Hello All,

I'm after some parts for my Escort Cosworh rally car. I realise I can get this stuff from the UK, but some of the prices asked are a bit much for me!
I need a WRC spec front crossmember, it doesn't have to be new, nor straight as I have some-one here that can make/fix one, if I have the correct diminsions or plans. The car will not be driven in anger, so I really don't want to pay close to 2000 pound, that's close to $5000 Australian by the time it gets here.
Is there anyone still rallying these in North America?

I also sent an email to jvab about this, I realise he is busy and my email may have gone to spam, but anyway I also asked him if he knew what happened to all the cossie stuff that Nigal Habgood had up in Vancouver. Anybody else know?

Thanks,

mark.

Quote
byrrul
Hello All,

I'm after some parts for my Escort Cosworh rally car. I realise I can get this stuff from the UK, but some of the prices asked are a bit much for me!
I need a WRC spec front crossmember, it doesn't have to be new, nor straight as I have some-one here that can make/fix one, if I have the correct diminsions or plans. The car will not be driven in anger, so I really don't want to pay close to 2000 pound, that's close to $5000 Australian by the time it gets here.
Is there anyone still rallying these in North America?

I also sent an email to jvab about this, I realise he is busy and my email may have gone to spam, but anyway I also asked him if he knew what happened to all the cossie stuff that Nigal Habgood had up in Vancouver. Anybody else know?

Thanks,

mark.

Hi Mark, saw the email but often its late at night and I think up bright cheerful replies and then don't type 'em up--I AM a lousy typist afterall and don't type 100 words per minute with my thumbs like all real Merikuns under 35 do---and the next moring they're buried and I see the thing and think "Oh yeah I thought about that one..."
So
Nigel, no idea what happened to his stuff..Don't really know if he ever sold anything since his prices were so nuts it was cheaper to fly to UK and rent a van and fill it up..It MAY have gone to this scumbag scammer "Dazz" who popped upon the scene with big web-site and lots of bluster (which I thougt "oh great North America's Biggest Cosworth Specialist" thta doesn't take much considering there were NO OTHERS..and turned out to be a total typical Pommie theiving scoundrel..I ran across 3-4 guys who all put deposits on probably the same pile of parts and never got more than a airbox lid and a downpipe for their 21,000 to 24,000 dollar deposits..
And then one day the building was seized by the bailiff for 6 or 9 months non-payment of rent and the guy POOF disappeared.. There was a guy who managed to haul away van loads of assorted junk (blocks with no main caps, heads with no cam caps, blocks full of cracks round the head bolts..That guy I have had some extremely limited contact with cause he is near impossible to either understand (Hungarian) or figure out what he wants--and that's not helped by what seems to be chain smoking of something that is sorta illegal but which the cops in BC seem to turn a blind eye to...That guy it is simply impossible to get him to a) slow down and speak clearly and b) follow thru anything and c) remember things for more than 3 or max 4 minutes.. Its a shame cause he has aquired some piles of stuff from the Carl Merrill stash and claims to have bought 100s of thousands of dollars from Andrew Thompson, notorious weasel running ATM Sport down the road from Boreham.. (my only contact with that guy was checking prices, via fax then ordering a small handful of small items then him tripling and quadrupling the prices after getting the backcard number, charging 4 time s what the post was and ADDING VAT to the total price including the post)(and stonewalling with the credit card when I showed the quoted figures n the fax and the final invoice)

So what you needing the fabricated front cross menber for? The things ARE insanely expensive...

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Hello John,

Thanks for the update, yes I have been stung by our good friends at ATM as well, won't deal with him again! I don't know anyone that has had a good thing to say about him, but he is still in business.

I've bought a Cossie that a guy in Tasmania was building up, then changed his mind, he has put a WRC turreted rear end into it. I'll send some pics. Anyway it had the standard alloy crossmember, but it will have chassis engine mounts, so I want another crossmember. It can only be registered as a rally car, but I want to have it as a show car painted in some works scheme, I'm too old and slow to try rallying it, last time I tried to go rallying, I realised I wasn't very good and had a habit of hitting too many immovable objects!

Cheers,

mark.

I met the Hungarian guy John mentioned above. I went up to Canada in 2013 to look at a sierra he was selling, everything was in pretty sad shape, or un-complete. His complete rs500 body work listed in the ad, was actually some 6/10 molds that could possibly make something that looked like rs500 bodywork.

He did have some neat 909 parts to look at, so the trip wasn't a complete waste.

In the background of the sierra you can see Meril's old escort that rolled down PP, that car was bare metal but there was still bits of that periwinkle left. He also had a ex works gr.a Sapphire 4x4, and another escort 4x4 in restoration

Wasn't there a shop specializing in Cossie stuff out of Italy? Might be more reliable than the scum that seem to specialize in these in the UK.

---

Grant Hughes

Quote
NoCoast
Wasn't there a shop specializing in Cossie stuff out of Italy? Might be more reliable than the scum that seem to specialize in these in the UK.

Easy tiger! Not all folk in the UUK with Cossie bits are scum!

I'll need to check next week, but understand a local pal has a 9" rear diff and a few other parts. IIRC there was a 4wd sump and cross-shaft.

