finally got a puma

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ukpuma

New member
Joined
Dec 3, 2013
Messages
49
hi.
ive had over 50 fords but ive always fancied a puma.
so after ages of looking I got one with 57k miles.
its not mint but its not rotten away like most.
below are some pics, note the nice twin pipes lol.

it needs a clutch soon as its a bit high and probably the original item!
I need advice on a few things like what type of clutch shall I fit?
I need a bit more bhp so looking at custom inlet and 4 branch mani and a remap.
brakes must be changed as I wanna do track days so poss 300mm fronts and standard rears.
I really want 15" wheels for better handling so not sure what wheel to get to fit over the 300mms?

bucket seats will be needed to replace the white and black leather interior.

any help you can offer me will be sweet, cheers, mike, based in Essex.



 
Folks live in Essex, Billericay. Wanting to set up a North/East London /South Hertfordshire/ East Essex monthly meet if your interested, going to get a grasp of interested members first and when look at a location.
 
im in Colchester, I don't get out any more for cruises or meets, too much family commitment but I wanted to build a fun car/ track car and the puma seemed to be the best for the cash.
I just been out for a trash about and as much as I love the 17's it understeers a bit too much imo.
its on yokohama prada tyres but even in the dry they understeer a bit early and in the wet its worse.
what wheels have you lot got on and how is the front end grip?
 
Hi grayfox,
I have made a few suggestions in the past about setting up monthly meetings in Essex, I am still keen to get involved. Unfortunatly there does not seem to be much enthusiasm for it. I thought the response would be greater considering how keen members are about their Pumas. Hopefully things will change.

Regards
Richard Mansfield
 
First trackday was in March this year so was learning the car lmits and didnt go crazy, I ran 16's on uniroyal rainsport 2's, but will get some 15's for the spring, didnt understeer much at all I was more concerned with the skittish back end (regretted replacing the rear bushes for standard at that point, lol)
 
Morning all,

I live in Thundersley/Benfleet and would be interested in doing a meet of some kind.

Steve
 
grayfox said:
First trackday was in March this year so was learning the car lmits and didnt go crazy, I ran 16's on uniroyal rainsport 2's, but will get some 15's for the spring, didnt understeer much at all I was more concerned with the skittish back end (regretted replacing the rear bushes for standard at that point, lol)
was the car stripped out as ive had problems with skittish back ends in the past usually caused by no weight over the rear causing the suspension to be too firm.
if they are stripped out they need to be softer rear springs but then the car would sit too high, its a hard thing to solve.
I had a few scary moments in my old escort because of the rear end letting go and rear brake lock ups too!
 
SteveC1970 said:
Morning all,

I live in Thundersley/Benfleet and would be interested in doing a meet of some kind.

Steve
once my cars sorted a bit I would like to do a track day meet for some pumas, would be interesting to see how much improvements are made by the mods we do
 
No not stripped just spare tyre jack and tray out. Only running eibach springs at mo so rears still pretty high do have an extra 41mm width though, rear brace will help even more and poly bushes of course, I think leveling out the car will help, once I get my ap's may try having 55-60mm rear 40mm front, plus lower front brace won't scrape bad when its fitted and I'd still be able to get over speed bumps .. (just) with the splitter.

Like the interest building up here.. looking promising
 
I'm not in Essex but in Bromley, Kent so I'm happy to drive up your way for a meet! :grin:

& I've got a lot of these mods fitted now but haven't been on a track day since to test them all out! Last time it had full leather interior and a fairly standard setup (it just looked like a track car!) :lol: now it's stripped out (mostly!) on AP coilovers, fully poly bushed, 3 strut braces with a 4 branch & a FRP map so hopefully it will be much better next time I'm on the track!
 
Cool! Guess u have the frp cams too Al? Yours is exactly where I want mine to be plus a head port and matching my inlet to my already flowed 60mm TB. U need to take me for a lap on our next outing!
 
to be honest with all the cars I have modded in the past ive found no matter what you do if you have a light weight car then 6j 15's is all you need, infact all the stiffening and tweaking ive done in the past only made everything worse in the real world.
strut braces are the biggest waste of time in my opinion.
the tyres will let go way before the chassis starts to move around any amount to cause a concern.
my mk4 escort had a full cage in it and you could put your finger in the gap and only feel the tiniest amount of chassis flex on it and considering it was an 1980's escort which were known for their weak chassis it convinced me that strut braces etc are a waste of time.
infact all you are doing is making the car heavier and slower.
 
grayfox said:
Cool! Guess u have the frp cams too Al? Yours is exactly where I want mine to be plus a head port and matching my inlet to my already flowed 60mm TB. U need to take me for a lap on our next outing!


Of course mate! Not got any FRP cams, but have picked up a set of similar (bargin) Newman fast road cams, just need a boffin to fit them!! :lol:

& I look forward to seeing how yours is progressing too mate! :grin:
 
ukpuma said:
my mk4 escort had a full cage in it and you could put your finger in the gap and only feel the tiniest amount of chassis flex on it and considering it was an 1980's escort which were known for their weak chassis it convinced me that strut braces etc are a waste of time.
infact all you are doing is making the car heavier and slower.

Unfortunately that would be flawed thinking as vehicle dynamics are often affected by the tiniest of factors.

Additionally, a roll cage is primarily a safety modification and isn't really designed to be a handling upgrade, although it is halfway between monocoque and space-frame.

The "waste of time" theory could be applied to tyres (it's all rubber) and bushes (rubber ones dont move much anyway so what is polyurethane going to do?) amongst a long list of components. They all make a difference in practice.

The general idea for a track car would be to remove excess weight to compensate for these extra items (cage, braces, larger brakes), relocating items to balance the weight distribution where possible (for example where people move the battery to the boot).

A set of corner weights is pretty useful for "tuning" a track car's handling through weight distribution as the priority is normally for engine mods and stripped out interior meaning a nose heavy car compared to standard.
 
ive had all sorts of polly bushes but ive found that nothing has come close to rose joints.
was looking at the puma arms yesterday and thinking about maybe I should fit them :grin:
 

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