Ford Racing Puma

Restoration.

Back in 2009 our chairman was looking for a new project which could be serialised in the club magazine. He noticed it was becoming evident that the Ford Racing Puma was under threat, so thought it might be an interesting choice. This sad situation was due to the fact that some of the less cared for cars had become worth more as breakers than complete. The reason for this being the prices of rare second-hand parts holding a high premium, plus standard high performance parts on this model are easily exchangeable for standard Puma upgrades, then we have the dreaded Fiesta Zetec tuners. Luckily for our chairman these artificially inflated high prices was about to tumble as the market became flooded when Ford unexpectedly cleared their remaining stock to a clearance centre at knock down prices. A good solid stripped shell (build 394) was purchased in October 2009, with the direct intention of putting it back together using only original Ford Racing parts. It took 2 years to locate all the spares required, which were, as you can guess usually scattered in far corners of the UK. Of course the required Racing engine was found residing in a Fiesta! The past 6 months have been spent fitting up the shell, painstakingly cleaning and refurbishing parts that could not be bought new a long the way. In June a huge leap forward was made when the Racing engine was removed from the Fiesta and fitted into the project build. At present(September 2012) Suspension and steering mechanicals are being fitted, soon to be followed by the huge Alcon brake discs and callipers. Our chairman expects to have this rebuild finished ready for the start of the show season 2013. The only non standard parts of the whole build and arguably subtle upgrades will be a Miltek stainless steel exhaust,Powerflex polyurethane bushes and K&N induction.