As proved by Prescott, the more power you have, the more fuel you need. It's a good job Gary Chamberlain's 270bhp S2 RS Turbo has Cossie Management then!

Tell a lie. It's not just Gary's motor as his girlfriend, Hayley Wright owns half of it. It's a long story, but to cut it short Gary and Hayley wanted to buy a house and the only way was to sell one of their cars - either his or hers. However, the male has a solid and long love affair with motor vehicles which girls don't have, right?
Wrong. Hayley was once the proud owner of a very similar S2 Escort RS Turbo not so long ago. A little down on power with just as good looks, it would be a crime to sell it. But in the name of love, she did, and also got herself half the claim on Gary's motor (I was told 49% by Gary). Not a bad deal, if you ask me. Gary gets a house, keeps his motor and the girl. Hooray!

We personally think Hayley's done alright though, especially as she tends to drive it more. Why? Well, if I offered you a standard S2 Escort RS Turbo with an exhaust system, would you take it? Of course you would, and that's basically what Hayley's done. She's got herself 135bhp, while Gary's got the other half, and combined it equals out to be a whole lot of fun.
Before you jump on your geeky high horse and start spitting, "Bollocks!" wait and read this bit first. Fitted in the engine bay is a Specialised Engines 1850cc American tall block which as been rebored by 1mm with the added bonus of 83mm pistons and 88mm stroke to give a 1907cc engine. This is no 1.6 CVH blagging horsepower figures out of its airborn arse.
Polished and ported Efi cylinder head with oversized inlet and exhaust valves, Piper 285T2 cam, toughened valve springs, bronze valve guides, T3 turbo with 360° bearing. As you might have guessed, this lump has a lot of technical spec, that to be brutally honest, I haven't the space for here, so check the Ford Facts for the full rundown. But I will mention a few of the well nifty tricks that Gary has added himself.
Being a prototype fitter for Ford, Gary's a bit with DIY on cars. So, when it came down to getting more power from the engine, Gary looked into developing a new engine management system…and making it himself! And he did, as revealed by Hayley: "I came home from work and he was on the bed with the old wiring loom in pieces with the Sapphire Cossie equivalent lying next to it. He had a big grin on his face, but I wasn't impressed at first!"
After a bit of explaining, Gary persuaded her to chill out and brought her around to his way of thinking. So the level six Cosworth ECU was modified to take a Pectel 'piggyback' board for the active spark and electronic boost control, 803 dark green injectors were slapped on, and the whole lot mapped by Mark Burley and Ahmed Bayjoo at Grove Garage.
Take a look at the engine bay and you'll notice the 1.8 CVH rocker cover and the severe lack of sensors. That's because they're all hidden away so there are no messy wires cluttering up the bay. Pretty trick, eh? Almost as trick as the 2.3 DOHC camshaft position sensor on custom-made adjustable bracket!
With so many advanced engine bits and bobs it would be a shame not to carry the theme across the whole car. As well as the cut down and plastic welded mirrors Gary visited one of his, and our, old muckers, Jason Ripp, who promptly showed him round his new styling and accessory shop, R-Tec Autodesign. While there, Jason sorted him out with a pukka deal on a set of 7x17" League Velocity alloys wrapped in 205/40 Silverstone rubber.
We ain't seen the alloys on a car in this country ever, so they were a wicked surprise when we turned up in sunny Essex. As was the slammed Koni suspension with 30mm Pi lowering springs and strut brace to hold things together round the twisties. It ain't the lowest S2 we've ever seen in the world but, as Gary wanted the car to look fairly standard, it was pretty good going.
The same can be said for the interior. Gary can get hold of various Ford bits easily, so he decided to retrim, with the centres in a Mondeo colour and the outside done in a late-spec Escort Cabriolet fabric. It's subtle, but different, which is pretty much the story for the whole car. If that wasn't enough, the rear headrests are Recaro, the dash is ABS plastic, moulded with boost gauge pod in it, and the race-style pedals were made by Gary's fair hands. Phew!
The mods don't end there, either. The stereo is well fancy too, with Kenwood mask head unit, specially mounted footwell Kenwood tweeters and Infinity mids. Cerwin Vega 6x9's take up the parcel shelf while the Kenwood 10"subs fill the boot.
Even with all this ICE, it still rocks on the road with a proven 230bhp at 12psi of boost. Without the Cossie management it was running the quarter mile in just 16.09 sec with masses of wheelspin. Although with more power we're guaranteed more wheelspin, what about that top end? Well, as soon s the engines run in and set at 17psi of boost it'll be kicking out 270bhp and burning down the strip with our timing gear strapped to its roof. Somehow I don't think that it'll be too much of a hardship running it in while we wait, eh Hayley?

