***UPDATED 05/07/21***
Hi again, for anybody interested I thought I'd share my experience with this car for anyone that may be tempted.
I made the 3 hour drive down to London with cash to buy this car. I had insured it ready to go, so I had every intention of bringing it back.
Upon arrival the car looked pretty good, as decscirbed and shown in the photos. However thing quickly changed upon a little inspection. I had a very close look around the car body work which was spot on, the fresh paint was very good and appeared to have been completed to a good standard. The seller told me that he didnt have the log book in his name, which is where alarm bells started ringing. He told me that he bought the car to add to his collection but now wanted to move it on. He also said he had only driven the car for 30 miles, since buying it in November? Also seemed very odd..... This guy was CLEARLY a trader hiding under the guise of a private owner, he had 3 other cars in his yard (1 of them I had seen for sale on a facebook page days before, with comments slating the seller for buying it cheaply less than 3 months ago and now doubling the price).
The seller started the car up to show me it running but turned off it very quickly (seemed odd), he had mentioned it was a little lumpy on a cold start and he wasnt wrong. He gave me some history on the car, saying he bought it in November, apparently after buying it the fuel pump died so a new 1 was fitted. This was the loudest fuel pump that I have ever heard by the way! He said the car pulled well in all gears, but also told me it needs new rubber as the tyres on it are shocking and it doesn't grip well, looking at them they were budget rubbish and probably quite dangerous. This all started to scream of a build done on a budget.
I asked to take the car for a test drive, the man pulled the car out of his yard for me, when he was moving it out of his yard the car the car kept trying to stall and he needed to keep the revs up. He then parked it up and turned it off again, despite the fact I was about to jump straight in. To his credit though he was very relaxed about me going for a spin and didnt come with us.
This is where the issues became apparent. Firstly the driver seat was broken, I moved it back as I am quite tall but it didn't lock in properly so every time I pressed the brake the seat slid forward about 3 inches. The gear knob was not attached either, just placed on top, the screw fixing on the actual gear stick had clearly been cut off for some reason so apart from super glue there was no way to fix a gear knob to this car. The dashboard lights also did not work. However, the main issue, the way it ran. The car was very clearly over fuelling, it had no power or grunt at all. I made sure it was warned up correctly, planted my foot in 2nd gear at about 30mpg and it had nothing at all. Just made some awful noise, spluttered a bit and began to pull very slowly. The exhaust was popping like it was going out of fashion and the smell of unburnt fuel was insane. This car was clearly not right at all.
Potentially to the right person these are all easy and cheap fixes but to me, and for the price he wanted this just seemed like it would cost me a fortune to get it right. It at best a few dyno runs and a fresh map, then it's a set of tyres, new drivers seat, also little things that bugged me such as the wheel nuts were all mis-matched, it needed some floor mats,, only had 1 key, and all just screamed of a car done on a budget so I walked away.
Anyway that's all from me. The hunt for a new toy will continue.
Orignal Post:
Hi there,
I have been lurking on the pages of this forum for quite some time now and finally joined up. I was invited to the 2019 Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb event back in 2019 with a friend of mine and since then I have been really hooked on this era of cars...Really the cars for this group are more cars from childhood days (80's & 90's) so it is definitely time I scratch the itch. My car history has mainly been more modern performance type of cars, and I currently own a Nissan 350z, a Hawkeye Impreza and an Alfa 159 as the daily, so what I am looking at is a bit of a change for me and with that in mind I would greatly appreciate some advice on a car that I am going to view over the weekend.
The car in question.....
A modified 1997 Ford Escort Gti, 3 door model. Complete with 2l Zetec Engine running ITB's, Newman Cams, all the bells and whistles to go with this set up, uprated brakes, coilovers, etc, etc.
I do know a little bit of history to this car but it was bought by a Ford collector and sort of 'redone' over the past 12 months or so. I have never owned a car with ITB's so I was hoping to get some advice on what I should be looking for. The seller tells me that the car starts up lumpy for around 20 seconds due to fuelling/air mix of the ITB's and also the fuel pump can be heard on tick over, apparently due to being a high pressure fuel pump. Does this sound normal?
Here is a few pics of the car. If anybody spots anything else that I should be looking at then please let me know.
Thanks in advance for any help on this.
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