After dreaming of owning an RS Turbo
since he was a boy, Mo has finally got one, and he’s not afraid to drive his
340bhp RS – hard
Service items, replacement parts, filters,
fluids and belts - the kind of things you swap at regular intervals. The sort
of spares you get through when you're keeping up with routine maintenance.
Cover a lot of miles and you might need 20 sets of tires in the course of a few
years. Go heavy on the brakes, and you could consume 20 sets of pads. If you're
really unlucky, it's possible to experience 20 duff spark plugs. But destroying
20 gearboxes in a daily driver? That's just insane, isn't it?
RS
Turbo - Hardcore Hero
"I keep killing them!" laughs Mo,
owner of this 340bhp Series 2 RS Turbo. "Third gear always breaks. I'm
told it's because of my launching and all the torque."
Hammer time
To be fair, Mo admits to being a bit of a
hooligan behind the wheel, so he's full of praise for his Zetec turbo, and
lives in awe of the abuse the old Ford can take, all the while begging for
more. He grins, "I drive it hard on the drag strip, but the car is bang-on
reliable. Other than the gearbox, it's never let me down - even though I give
it death when I launch it. It's perfect."
Mo's story may sound a little extreme, yet
he's merely following a lifetime dream of owning the fastest car in his
neighborhood. Mo continues, “I’d wanted an RS Turbo since I was five years old.
A local guy had a black Series 2 with 300bhp, and whenever he drove past our
primary school, he hit the throttle. Everybody wanted that car.”
But whereas Mo’s mates chose modern
machinery when they were eventually old enough to take driving lessons, Mo went
searching for his childhood hero. Two weeks after passing his test, he traced
that RS to local tuner, Spec One Engineering - where it still languishes as a
stripped-put shell awaiting a rebuild. Despite his best efforts, Mo couldn’t
persuade the current owner, Nick, to part with the car.
RS
Turbo’s interior
Done deal
But his luck was in. ten minutes into the
conversation, Nick’s brother appeared in the RS Turbo you see on these pages.
It was clean, it was modified and, most importantly, it was black. Mo needed
that car.
He remembers, “I asked him to sell it to
me, and he was, like, ‘Nah mate.’ But I knew it was the card for me, so I
pestered him for half an hour and offered him the right money. I took him the
cash within the hour.”
Now, you could say Mo wasn’t prepared for
the Escort experience. At first, he thought the steering was broken (he’d never
driven) anything without power assistance), and next he was blown away by the
performance from a budget-built Zetec turbo.
"I knew it wouldn't drive like a new
car, but it gave a great buzz, and it felt really quick," says Mo. "I
didn't realize how fast it was until I left an Astra VXR for dust. Yeah, it was
quick!"
Mo was already addicted to his go-faster
rush, and couldn't wait to wind up the power. Spec One uprated the fuel pump,
added bigger injectors and a hybrid turbo, so Mo immediately made use of it. He
groans, "I went to Halfords one Sunday morning, and dusted a Subaru. That
afternoon, I had blue smoke coming from the exhaust, and the engine seized..."
RS
Turbo - back
The RS was recovered to Sev's, a local
garage with ample Ford experience. Mo's Zetec was swiftly declared scrap, and
the ideal solution - a fresh build - would take too long for Mo. He admits,
"Running in a new engine would be impossible because I'm so impatient, I
can't resist putting my foot down!
"I went on Passionford and found a
Torque of the Devil demo car (a 305bhp Series 2) was being broken. I bought the
engine, gearbox, turbo, management, tubular manifold - every little last bit to
drop straight in."
Sev spent three days and evenings swapping
over all the components to get Mo's machine back on the road. This time,
though, it was a monster, which was exactly what the RS fan had been after.
"When I collected the car it was
savage," says Mo. "It was so quick that I was shocked. It was only
20psi but there was no lag. I floored it, and it scared me! When I got home, my
legs were like jelly," he laughs.
