Steel Blue track car project

Hi all,

Having owned my Puma now for 5 months, I thought it was about time to start a project thread and let you all know how I am getting on with it.

Here is how it looked when I bought it:





Unfortunately, the rear offside arch looked like this close up!!:



Also, the car had been keyed all the way down both sides of the car and across the bonnet so deeply that it wouldn't polish out. I picked it up for £550, with 90k miles and full Ford service history. It drove great and felt really good. Just the bodywork was in bad shape.

So the first job was to get all the rust repaired and the car resprayed I ended up getting both sides, the bonnet and the rear bumper sprayed, so about 75% of the car! The nearside rear arch still needs a bit of work as the rust has started bubbling through and so I will be getting a plate put in that side too now. Anyway, after all that the car was starting look quite tidy again and it was time to start modifying!

The first thing I changed were the wheels. I love the look of the Modeo/Cosworth style wheels - and before you all say it, I know the offsets are wrong! But I now have the wheels fitted with 21mm spacers all round and feels great on the road.

Here is the car when the wheels first went on:



That's my brother under the bonnet as usual! It is handy that he is a Ford Tech!!

I bought this car mainly as a track day project and have also join the Sevenoaks and District Motor Club with the aim of eventually using the car for sprint events. However, I am starting simple and will be doing a few track days this year and my first Autosolo event on 8 July to get some practice in. With that in mind, I knew I wanted a motorsport look for the Puma and I started by painting the wheels white:



With that done, I wanted to change the brakes and I came across a set of second hand Wilwood 4-pot callipers:



They looked a bit sorry when I first got them! The callipers cleaned up well though and were in good working order. I ended up buying new discs (285mm), braided lines and medium compound pads from Rally Design. Now they are fitted and bedded in they work brilliantly! The brakes were always pretty rubbish but now I have far more confidence that I can stop when needed and should help me out on track days and for the Motor Club events.

another track car.... not that im conplaining, ive got one aswell!!

you'll find plenty of inspiration, from budget track cars to turbo'd monsters... its all on here

Sticking with the motorsport theme, I also painted the wing mirrors white and added some graphics that I know Sparx will recognise!! :grin:

Here is how the car looked when I picked it up yesterday:








There will be few more graphics to go on, for the front wings and bumper but I am really pleased with the overall look. It just needs lowering now!

I have on order a set of fully adjustable Gaz coilovers All Gaz shocks are made to order, so there is a two week wait, but it will be worth it! When changing the suspension, I am also hoping to replace a few worn bushes with poly bushes and replace both drop links. Overall, that should help stiffen things up nicely!

I will update again once the suspension is on.

Flying Scotsman said:

What are your plans for this track car?

Click to expand...

Hi, plans for the next stage are to attack the interior and lose some weight, together with some new seats and a new steering wheel. I hope to finish that by Christmas. Eventually, I would like a roll cage - white, sticking with the theme, of course!

Engine wise, it is currently standard apart from a Ramair induction kit I added, just because I wanted a bit more noise. I will get to the engine soon but am not sure which direction I want to go with it. I think I will get some driving practice on track days and events this year and see how I want take it from there, engine wise.

PumaJay said:

another track car.... not that im conplaining, ive got one aswell!!

you'll find plenty of inspiration, from budget track cars to turbo'd monsters... its all on here

Click to expand...

Yep - the Puma just lends itself brilliantly to being a good, fun and cheap to modify track car!

I've already picked up loads of inspiration from stalking the board for the last few months and hope to meet a few of you at the upcoming shows over the summer. I least my car should be recognisable now - it's certainly easy to spot in the train station car park when I have to use it for the commute!! :lol:

Flying Scotsman said:

Lol... its Sparx Mk 3.... Wonder how many more there will be.

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Yep! I did warn Sparx I had the same graphics! I also discovered that it was Sparx's car that I found a picture of online in steel blue with the same graphics, which made me realise they do suit the colour before I bought mine ... I'm just pleased Sparx has changed colour now! :lol:

Scott134 said:

Flying Scotsman said:

Lol... its Sparx Mk 3.... Wonder how many more there will be.

Click to expand...

Yep! I did warn Sparx I had the same graphics! I also discovered that it was Sparx's car that I found a picture of online in steel blue with the same graphics, which made me realise they do suit the colour before I bought mine ... I'm just pleased Sparx has changed colour now! :lol:

Click to expand...

Yeah... she has... to Mac Mk2 lol

Yeah... she has... to Mac Mk2 lol[/quote]

Well, white does look awesome on the Puma!

WOW ... looks really weird seeing it on another MSB ...

slightly speechless.... REALLY want my car back now... lol

Agreed. I have read the whole of Sparx's thread (over the course of few days!) and it's great to see how it's developed. I'm looking forward to getting mine to that point and bringing it all together. Pretty happy with how it is shaping up so far though.

Sorry ... my post above was in reply to the Flying Scotsman!

Hi Sparx - I did promise to start my own thread soon! Your car is looking great by the way!

Hey Scott lol, no worries mate k: Nice to have been such an inspiration to someone

can you do me a massive favour, can you get me a good pic of your car with the graphics from the same angle as mine here



the bigger the pic the better lol, can email it direct if you want [email protected]

cheers

Hi Steve, no worries. I've sent you an email.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, so I thought I would post a few updates.

First up, I had my first event with the Sevenoaks & District Motor Club - an Autosolo at North Weald airfield.

At the time the only upgrade was really the brakes and induction kit. The suspension was still standard, as is the engine! I finished 6th in class out of 14, and 13th overall out of 43, which I was pretty pleased with for a first event.

The Autosolo is so much fun and just the type of event the Puma is great at. It's such a nimble, revvy car as standard that it puts up a really good fight in these events, often setting quicker times than cars that should be quicker (such as the Civic Type-R on coilovers that we had a good close competition with all day). Really looking forward to the next one in September and hoping to start sprinting, although that is likely to be in the New Year now.

Here are a couple of photos ...







Plenty of opportunity to go sideways!!


It was pretty wet most of the day though ...

Next up, I had my coilovers fitted at the Gaz factory (which it turns out is only about 10 minutes from my house!)

The difference in handling is awesome. The car feels great, although it is not really a great deal lower at the moment. The problem we found was the wishbone angle. The guys at Gaz were explaining to me how for optimum handling you want the wishbones no further than parallel. So they set the car up as low as they could whilst retaining parallel wishbones and set the shocks to about a mid-level setting for stiffness. It's actually pretty comfortable on the road like that, which I was impressed with.

I do want to go lower though, so have been looking at adjustable wishbones. Has anyone got any experience with these, or any other options?

Area Six (formerly Fiesta Frenzy) sell the adjustable wishbones for around £160. Any feedback on those would be much appreciated.