Fun Autosolo Puma on a budget.

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G-Bob

Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2018
Messages
36
Thought I’d start a thread to keep all my puma stuff in rather than just posting random threads about stuff.

So the car started like this:
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It’s a 1.7 with an MOT until January. It had new front brakes, had some welding done and the arches weren’t too bad although they had a bit of surface rust. The car didn't need to be perfect anyway as it is just getting used as an Autosolo car and maybe the odd sprint until my kit car is built. The engine and box are sweet which is the main thing. :thumbs:

So I got it home and the first thing I did was pull the resonator out the airbox and give it a bit better breathing using the standard pikey method of drilling some holes in the airbox.
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After that, the back seats, seatbelt buckles and the parcel shelf came out.
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I had an old crappy bucket seat in the garage which was sitting doing nothing so I took the drivers seat outing took the rails off it. Fitted it to the bucket seat but it’s not quite right. I’ll need to play about with this a little more to get it lower and less reclined.
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One of the things I wanted to change were the tyres as the car had 3 different brands and types of tyres on it which were all old and cracked. About 3months ago I took some alloys off a mate who was clearing out his garage and wanted rid even though I didn’t know what fitment they were. Turns out they were the correct fitment and very slightly less offset which widened the track nicely. They are also a lot lighter than the standard efforts.

Got some tyres swapped onto them from my old mx5 hillclimb car which improved the drive a lot, but it was still wandering a bit so after reading a bit I swapped the drop links over which made quite a bit of a difference.

41965111_1890837997669288_7726727237306679296_n.jpg



Wanted to add something a little tacky as the car really is a bit of fun and not too serious so got this classy carbon effect lip spoiler. lol.

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I tried to fit my lower brace bar to improve the turn-in, but it was catching on the engine so looks like the engine mounts are fairly worn. I'll get round to that at some point.
 
Your wheels look like mine, are they BSA's? If they are they are only the second set I've ever seen including mine and if you are missing one of the centre caps I have 3 available.
Barry
 
So my first event in the "Bawzoot" Puma was yesterday at the Scottish Road Car series. It's basically a new Autosolo championship being trialled this year across a lot of the bigger clubs in Scotland.

I hadn't really driven the car in anger yet so this was a bit of an unknown as to how this would go. I started to hear a knocking from the front which I've found to be a broken driveshaft boot and CV joint, but it didn't hold me back too much.

So turns out the Puma is pretty competitive as I got a 2nd place right behind a top Gymkhana driver with a purpose built bmw who was VERY surprised that he had a £500 standard puma biting at his heals.

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Here's a video from the final run. I was coasting too much and braking early because of the shoddy brakes.
https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=3ca13352d9968ec711ae88fc5b1c33b8&oe=5C1E3D67

So things that have come out of the first event:

1. The puma is a remarkably capable car which shocked a lot of people
2. I need to improve the turn-in as it was washing wide a lot. This might be down to the geometry or needing something else.
3. The person who changed the brakes on the front got the pads from a timber merchant
4. The torque limiter needs disconnected as most of the things I do are in 1st gear with a bit of 2nd.
 
tuonokid said:
Your wheels look like mine, are they BSA's? If they are they are only the second set I've ever seen including mine and if you are missing one of the centre caps I have 3 available.
Barry

I have absolutely no idea what they are tbh :lol: The guy who gave them to me found them in his garage when he moved in and had no idea what they were from.
 
Have a look, when you get the chance, on the rim where it goes into the spokes, there are some blocks cast into the rim along with the make of the wheels.
 
tuonokid said:
Have a look, when you get the chance, on the rim where it goes into the spokes, there are some blocks cast into the rim along with the make of the wheels.

Just been out for a look and they are BSA's. Mine are 15" rather than 17" like yours though.
 
I promised myself that I wouldn't spend a lot of money on this car but I got a few bargains. lol

Found a company in Germany selling FK AK Street coilovers very cheaply so bought them and now I've just found a Mondeo 2.0 throttle body to put on. Hopefully will get all of those fitted before the next even on the 6th of October.
 
Good luck with it and well done at the event, oh and if your car is a later 2 lambda sensor one you can get some more speed out of it by removing the torque limiters in the lower gears. Have a search on here as it involves something like disconnecting the speedo or speed sensor.
 
tuonokid said:
Good luck with it and well done at the event, oh and if your car is a later 2 lambda sensor one you can get some more speed out of it by removing the torque limiters in the lower gears. Have a search on here as it involves something like disconnecting the speedo or speed sensor.

