Ti Motorsport

Kenyan Rally Championship 2012

With plans to contest this years EASR now shelved, we are  working on the budget to contest the 2012 Kenyan Rally Championship. At present the dates for next year are not available but based on this years calendar we will start the 8 round championship in the middle of February.

So straight from Cape Town to Voi in Kenya by the sound of it.

As Suspected

As we had been expecting, there will be no entry for the Sira Motors /Ti Motorsport Escort on this years East African Safari Rally. 
This will be the first time since 2003 that we haven't been on the event, so a huge disappointment for the whole team.

The up side to this is that we hope to take in the Kenya Rally Championship instead. For a similar budget to that necessary for the Safari we should be able to complete the Championship.

We hope to be able to confirm this is the next couple of weeks & will still need to get the car shipped out as the plan may involve doing the final round of this years championship as a shakedown & to get a feel for the format of the events.

Safari Non Starter

Our appearance on this years East African Safari Rally is looking a little unlikely at the moment, following the withdrawal of our co-driver & his fairly substantial funding.

At present we are still working to complete the car in time for shipping but the prognosis isn't good.

Latest Entry List

 

Entries for this years event have now reached 50

 

ntries In order of receipt	Entrant Concurrent	Driver/Co-Driver Conducteur/ Coéquipier	Nat Nat		Vehicle Voiture
1	Mark Bentley	Mark Bentley Edward Bentley	GB GB		Ford Escort Mark 1
2	Thomas Flohr	Thomas Flohr Dider Breton	CH France		Porsche 911
3	Derek Melville	Derek Melville TBA	GB TBA		Porsche 911
4	Steve Perez	Steve Perez Staffan Parmander	GB Sweden		Datsun 260Z
5	Geoff Bell	Geoff Bell Tim Challen	ZA EAK		Datsun 260Z
6	Andrew Siddall	Andrew Siddall  Mike Borrisow	GB EAK		Datsun 260Z
7	Aslam Khan	Aslam Khan Ashard Khan	EAK EAK		Porsche 911
8	Marzio Kravos	Marzio Kravos Renzo Bernardi	EAK EAK		Ferrari 308 GT4
9	Viking Motorsport	John Lloyd Adrian Cavenagh	England England		Ford Escort Mark 2
10	Gunther Kronseder	Gunther Kronseder Gerd Petzold	D D		Mercedes 450SLC
11	Michel Puchercos	Michel Puchercos Nick Patel	EAK EAK		Datsun 260Z
12	Kronos Vintage	Gregoire de Mevius Alain Guehennec	Belgium France		Porsche 911
13	Kronos Vintage	Jean-Pierre Mondron Nicolas Gilsoul	Belgium Belgium		Porsche 911
14	Kronos Vintage	Thierry de Latre du Bosqueau Eric Werner	Belgium Belgium		Porsche 911
15	Kronos Vintage	Claude Ruiz-Picasso Benoit Couturier	France France		Porsche 911
16	Kronos Vintage	Phillipe Vandromme Frederic Vivier	France France		Porsche 911
17	Kronos Vintage	TBA TBA	TBA TBA		Porsche 911
18	Rommy Bamrah	Rommy Bamrah Harvey Jutley	EAK EAK		Datsun 260Z
19	Kulwinder Sandhu	Kulwinder Sandhu Harpal Sudle	EAK England		Datsun P710
20	Louis Antonini	Louis Antonini Pierre Antonini	Corsica Corsica		Porsche 911
21	Simon Tysoe	Simon Tysoe Imran Khan	England Kenya		Ford Escort Mark 1
22	Franz Wunderlich	Franz Wunderlich Struwe Maximilian	Germany Germany		Porsche 911 Carrera RS
23	Jean-Marc Bussolini	Jean-Marc Bussolini Patricia Bussolini	France France		Porsche 924
24	Graham Alexander	Graham Alexander Ross Runnalls	Australia Australia		Datsun 260Z
25	Albert Michiels	Albert Michiels Patrick de Coninck	Belgium Belgium		Porsche 911
26	Viking Motorsport	Stig Blomqvist Ana Goni	Sweden Venezuela		Ford Escort RS1800
27	Tuthill Porsche	Steven Funk Andrew Doig	Canada Kenya		Porsche 911
28	Tuthill Porsche	Richard Jackson Preston Ayres	England England		Porsche 911
29	Tuthill Porsche	Steve Troman Calvin Cooledge	England England		Porsche 911
30	Race4change	Bjorn Waldegard Mathias Waldegard	Sweden Sweden		Porsche 911
31	Kishan Bhanderi	Tim Mammen Kishan Bhanderi	Kenya Kenya		Datsun 1600SSS
32	Samit Gehlot	Samit Gehlot Asit Patel	Kenya Kenya		Ford Escort
33	BMA - Autosport	Gerard Marcy Stephane Prevot	Belgium Belgium		Porsche 911
34	Stefano Rocca	Stefano Rocca Piers Daykin	Kenya Kenya		Datsun 280Z
35	Aziz Tejpar	Aziz Tejpar Andy Nagi	England Kenya		Ford Escort Mark 1
36	Jacques Walens	Jacques Walens Thierry Lacroix	Belgium Belgium		Porsche 911
37	Ian Duncan	Ian Duncan Amaar Slatch	Kenya Kenya		Ford Capri
38	Freestone Rally Services	Alastair Cavenagh Carl Tundo	Kenya Kenya		Ford Escort Mark 2
39	E Car Insurance	Arron Banks Tim Chesser	England England		Ford Escort Mark 1
40	Cementers / BHP	Ramesh Vishram Atul Kochhar	England Kenya		Ford Escort Mark 2
41	Race 4 Change	Patrick Njiru Travis Pastrana	Kenya USA		Porsche 911
42	Autosport Kotek	Josef Jobst Hans Greifenstein	Germany Germany		Porsche 911
43	Autosport Kotek	Jac Nellemann Joseph Huber	Denmark Switzerland		Porsche 911
44	Jayant Shah	Jayant Shah Lofty Drews	Tanzania Australia		Datsun 260Z
45	Nick Mason	Nick Mason TBA	England TBA		Datsun 240Z
46	Kurt Engelhorn	Kurt Engelhorn Johan Nel	Germany SouthAfrica		Ford Escort Mark 1
47	Jonathan Somen	Jonathan Somen Richard Hechle	Kenya Kenya		Ford Escort Mark 2
48	Autosport Kotek	Bernhard Kessel Ronny Kessel	Germany Germany		Porsche 911
49	Peter Stoehr	Peter Stoehr Crispin Sassoon	Germany Kenya		Datsun 1800SSS
50	Richard Arrowsmith	Richard Arrowsmith Norris Midwood	England England		Ford Escort Mark 1

