side lens and put some osram bulbs in the front indicators (hated the orange) initially had a 2nd hand ss powerflow backcat fitted for a gutsy sound, but was just far too loud although the 4" shiny tailpipe looked nice..

So what I did was keep the ss centre section from the powerflow setup and to keep the noise down (and within track noise limits) a standard backbox. Love the Ford Racing Puma Tailpipe with the middle bar, and as the tailpipe welded to it was oval'ish, lol, I fashioned my own.

I coupled the centre section with a Sportex 4-2-1 off eBay I refurbished, used a file, thinners, kurust, wire pipe cleaner, Rustoleum Heatpaint 650c and heatwrap.

Clutch was beginning to slip so got it swapped for a bigger 220mm 1.8 focus one and new puma slave, few gaskets for the exhaust, new genuine top mounts and bearings and some other bits.

Got myself a real carbon fibre FRP splitter and after a near potential mishap ss support ties from rallynuts, got some HID so I could actually see at dark, changed rear polys for standard but prob be swapping back.

Read up about the FRP (Ford Racing Puma) Airbox which has a larger inlet and directed to the front of the car rather than a simple side arch feed which the standard has, so modified mine so it was exactly the same to get a good amount of air in, ripped out the black resonator box inside which took up room and added a heatproof air feed (had to cut the grill back) as well as reflective heat wrap round the airbox itself to keep the air that enters cool.

To get even more air in and not wanting or affording to buy a LMS inlet (£500) or original Frp inlet (£800'ish) I had the MAF ported and knive-edged and cleaned the sensor, then also to improve throttle response I brought a 2.0l mondeo si (135ps) throttle body swapped the trigger over for the puma one and had that ported and knive-edged too in case I decide to port the inlet to match at a later date I then treated them both to the heatpaint same as the 4-2-1/backbox

Needed something a lot better to hold me in place to enjoy tracktime, so a pair of cobra frames for £40 and a separate auction for cobra buckets off eBay for £40 did the trick, they looked a mess but soon sorted that with elbow grease and fabric spray/pens.

Now for brakes I was originally going to have 300mm st170 discs with mondeo mk3 calipers which I'd need 16" wheels for (unless you agree with grinding calipers which I dont) so brought a set of 16" Speedline Turini with Rainsport2 tyres to go on them.

When actually went with the ST150 setup because you can get ferodo ds2500 pads for them which is what I really wanted to run and just so happens the set a brought came with them with loads of meat! Refurb them and painted white to be different and stand out then added some little details, also fitted hel braided hoses and using ATE super blue racing fluid.

Gearknob was looking extremely tired so took the top later off with glasspaper and polished then painted in the numbers.

As most things I was adding had a red theme I stuck with it, I meshed the front grill and painted that red and did the air ram gauze the same, few track/motorsport decals added front bonnet pins and this is how it looked at Rockingham. I sprayed some interior bits to suit.

As I mentioned early plans next are:

Strip weight

Coilovers end of March

Full strut set

New coilpack to suit recently new ht leads.

FRP cams (not sure when but wont fit my FRP ecu untill then)

and then finally a set of semi-slicks fitted to some light 15" alloys, not bothered which infact the standard props are fine and can be picked up dirt cheap.

Thanks for reading and comments welcome will update soon as will be working on the weight reduction in tackling the messy job of removing the sound deadening bonded to the Shell, definitely sourcing a heatgun for that first though.

[L666JER]

Very interesting read, I like what you have done :)