Fast Wyvern Members Car of the Month

The Spec:

1990 Series 2 Red RS Turbo
1800 ZVH Engine with Piper T285 Cam
T3 Hybrid Turbo running 18 PSI
K&N Flower Pot
Running standard MFI and -34 Actuator.
Pro Alloy 2 Intercooler
12 Row Mocal Oil Cooler
Defi Gauges
Apexi AVCR In car Boost Controller
Tial Blow Off Valve
Stage 2 "Bernie" Box Gearbox
Lowered 60mm on PI lowering Springs
Koni Adjustable Shocks
Poly Bushed All Round
Adjustable TCA's
Cossie 4 Pot Callipers on Front with Vented and drilled Discs
Cossie 2wd Solid Disks on rear with ABS removed

BHP is 164 at the Wheels when tested at AVA and 162 in Wrexham

The RS turbo was purchased in 2000 with standard wheels, badly running engine and the biggest exhaust I had ever seen. It came with an extensive amount of history from the first 3 owners, the last 3 had not been so kind to the car. It came with a rolling road printout (kind of) that stated it was running 1.0 bar of boost and was getting 149 BHP at the wheels That test was in 19/08/1994.
Once I received the car, the immediate plan was to transfer my1900 stage 3 engine non turbo into the RS, however it took me 15 months to get it sorted. I found a Garage I thought was good and we proceeded with the transfer.
At the same time my handling package from the Orion was fitted to the RS. This consisted of a set of 60mm lowering springs, Koni adjustable shocks and 16" Alloys. My immediate reaction after the transfer was, blimey this is really fast but soon I was wanting to run more than 0.7bar or 10 PSI.
The ECU had a switch wired in to short pin 16 to ground, this allowed the boost to build and not be restricted by the Amal Valve it then went up to 1Bar on the boost gauge that was fitted. It went like stink until the inevitable happened.
I was travelling up hill at a slow rate behind a Ford Escort Van, put my foot down with "High" boost and screamed past him for 20 metres then big bang, sounded like the proverbial bucket of bolts as the piston decided to take a vacation from the block at 50mph. I idled up the hill a bit and pulled over to find the trail of bits from the piston exit to where I stopped. This was 3 months after putting the engine in, I was not a happy bunny.
The original engine went back in with the same head, which only need a bent valve replacing.
It was so slow I seemed to crawling everywhere and I was less than happy with the Garage in Bath that did the work.
So I decided to take it to Turbo Systems Motorsport in or near Stockport.
They did compression test etc. and the verdict came back, you have the wrong head. The Compression Ratio was out, the thing was effectively building 30 psi on low boost but running badly, the other thing was that the block had had the number ground off hinting that it was a stolen block.

I ordered a 1800 ZVH with Piper T285 Cam (not the T2)with skimmed pistons, a "trick" head and T3 Hybrid turbo from Tony at Turbo Systems in 2002, It was an extortionate amount of money, but I don't regret it as the engine is excellent and has covered a lot of miles. I sensibly drove the car up and down the motorways for the past 3 years with no real changes other than servicing etc. and a new gearbox which came from Bath.

I then started coming into contact with Andy at RSE Motorsport in Llandudno who used to have a high spec RS Turbo back in the early days of RS modding and we got to talking and we soon Identified the small problems I was having with the car. The first was on roundabouts the thing would spin the wheels and loose grip. The Gearbox that I had paid for turned out to be a diesel box without Limited Slip Diff. This was rectified and small changes started to happen.

I was getting bored of the standard boost and wanted to run higher boost, I also wanted a decent set of gauges and to up the horsepower somewhat. So with a lot of discussion we decided to fit a larger intercooler a Pro Alloy 2 with 2 fans, a set of Defi Gauges for Boost, Oil Pressure and Water Temp and an AVCR in car boost controller. This altered the boost up to 1.15 Bar or 16.7 psi. The Car ran nicely, but the stopping was another matter. This was when I joined the forum and we found that a common upgrade for the braking system was a set of Cossie Discs on the front. However I made a mistake in the ones I got, I went for the 4 pots, which needed a bit of machining to make them fit. I also wanted to improve the handling again so went and ordered a set of Adjustable Track Control Arms for the fronts and the Camber was set to -3 degrees for track use. We later identified that this killed my wheel bearings at Ford fair. I also had an AP paddle clutch fitted.

At Ford Fair I also got a set of rear discs to convert the drum brakes, whilst looking for a hub with a wheel bearing. After a long wait in the services waiting for recovery we finally got home and the rear disks were fitted and the wheel bearings changed and the camber changed to -1.6 degrees. We also changed all the bushes to poly flex or similar including a vibratech mount for the gearbox/engine. I then travelled to AVA in Glasgow to attend a Rolling Road day and was reasonably happy with results. 164.1bhp at the Wheels. About a week later my gearbox started to go and I had a stage 2 Bernie box fitted, though it developed a fault and was replaced under warranty.

I then took the car to a rolling road in Wrexham where it was run in 5th gear at 18psi and produced less BHP than at AVA after being set up.

Whilst I was away recently my Wife found my book of receipts etc. and I had a not amused wife calling to find out if I knew how much I had spent on the car. I obviously did but didn't want her to know. The total over 7 years of ownership so far £16K, that's 3 engines, 4 Gearboxes, one bad respray and lots of welding work.

The next step:

A new shell, Autronic Management with Big Valve Head and decent cam and a new wife?