 So far you will notice we are not on it

Shipping Deadline Draws Near

With just 3 weeks to go before the shipping deadline [Sept 20th]for the Escort, things are beginning to look a trifle tight.

With quite a bit of body work still to do & all the mechanicals still scattered around the Sira Motors workshop, I foresee a lot of very late nights, if we are to get it done in time.

With various changes to spec still being made I am very sure that Gogi will keep Andrew & myself on our toes.

Tanking It

 With time pressing on, a trip to Sira Motors for Andrew & I was on the cards for Andy Tearle & myself.

A chance to drop the gearbox back & to look at the new tank which had arrived from Gp 4 Fabrications. Being quite a bit smaller than the previous tank, there is a bit of fabrication to do to make up new fixings.

A new parcel shelf being just one part.

The fabricators have said we should have the car back in a couple of days & then we will be able to refit the engine & box.

Escort Box Complete

Having given the errant Escort baulk ring a bit more of a hone, reassembly got underway again & this time everything was fine. No locking of gears on the synchro rings.

The nose cone, which is modified to take a concentric clutch release bearing, had a new oil seal fitted before being bolted into place.

The plan is to turn the bellhousing into a quick release unit but the method of running the hydraulics to the release bearing need sorting first.

The existing system uses a plate bolted to the bellhousing, with bulkhead unions. These have to be undone before the gearbox can be removed & then the pipes on the inside of the bellhousing have to be undone before the release bearing can be removed. Not a recipe for a quick box change.

A bit of steel in the box

  As we had problems on the last Safari with the second gear synchro, we have opted to fit steel baulk rings.

The ones we have chosen are Quaife items & have to be lapped in, a bit like you  do with valves.

Not the easiest of jobs, but I came up with a way that didn't take too much skin of my hands.

Just wrapping some string around the gear allows it to be turned quite easily. A little cutting paste and get on with it.

After a few minutes, any surface imperfections in the ridges of the grooves on the steel ring have been removed & the ring locks more or less instantly on the gear. Just what you want.

3rd,4th & 2nd were no problem, 1st however has become a little more problematic & it only became apparent when we started to assemble the box. As soon as the intermediate bearing went on fully enough for the circlip groove to show, the gear locked onto the baulk ring. Somewhere along the line, we have lost about 15 thou. Not a lot, but enough to lock everything up.

Available For Hire

Following the change in plans of the current owner, we are able to offer our Peugeot

 

 

504 Coupe for hire on this years East African Safari Rally or London Cape Town Rally. The car is fully rebuilt, is LHD & can be in either 2.0 litre or 2.7 litre form

Progress on the Escort

There has been quite a bit of progress on the Escort down in deepest Barking. The rear quarter panel, attacked by the Ugandan bus last time out, has now been replaced & the fuel tank taken out ready for fitting a new foam filled 12 gallon unit. We think 12 gallons should be enough based on a consumption figure around 8 to 10 mpg. It might be a little tight on the longest stages and we may have to lay in a contingency plan if any stages are over 100 miles long but that's life.

That's quite a big hole when the tank is out. Gogi will also take the opportunity to blank off the existing fillers in the rear quarters, the new tank filling from inside the boot.

The engine has been taken down & was a bit of a disaster area apparently. It would appear that the engine was over fueling, resulting in bore wash, hence loss of power & big bill for re linering the block.

We have been told it should be ready in about a weeks time, which will fit in well with our schedule, as the gearbox should be ready by then.