Stinky: Former Ford Escort ZX2 SSC car turned track rat.

I picked this up a while back for 2k from Michigan. It's a show room stock class for escort, 4500 original miles on the car total. The previous (and only) owners were Ford engineers, they apparently got the car for peanuts as it was one of the prototype test mules (the car is "un-registerable") - it sat for ~15 years(?) before they decided to sell. It came with 15 wheels, 2 engines, 2 transmissions, and a wide collection of mice fecal matter (more on that later). 

I hope to have it ready to run for a track weekend at Barber motorsports park on Jan 13/14 - my first time at that track and my first time driving the angry little thing for anything other than a shakedown.

I have quite a few updates, but they'll trickle in as I have time. 



 

Nice!  Except for the fecal matter...

Tongue weight looks a little off there, but nice score! 

That looks like Tim's old car.

I'll leave this here for you to watch

This is exciting! Congrats...

The ZX2 is a very capable car--pretty much any Mazda BG suspension bits work (Protege, MX3, 91-03 Escort etc.).

I see it's yellow, may I assume it's an S/R?

FSP_ZX2 said:

I'll leave this here for you to watch

This is exciting! Congrats...

The ZX2 is a very capable car--pretty much any Mazda BG suspension bits work (Protege, MX3, 91-03 Escort etc.).

I autocrossed one for a while when I had it and loved it 20x more than the focus.  Felt like far less of a turd next to the comparable focus of the time, handled great, looked great, super great cars all around.  I think the focus gained more in popularity though due to the aftermarket availability.  I think if the zx2 had more of an aftermarket than the focus, it'd have gained a lot more momentum for the time.

Still, great cars.

corsepervita said:

I see it's yellow, may I assume it's an S/R?

Given the lack of fog lights or sunroof, it may be a 99 s/r. A little over 100 1999s were made.  I had a 2000.

pinchvalve said:

Tongue weight looks a little off there, but nice score! 

Not much you can do about that with those Uhaul trailers. They force you to strap them down all the way at the front of the trailer.

Cool project! Looks like a fun track car. 

akamcfly said:

corsepervita said:

I see it's yellow, may I assume it's an S/R?

Given the lack of fog lights or sunroof, it may be a 99 s/r. A little over 100 1999s were made.  I had a 2000.

I wanted one so badly when I had mine.  

This makes me miss my Zx2 a little. Surprisingly impressive car for $1000 (mine was quite a bit higher mileage). I'd take another.

FSP_ZX2 said:

I'll leave this here for you to watch

This is exciting! Congrats...

The ZX2 is a very capable car--pretty much any Mazda BG suspension bits work (Protege, MX3, 91-03 Escort etc.).

Ha! I have two pictures of your car saved in my ZX2 album - do you have any detail pictures of your front bumper or rear wing? If I like the feel of the car I was hoping to do something similar.

It's not a factory S/R car so far as I know - it was originally white and a test mule. It has spool valve coilovers, the "trunk package" (bushings, rear sway bar), CAI, and short throw shifter. The engine on the little guy feels worked over though, much more brisk than the listed weight/power would imply. It has some oddities in the form of "debug" ecus, etc in it. I'm curious if it was given some "Ford engineer magic" to be more competitive in SSC.

I've only shaken it down briskly once and has a ton of rotation during power off, so that's nice (if it doesn't sneak up on me). I tend to think the Escort ZX2 didn't do so well on account of looks alone, if it had been a hatch or a nicer nose it probably would've done better - it compared well to it's contemporaries stats wise. It's good for me since the junkyard is literally brimming with these cars, and they're dirt cheap used.

accordionfolder said:

The engine on the little guy feels worked over though, much more brisk than the listed weight/power would imply. It has some oddities in the form of "debug" ecus, etc in it. I'm curious if it was given some "Ford engineer magic" to be more competitive in SSC.
 

Maybe a Focus cylinder head? Does is still have variable cam timing on the exhaust side? Ford had a CNC head for the focus, but it was not for VCT cars. I had some cool acquaintances at Ford around that time - which is how I ended up with my s/r. :)

In reply to FSP_ZX2 :

Thanks!! That looks awesome. I'll be honest, the little zx2 that could is growing on me.
 

In reply to akamcfly :

Maybe? I did a few "drag-races" with a good spec 944 racecar on the Barber front straight that reliably dyno'd at 144 whp. The zx2 was a bit quicker down the front straight (don't worry - I pointed him by). I'm wondering what they did to this angry little thing. I need to get it's actual weight - I'm basing it off of "the internet collective."

Its sitting in my driveway, about to go back to accordianfolder.

You can also see it in the current issue of GRM covering all the cars of the last $2000 Challenge.

never saw this, that's Ann's old car in front of their barn, boy the years fly by.  Hardware wise I think maybe we put cams in it, I don't remember exactly, but not more than that I don't think we had the CNC head available when it was running. 

The S/R's were very underrated cars, the performance described is typical of S/R's, and just those dampers alone (which are Multimatic inverted units) ought to be worth alot more if not for the car they are attached to.  The S/R car is about as close we got in North America to a Ford Puma of the same vintage.