---

Disappointingly not yet a Jackass

Quote
byrrul
Hello John,

Thanks for the update, yes I have been stung by our good friends at ATM as well, won't deal with him again! I don't know anyone that has had a good thing to say about him, but he is still in business.

I've bought a Cossie that a guy in Tasmania was building up, then changed his mind, he has put a WRC turreted rear end into it. I'll send some pics. Anyway it had the standard alloy crossmember, but it will have chassis engine mounts, so I want another crossmember. It can only be registered as a rally car, but I want to have it as a show car painted in some works scheme, I'm too old and slow to try rallying it, last time I tried to go rallying, I realised I wasn't very good and had a habit of hitting too many immovable objects!

Cheers,

mark.

I did the chasi rail mounts on mine and used the alloy crossmenber after just a little localised "adjustments" and "clearanceing"...
wif my handy Sawz-all..Works fine...
Ya gots 2 shells, how many ally crossmembers do you have?

How may engines you have?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Two shells but the WRC shell has the standard parts with it. So I should have enough bits to build 2 cars, except engine/gearbox, my intention (I'm full of good intentions!) is to make the unregisterable shell a 2wd car using what ever bits I can get. I've got my eyes on a XRTi4 which would be a good way to go without the cost of a Cosworth engine.
Oppliger motorsport is the concern in Italy, but I can't really afford to buy new parts. I'll be in that area after Rally Italy in June, so hopefully I can see what he has.
I'm thinking that the modified standard crossmember is the way to go, although perhaps there is a market for cheaper WRC style ones, the guy here in Canberra that said he could make with enough information is a well known Toyota fabricator and also a pefectionist!

Quote
Sean Edwards
I met the Hungarian guy John mentioned above. I went up to Canada in 2013 to look at a sierra he was selling, everything was in pretty sad shape, or un-complete. His complete rs500 body work listed in the ad, was actually some 6/10 molds that could possibly make something that looked like rs500 bodywork.

He did have some neat 909 parts to look at, so the trip wasn't a complete waste.

In the background of the sierra you can see Meril's old escort that rolled down PP, that car was bare metal but there was still bits of that periwinkle left. He also had a ex works gr.a Sapphire 4x4, and another escort 4x4 in restoration

Do you have any contact details for this guy?

unfortunately I don't. I initially got a hold of him thru a craigslist ad. JV might?

Quote
Sean Edwards
unfortunately I don't. I initially got a hold of him thru a craigslist ad. JV might?

I had extreley limited contact and broke it off when he played games about payment...Vlave springs cost rather a lot for YBs and among some other things he wanted, he added when he sent his wife to pick up parts--evidently he has "Passport problems" (which is British Columbia code words for got busted for something, so can't get in to Fortress America™) so she gets a call and says add one set of valve springs...."Oh I don't have any money for that" me "cash machine at the corner".. "Oh blah blah let me call him..blah blah"... Him "Oh man come on I neeeeeeeeed these badly, I spent $3000 at the machine shop and need the springs sell them to me for $30 blah blah..."

On that trip I had asked him to send down a square beam so I could make a few quick measuremnts for reproducing them..Him "Oh yeah sure no problem sound s good"

No square beam.

Same another time for the alloy front control arm...

Nothing..

Max Stoner, zero memory, and as soon as he has it ihe somehow thinks it triples in price and he's going to sell all these cars in Europe for $200,000 each.
Have another hit, my friend.

So even if I could, I wouldn't send my worst enemy there...

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Thanks guys, sounds like another one to avoid!

Quote
byrrul
Thanks guys, sounds like another one to avoid!

Yep.

What did I do? I use works alloy Grp A mounts for 4x4 and the sheetmetal I got from Gartrac down in deepest darkest Surrey and i have only the OEM ally crossmember..
You know they were shooting to get 2 bird with one less dear stone" make room for the giant 8.8" front diff and move rack to better position..

What is it you're NEEDING? (we know whachoo are wanting but I want universal happiness and whirled peas and you see how that's working..)
What's the next level in the PACE notes
(Primary plan, Alternative plan, Contingency plan, Emergency plan) (clever hierarchy iddnit it?)

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

At this stage I'll think I'll have to go with a modified alloy one, I've seen photos where the engine mount bits have been cut off. I won't be fitting a 'big' diff, but some guys in NZ made their own several years ago, he was meant to send drawings if he found them. As Richard said, not pretty but it did the job and allowed Stokes to run a 'big' front diff in a RHD car which was meant to be not doable.
I have an alloy one in Tassie, but was quoted a ridiculous price to get it sent up here, I'll be down there at the end of April and will bring it back with me then.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2016 08:50PM by byrrul.

Turns out it's not a 9" diff...

Looks to be a 7.5" diff. Numbers on the tag - V86BB AAA 364 4A 9A 02

It also has the inner CVs attached to the flanges which are 108mm OD

There is also one 4x4 sump with cross-shaft part number V89HF-6676-AB

And finally we looked out a bellhousing which we think is Cossie / Pinto to T5 box, part number V86BB 7505 AC

---

Disappointingly not yet a Jackass