Thanks. Yeah, I've been having a read through all the threads on the torque limiter. As far as I gather there's two ways to do it. A brown wire which will stop my Speedo working in 1st gear or the blue&white wire at the ecu.
I'll need to take a look and see what's easiest.
 
Well that's dissapointing. :-(

The coilovers have arrived but I think they are the wrong kind. The rears look at if they are separate spring/shock units. According to the the site they fit the mk5 fiesta and therefore should fit, but either there's something I'm missing, or there were multiple configurations.
 
There are two kinds: early Puma's/Fiesta's (untill '99 I think) and the later ones. Depending on the year your Puma is from, you'll probably need an younger/older version. Maybe contact your supplier with this question?
 
Matti9 said:
There are two kinds: early Puma's/Fiesta's (untill '99 I think) and the later ones. Depending on the year your Puma is from, you'll probably need an younger/older version. Maybe contact your supplier with this question?
I thought the only difference between them was the fork mount or the eye mount?
 
Hello G bob.
Like the project car..
The coilovers you have bought might just be for a MK6 Fiesta.
Some sellers called mk5 a mk4 (as they are mechanically identical)
Check the item listing for what year the suspension is to fit..
Good luck with the Autosolo`s, can`t wait to hear about your first win ;-)
 
Hi G-Bob, you're absolutely right, I was thinking about fork- vs eye mount, had forgotten how to describe it though (early onset forgetfulness / too much work too little sleep). I'm out of ideas, good luck!
 
trublustu said:
Hello G bob.
Like the project car..
The coilovers you have bought might just be for a MK6 Fiesta.
Some sellers called mk5 a mk4 (as they are mechanically identical)
Check the item listing for what year the suspension is to fit..
Good luck with the Autosolo`s, can`t wait to hear about your first win ;-)


I think you are right. When having a look at wikipedia it seems that the marks are identified differently and were released in different years over in europe. It's such a shame because they were a great price. Do you know if the fronts are the same because they look to be right? The rear spring sizes and configuration also look to be right as well. I'm tempted to buy some spring collars and just set them up to be a coilover configuration.
 
So I've done a few jobs over the last week in order to get the car ready for it's next outing at the weekend.

First of all I replaced the CV joint as the boot was burst and it was clicking a bit. Not too bad a job once the bolts were free.
At the same time I decided to fit the brace bar anyway and just put a small layer of heavy duty rubber between the bar and the engine so that it didn't vibrate. Seems to be ok and doesn't make a noise. :D There's only a very slight touch anyway so I'm not too concerned.

While I was getting my mechanic mate to check the car over, we noticed a few things. The back axel bushes are completely knackered and that's where the knocking from the back is coming from. Also, we had a look at the brakes and see if we could bleed them as they are a bit spongy. Turns out someone has had the caliper off, snapped the bleed nipple and just decided to bleed it from the hose. :? Looks like that's a job for another day.

Another thing to check was the alightnment. He had a basic 2 wheel alignment kit so we adjusted it to bring it nice and even on both sides and fairly straight.

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After sorting the alignment and getting the brace bar fitted, the car turns in a LOT better. Can't wait to try it out.
Wondering whether to make an attempt at fitting the mondeo throttle body tonight or just to leave it as the car is running well. :)
 
So I went off to compete in the penultimate round of the Scottish road car series with a freshly fitted mondeo throttle body. The car feels a lot better and seems to pull better from further down the rev range. This is great for low speed corners and getting the acceleration a bit better.

The event was run by a club that hadn't a lot of experience in this area but were keen to be part of the series. When we turned up there were an obvious few flaws with the location and the surface being very loose at points, but the course seemed ok. The car handled really well, and as per usual, it came away with some new creaks and bangs from the worn bushes.

Wasn't expecting much due to the surface and there being experienced rally guys there, but managed to come away with 3rd which puts me in 4th overall, 1 point behind the 3rd place guy. A podium is in sight.
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To show you how bad the surface was, here's one of the runs. I decided not to use the handbrake on this one and just drive it straight.
https://www.facebook.com/Bawzoot/videos/335808637174156/?t=0
 

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