1974 MkII/III Ford Capri Turbo - 300+whp drift video

You cot it sorted. Nice

MVH

Hessu

Tomad and I worked on the blue 24v twin turbo, sorting many issues and we ran 11.04/204 km/h in a very much less than perfect run. This must have been 2005 or 2006, in the early days of high powered turbos. Tomas grew tired of having to invent everything as we went along, and sold the car to Norway.

The new owner took the engine for another Capri and started a slight remodel of "our" car that to the best of my knowledge still is not done.

Tomas got a BMW 325 e30, that we megasquirted and turboed. It was dynoed at 400 rwhp but we never really got the rear suspension to work. Tomas went on to a M3 e36, now he was gonna run a standard performance car with no modifications.

Of course that did not work. After I blew the doors off the M3 on the motorway with my Capri, he built a very nice turbo engine for the M3. It must have quite a bit over 600 whp (I don't remember the dyno figures).

Tomas however got tired of that too and completely swapped markets - a 1968 Mustang was next. Bought as a good runner he rebuilt the engine and drive train so good that the previous owner bought it back...

I still think of the blue Capri from time to time, and curse myself for not having the cash or room to buy it...

Gustaf

Thanks!

The car is under more or less continuous development but since I have quite a lot of other obligations, progress is not always very quick.

We are now closing in on the end of the season here in Sweden so I can soon start the more involved corrections needed. The front suspension needs some work, quite expected since everything is changed. Then I would like to make a new intake, a new exhaust manifold, prepare for fitment of some other turbos, and...well, you know :-)

Gustaf

OK, so time to let you know a bit about what's been going on.

Planning updates for the winter is a bit scary since the plans tend to change. But after the dyno run, I thought it was time to get going on the intercooler - I had a larger one on the shelft. Just had to make room for it, and pipe it up...

A friend had used the same model intercooler in his Capri, so I knew it should "fit". Actually, it wasn't that bad.





Some details left to do, but almost ready!

With that done, I focused on the rear brakes. They felt a bit small (blueish signs of overheating after the track days), I run a very near 50/50 weight split and the rear brakes need to work more that you'd think. Sierra Cosworth (or Scorpio 24v estate...) vented 273 mm dics was the "easy" upgrade but I really don't like those calipers, the parking brake alwaus jams, sooner or later. So I found a set of alloy VW Golf R32 calipers instead.

But they are clumsy, and will not fit under 15" wheels... So I had to change the plan, and go for the Ford calipers anyway.

In theory a bolt on thing but only if you have the "large" caliper mounts/bearing housings from the cars that had 273 mm discs. Suddenly, a used set was impossible to find. I gave up looking and found Anembo Engineering, who makes new ones in alloy. Not cheap but considering that you get new wheel bearings, and you save some weight, the deal is not that bad (actually quite good).




New calipers were ordered and I refurbished some caliper carriers I had saved from earlier findings.



Not super racecar, but the 20 mm larger disc and vents should mean they can take a bit more heat.

Next issue I started to work on, was getting a speed signal into the Megasquirt engine management system. Two reasons;
1 - to get some kind of accurate speedo
2 - I had found a MGF electric power steering column (EPAS), that I wanted to feed an adjustable speed signal to vary the degree of assistance.

The MS can read a speed signal from the gearbox and output a "tweaked" signal, to calibrate the speedo and hopefully also provide the power steering ECU with a variable signal.

But I want to keep the Capri gauge cluster, so I have worked on modifying one to accept the electronic speedo from an early MkIII Granada (or Scorpio as we call them). Thanks to great support from people here, I had an extra cluster or two to work with :-)




You need to be quite evil with the poor cluster...

In parallell I worked on the EPAS fitment, for some hours... To start with I only got the column itself, so step one was to see if it would fit at all, physically.

When I thought that was promising enough, I started to look for the other stuff. Wiring, ECU, steering joints...