FORD FACTS
ENGINE
1907CC American tall block CVH with 83mm pistons, 88mm stroke, polished and ported Efi cylinder head with 1mm oversized inlet and exhaust valves, Piper toughened valve springs, bronze valve guides, 1.8 CVH cam cover with added charge carrier mounts, 2wd Cossie distributor cap, 4x4 Cossie T3 turbo with 360° bearing and 63mm exhaust housing with studs enlarged from 8mmto 10mm, -31 actuator, staff Cossie engine loom reworked to suit CVH layout, level six Cossie ECU modified to take Pectel Piggyback board for active spark and electronic boost control, modified Fiesta Turbo charge carrier, inlet manifold, fuel rail and pressure regulator, 803 dark green injectors, Escort Turbo throttle body, Cossie idle speed control valve, water temp sensor, ignition amp, amal valve, 2.3 DOCH camshaft position sensor on custom adjustable bracket, custom camshaft position pointer plate running behind standard pulley, Sierra 1.8 CVH crankshaft position sensor and bracket with modded crankshaft pulley and pointer ring to trigger Efi management, Pace intercooler, GRS Motorsport stainless steel oil/breather separator, large capacity header tank with level tube and low fluid sensor, radiator, water, swirlpot, fuse box and wiper motor covers, custom made oil catchtank, K&N filter with custom trumpet, Mongoose s/s exhaust.

CHASSIS:
7X17"League Velocity alloys with 205/40 Silverstone rubber, Koni top-adjustable suspension with 30mm Pi lowering springs, raised steering rack by 3mm, poly bushed, S1 RST Track control arms and adjustable front tie rods modded to fit rear for adjustable rear tracking, front hubs machined to fit 2wd Cossie four-pot calipers and 283mm grooved and drilled discs, rear single pot calipers and 253mm drilled discs from Ford Racing Puma, customer mouting brackets and spacers, stainless steel braided brake lines and ABS removed.

EXTERIOR:
Resprayed in metallic black with course metal flake and red pearl, de-locked doors and boot with rear wiper removed, single wiper conversion, de-badged bonnet, clear indicators and side repeaters, smoked rear lenses, reflective sunstrip front and rear, front toe-eye cover.

INTERIOR:
Retrimmed Recaros in Mondeo and late-spec Escort Cabriolet cloth, rear Recaro headrests, ABS plastic moulded dash with boost gauge pod, home made race-style pedals, Escort Cossie gear knob, shortened shaft, Fittipaldi steering wheel, chrome dials, Scorpio self-dimming rear-view mirror, illuminating high/low boost switch, slide mount/removable ECU.

ICE:
Kenwood 7060 CD head unit, Kenwood tweeters and Infinty mids in plastic moulded footwell moulds, Cerwin Vega 6x9's, two 10"Kenwood subs, 100w crossfire amp, two 500w Altai amps and gold fuse blocks and distribution blocks, four gauge positive and negative cable with power capacitor.

THANKS:
Mark, Ahmed and Pudding at Grove Garage for the setting up and mapping, (01708 726518)
Graham at GRS Motorsport (07971 287978)
George the Frog for welding all my tanks and brackets, Tony for fuel cap painting, Ray Mason for all the info about the management, Ian for the glass in the mirrors, boost gauge and speakers pods, Jason Ripp at R-Tec Autodesign. (01727 790100)

Aritcle reproduced with the kind permission of Performance Ford, August 2001
Article written by: Keith Wood.
Photos by Stuart Collins