Race car or Ricer, need some opinion on an aesthetics issue

Duke wrote: I'm fine with the exposed fasteners, but I have a high tolerance for stuff like that. In reply to the question you never asked, I would bring the black on the rockers up another 2" to the fold line in the door, and add a yellow border like you did on the skunk stripes.

Yeah, I've been thinking about doing the rockers in black, or even bringing the black all the way up to the door crease to match the hight of the bumper covers. Either way, the yellow border is intriguing! What to you all think: black on the rockers, or all the way up to the door crease for a true two-tone effect?

Nah, keep em raw.

If you don't mind me asking, what are we looking at here? Is that a Contour SVT? What kind of racing do you do with it, and in what class? Is it competitive with other cars in the class?

jstein77 wrote: If you don't mind me asking, what are we looking at here? Is that a Contour SVT? What kind of racing do you do with it, and in what class? Is it competitive with other cars in the class?

2002 Escort sedan, actually. 2.0L Split Port CVH engine. It's a road racing build-in-progress (slowly). The engine is capable of meeting the ITB power/weight ratio class goal of 17lb/horsepower with a limit of the rules build and steady-state dyno tuning, and the Ford/Mazda BG chassis is easily capable of being made class competetive in terms of handling and braking. I'm hoping to have the car, and my slowly returning skill set, ready for SCCA ITB racing in 2018. I just need to get the cracked windshield replaced and I should be good to go for monthly HPDE at Hallett starting in August and do HPDE and refresher coaching during all of 2017. It falls in the Hallett club class of "Production A". I'm atually going to need to get another cylinder head and a stock camshaft to stay IT-legal; the current head is ported (with 3 flowbench sessions to verify the results) WAY beyond what IT allows and the camshaft is a custom re-grind (done by Isky). When the current engine rebuild was fresh, 11 years and 110,000 miles ago, it was making about 120 WHP @ 6000 RPM/135 WTQ @ 3900 RPM with 125+ WTQ between 2800 and 4600. But it's tired now. Winter of 2017/'18 it's going to get the full tilt max effort blueprint/balance/align hone/torque plate .040 overbore/(class-legal) gasket match/30-45-60-70 valve job/dyno tune.

Painting it means the front end of the car stands out more so pictures will look better.

Painted, it's going to look like crap pretty soon due to all the rocks kicked up by cars ahead.

In reply to kb58:

That's why I went with satin black instead of gloss; touch-ups blend in much more easily.

WildScotsRacing wrote:

Duke wrote: In reply to the question you never asked, I would bring the black on the rockers up another 2" to the fold line in the door, and add a yellow border like you did on the skunk stripes.

What to you all think: black on the rockers, or all the way up to the door crease for a true two-tone effect?

I'd keep it to the rockers. All the way up to the door crease is too much IMHO. Just make a coherent base that runs around the rest of the car.

This is a great thread. It doesn't get any more GRM than this. You could take any one of the suggestions made here, or just make your own decision, and have made the right choice. Regardless, the car will look great. (It already does). There's a lot of great inherent design-sense here of what looks right. Or, I think, you could do just do fine on your own.

(My opinion? Leave as is).

WildScotsRacing wrote: 2002 Escort sedan, actually...

Wow, as a former Escort owner, I'm ashamed I didn't recognize it. Good luck in your quest.

In reply to jstein77:

Hey, I think I've seen that Escort before, at least in photos! What was your screen name on FEOA? (You wouldn't happen to have a 19mm rear sway bar laying around, would you?)

The Hoff wrote: I would paint them to match. That being said, it looks fine with them raw. Very GRM. (Coming from a guy with a plywood splitter )

Hey hey hey, the bentley speed8 racecar has a natural composite splitter man.