ECU's were available on Ebay, but the wiring was harder to find. Eventually I found a seller, in the UK, but that was a complete MGF loom! At least I got some nice wiring stuff and a good fuse box for future use.

Steering joints next, the MGF has a 3/4" 48 spline end, Ford 9/16" 36 spline. Carbuildersolutions had a conversion joint, and a rather decent collapsing shaft. That almost worked, but since the MGF column is shorter than the Capri column, a section was missing.

The 3/4" 48 spline was a bit of a problem, I could get shafts easily but also needed a slim female section (who doesn't!) to fit it between the pedals. I fnally found some at EMPI (VW place) in the US - lucky I spent the new year holidays over there!

I didn't take enough photos on the process itself, but after a lot of cutting and building, it is finally there in the car.





I managed to fit the Capri ignition lock and switchgear, so I hope it will look stock when all is finished.

So far the mechanicals. But the electronics need to work too. The Corsa and Agila EPAS units are very popular with loads of cheap controllers, but for the MGF it's not that easy. But there are some good sites on diagnosing these, so I found out some info on the signals needed. 1000-3000 Hz for engine speed, and 100-250 Hz for road speed.

So, I thought a small 555 timer circuit would fix that.



Benchtesting, it worked great.

In the car, worse...at first, I had mixed up the speed and rpm signal, and then something else happened, the smoke escaped from the 555. Not sure what happened, could have been a wiring issue.

Well, I found a company selling MGF controllers at a decent price (not cheap, but OK). I don't have the time to develop my own controller (again).

The bought one showed up and is really compact. Everything is in the adjustment knob.




Now, this still didn't work great. The EPAS ECU would startupp, but as soon as it had to work with any resistance, it turned off. I tried zero-calibrating the torque sensor but it didn't help.

Power Steering Solutions that sold the controlled, helped me with some ideas and we soon came to the conclusion that I had the wrong ECU. There are two versions, mine is the later one (adjustable column) and the ECU was for an early column (fixed). Doh!

I found a later ECU in Sweden, at a good price actually, so a bit of luck there.

With the correct ECU, it all works perfectly - at least in the garage. Now I can turn the wheels just using the steering wheel hub! I just hope I get teh speed sensing function to work as well - but if not, the manual adjuster will come in handy.

I also did some work on tidying up the fuse/relay central.





The EPAS ECU will live under the fuse/relay centre, under the glove box. Easy accessible for future checks.

I also put the instrument cluster together, using the "Norwegian style" with LED lighting. I chose blue, to match the boost and voltage meter. I hope.






Bad photos but in reality, it looks good.

Gustaf

As the season of 2016 is well under way an update is (over)due...



I did another track day, much the same as before until I burst a heater hose. I had driven the car to the track so there were some logistical challenges involved in getting it home but in the end it worked out. The heater hose is now replaced by a section of hard tubing.



Next plan was to visit a dragrace again - it had been a very long time and I was a bit curious on what times the car would run now. I entered the races in Piteå, the track that is second closest to home.



As always, waiting time in the lineup:















I hadn't driven a dragrace for something like 6 years so getting the starts to work was difficult. I didn't find the way to build enough boost on the launch control so it bogged down. Best was a 13.093 and 176 km/h. That's slower than the 11.99 and 180 km/h it ran a long time ago :-(



This was with the "small" HX32 turbo and I decided to swap back to the larger HX35 for next race. Not that it would help bogging as much, but I also felt the car was a bit slow in mid boost. The car was always quicker with the big turbo anyway and I felt I had little to loose.



Loaded up for the next race:







This time at my local track and I had my old buddy Tomas (the blue twin turbo MkI Capri) to help me out. I had very similar issues here and the trap speeds were also down. That I blame on the fact that there was no time for a proper re-tune with the large turbo. Top end was a bit rich but I didn't dare to lean it out just on feel (no chance to make logs in the strip).



Instead we focussed on the launch control settings and finally we found the way to build boost like before. I had proper wheelspin all through first gear but at least I did a high 12 second run and now I felt we were on to something.





(image from Richard, www.race.ulkyvlers.net)



To increase grip I lowered the pressure in the slicks a bit. But then I just got a "click" from the drive train in the start - and no drive. All lost and not even close to the record times...



When I got home the fault became pretty obvious.











The left hand drive shaft is broken, my nice, steel drive shaft - and the inner CV joint has been pushed and smashed. I had some wheel hop in the run before but these axles should be able to take that kind of a beating. I thought... I have started a dialogue with the company who made the axles, and also with GKN who produces the CV joints,and we'll see if we can find a solution that works. "Everybody" uses the large 108 mm joints but that means swapping a lot of other parts as well. Not sure I want to go down that route.



I have also thought about quitting dragracing totally but that sort of defeats the idea of an "all purpose race car".



To be able to at least drive the car during the rest of the summer I loaned a standard shaft and joints from a friend, and put the car together for the "Motor Week" in Lycksele. That's where I premiered the car in 2014 and I felt it would be nice to bring it again.



The night before I left I made a quick solution for sending some cooling air flow to the alternator. We had a hot spell again and the charging voltage had a tendancy to drop a bit after some time. I blame overheating of the alternator - it really is a bit close to the exhaust.



I started with a regular show, a wide mix of "classics".



Toribass have gathered some photos;

motorveckan2016.toribass.se/#collection/6



Next up was a drifting competition. This year they opened up for a "run what ya brung" practice session and I thought it would be fun to drive a bit. Now, the organizers treated us much as the competitors, and a bit unexpectedly the car was issued a proper log book.







Formally we had 45 minutes between 3 and 3.45 to practice but during the drivers meeting we were asked to do the entire competition, if we wanted to. They didn't have to ask me twice :-)



The idea to drift came rather late and I didn't have too much time to get some proper drift tyres. But I borrowed a set of wheels from a friend, destined for his Capri eventually. They had some remoulds, 195/65-15 - a bit high but the ET was right and they were worn enough not to be of any use for a road car.



The last time I really tried drifting (might have been in 2008?) I realised that it is hard. This time it was confirmed...or maybe it's the car. Or me. The first round I spun out 3 times during the short lap. But I lingered on and tried to find the flow. A tight track like this is not ideal with a rather laggy turbo.



As the hot spell continued, I drank like a camel in between the rounds and it also meant teh car had to cool down a bit. So there was not too many practice rounds before the qualifications started.



Soon my target for the qualifications was to make at least one round without a spin, to get some points. A spin equals zero points :-( The third and last run was rather mediocre but at least I didn't spin so I scored 2 points (a normal decent run is perphaps 20 points!).



The eliminations were not any better and I did a "stop slide" so moving on was out of the question. But that was expected - I'm a bit fuzzed though that the Audi who beat me, tore a drive shaft and could make the next round.



The GoPro captured some of the runs. I'm not easily ashamed so here is the link:





Katarina "Polymoog" also has got her drifting photos up now:







More at www.polymoog.se

It was fun to compete and the car drove off by it's own power, with no damages. So that's sort of a win. I even didn't end up in last place! 13 out of 16 or so I think. I'm sure I can improve on the car bu doing more adjustments to the suspension settings. Now I just stiffened the rear shocks a bit.



When it was time to head back home from the camp site, the starter didn't even click. We tried jumper cables but I was pretty sure that it was not a power fault (the voltage meter indicated a rather healthy voltage). I called in some friends to push start (always interesting in an injected car with aftermarket EFI), and then I had to keep it running all the way home, a 2,5 hour journey. But that worked fine.



The starter is completely dead, so I ordered a new one (Escort CVH works great with the YB T5). With the new starter, the engine turns over like never before. I guess the old one was on its way out for a looong time...


Gustaf

I haven't done much lately at all, to the Capri that is. A new puke tank for the radiator was done a couple of weeks ago though.



Next up was instrumentation. The Granada/Scorpio speedo I setup this winter didn't work out great in the long run. The scale is not spot on and the needle floats a bit.



So, I decided to check out solutions for a tablet connected to the Megasquirt. You can design your own dash and also datalog with no computer on board.



I struck a deal for a cheap Samsung tablet and by pure luck it fits the Capri dash pretty good:






I couldn't find a generic mount that would work but I made my own that screws on the backside of the dash panel. Pretty stealth. The tablet covers the speedo (as planned) and the tacho (acceptable) but also the turn signal and high beam indicators. They are a legal requirement...



After giving it some thought, I put 5 mm LEDs in the column cover. I had a partly broken one and it needed to be shortened anyway to make room for the tablet. This turned out pretty nice (I just soldered wires to the bulb holders to feed them).



Today I have made a test drive with my own dash design (you can swipe between 4 different ones) and it works really nice. Apart from the fact that the speedo does not show the correct speed when the VSS is used (GPS works fine). Probably just a configuration error.







The tablet connects to the Megasquirt with Bluetooth, I got a module that is soldered into the MS. Now I can also tune wirelessly with the laptop, pretty nice :-)



The next upgrade was purely cosmetical. A long time ago I saw pictures on a yellow X-pack with a Laguna splitter. I have planned that for years but last winter I found one and now it is finally on.



The shape is pretty much correct from the start, just needs to be shortened a bit. I used rivnuts and M4 screws to fit it.










Gustaf

Well, this driving season ended a bit earlier than planned.

The last real outing was a local meet but as that is a "show and shine" thing it's not really my cup of tea. It's nice and all but cars should be moving about, not standing still.

After that work sort of took over and the I went to the US, and the SEMA show. High qualiy there!

When I got back home we suddenly had 1 meter of snow so the only driving I did was out of the garage to fit some winter tyres to one of the daily drivers.

But to the point; Already during the summer (after the drift event really) I started to think about building a new engine for the Capri. I wanted to gain more driveability but not necessarily add more power.

The basic concept will be mostly the same but with more compression and hopefully a better flowing head to give a more responsive engine - not necessarily with more power than before.

Specification:
205 Pinto block
DP Pistons in 91,5 mm bore, 38 mm flat tops (should give me around 8.5:1 CR)
YB rods
RWD YB oil pump and spray bar
YB sump with wings, and trap doors
Pinto crank
TTV steel flywheel to take 240 mm YB clutch
Fluidampr front pulley, multirib

Head (not decided on carb or EFI casting yet) with slight port job
Paul Ivey/REC valves (REC 882 inlets 1.800”/45.7mm, REC 297 exhaust1.500”/38.0mm)
Kent FR34 camshaft

"Swedish plenum" intake, YB trumpets fixed to Pinto flange
Pulse split exhaust manifold
60 mm wastegate

Turbo will probably be the HX35 at least for now to see how it spools. I have the old Mitsubishi TD04-16T on the shelf but it might be a bit small - and I have a Mitsubishi 19T that I might try.

At the moment the block is at the machine shop for boring.

I also plan on upgrading the rear end to 108 mm CV joints and new, beefier steel drive shafts. I have all parts except the drive shafts that will need to be custom ordered. I have to mock up the CV joints first though to check the drive shaft lengths.

Gustaf

Thanks!

Thread activity has been a bit low for some time so it's easily missed.

Block is back from machine shop, now I need to borrow a ring gap file (the buddy who has one gets back from US on Saturday) and get my engine crane back from another friend.

In the meantime I have built the mounts for putting the alternator on the intake side, where it will see less heat and hopefully be a bit happier.

Gustaf

Yes, I think we have probably only seen the start of what can be done with generic tablets. Not great in direct sunlight yet though but otherwise it's nice.

I just started looking into getting it to turn on and off (or at least "sleep") with the ignition, seems possible to do.

Gustaf