Love-hate relationship

Hi lads,

As you might know I have owned a Puma for about 4 years now and put +/- 100.000km on it. It has definately been a love-hate relationship. Definately not selling though, it is a great car. Not too fast, but quick enough to put a smile on my face daily :D
Why the hate then? Well, I guess my bank account doesn't exactly like what the car does to me..

When it comes to maintenance the list is rather long:
- Brake discs and pads (five times)
- Brake calipers (ceased one four time now!)
- Wheel bearings replaced all-round
- Suspension bushes; uprated to Powerflex Black
- Shocks & springs, worn so uprated to coilovers. Did drive on custom Koni FSD's for +/- 1,5 years but they kept developing leaks. Ditched them.
- Brake drums + shoes (2x)
- New battery
- Thermostat housing cracked, broke down 200+ km from home
- Headlight glass replaced for becoming dim
- Headlight cabling melted(!!)
- Headlight adjustment motor left side
- Taillight units replaced for becoming dim
- Door panels fixed with Renault Megane clips
- Clutch sensor
- MAF sensor
- TP sensor
- Exhaust back box
- Rust.. Replaced +/- 1 square meter of the floor pan
- Power steering pressure sensor
- Gearbox out and revised, 5th gear from a Fiesta
- and many more

As a nutcase and lover of the car I did a 'few' upgrades too:
- AVO GTZ coilovers
- Powerflex bushes
- Clutch and pressure plate uprated to that of an Fiesta ST150
- MAF sensor has been drilled out
- Rest of the inlet channels has been widened
- ECU altered on the school's and later at work on the dyno
- Sparco EVO bucket seat
- Schroth harness
- Stripped interior
- Original wheels + rims (from 17" to 15") to improve handling with less unsprung weight
- ST150 brake calipers (239 --> 280mm)
- Brake master cylinder from a Focus
- Teflon brake lines
- Black Diamond discs and pads (after having worn a set of Raptor X Racing's)
- Disabled torque limiter by means of some ECU modification and addition of a button to the dashboard
- Strengthened drive shafts
- Air filter box upgraded to Ford Racing Puma spec
- Gurney flap aiding in high speed downforce (+8,7%!)
- Camber adjustment plates

And probably a lot of other small things I forget here.

Anyway, my future plans are to keep it as a weekend car. I bought a 2nd car last week as a city runabout, so the Puma has been sitting since. I also am going to participate in the Wimedo Autoslalom season and the DMSB Autoslalom rennen this year. Plus a few trackdays (Zandvoort and Silverstone are planned surely atm) and perhaps, just maybe I'll try and give Matra a run for his money in one of 'em Scottish Hillclimbs ;)

On my wish list are at the moment:
- Roll cage (FIA certified, mandatory for the DMSB series)
- Change of transmission ?
- Further improve power to +/- 240 DIN hp, didn't spend much time/money as needed suspension, brake and aerodynamics improvements first.
- Steering rack/power steering upgrade
- Finish my full car CAD-models and drivetrain simulations to properly calculate the right settings.
- Pedal box
- 6-point harness

All in all I estimate I spent over 10k Euro excl. purchase over the years. Was it worth it? Yes, however I could have had a better base car to start with.

Thanks for bearing with me. Now some pictures :)

1- Me driving with a handicapped kid on Circuit Zolder. I'm not sure if me or the kid had more fun :p
2- New radio + wiring work for the torque limiter switch. At the moment I have three switches for the rear window heater :D
3- My Sparco seat
4- Some mods needed to the Sparco seat base. Basically a place with a tube welded on top. Nut has been welded on the inside of the tube. Under the floor pan there are reinforcing plates welded.
5- The inertia reel of the harness.
6- My machined MAF sensor. Later I machined even more of.

1- Restoring one of many ceased calipers
2- Bit hard to see, but this one had a manufacturing error. The piston was in slightly off causing it to scratch into the chrome layer. Quality products for +200 Euro :(
3- Me on the grid of the Nordschleife
4- Epic meeting with 220+ Puma's
5- Yes, we rented the Nordschleife for two hours :eek:
6- Urgently needed replacement before heading off to Scotland last summer

1- The ST150 calipers receiving some paint
2- Just in time for our annual European Ford Puma Meeting with +/- 100 cars each year. Even not European members make it sometimes, our furthest visitor was from St. Petersburg!
3- Stripping underway
4- Nice Black Diamond discs
5- And the adjustable AVO coilovers
6- Now this is what I call LOW . It's raised though at the moment as I scratched the bottom on potholes and speed bumps. I even got stuck twice, luckily I carried a jack.

1- Finding the perfect setup on my newly discovered testing runway (!). I was amazed to find it abandoned and openly accesible to anyone. I got a few cans of paint and kind of set out a slalom track now. I practice there every other week now.
2- Leading the pack
3- An old version of my handling simulation
4- Dropping into Karrussel
5- And flaming through Brünnchen
6- Offcourse how can I forget to drive the Stelvio pass too?

13 years ago we bought a Puma 1.7.

Great car, but not much quality. For a weekend toy must fit perfectly though. I remeber it fondly.

[quote=Ferrer;1003373]13 years ago we bought a Puma 1.7.

Great car, but not much quality. For a weekend toy must fit perfectly though. I remeber it fondly.[/quote]

Unfortunately the build quality is rather poor. You can clearly notice that the Puma-specific parts are not developed through and through. The later cars, Mk.2's are much better though. Mine, a Mk.1.5 is better than the early ones but not great. The engines are tough as nails though. You rarely find anybody in the clubs that had serious issues with them.
Since a week now I drive an old Suzuki to work. I made myself the promise to only use the Puma in the weekends. I cannot wait for it to be Saturday again :D

A quick update:
I am getting the car ready now for the racing season. Tomorrow it is going down +/- 10 centimeters again. Gonna be fun at speed bumps :rolleyes:
Also I purchased a set of standard 15" wheels last week, plus a set of Federal 595RS-R semi-slick tyres. Must get them fitted tomorrow.
Then on Sunday I will do the final setting up off the car, I want to set up a bit harder in the back so that I can get some lift-off oversteer into the corners. The Puma is allready quite prone to do so but a slight increase might help a bit on the twisty slalom course I will be driving.

A quick photo of my practice course on a abandoned Belgian airfield. And a week later I scored a neat 3rd place in the hotly contested first round of the Dutch Autoslalom Championship, Class 6 :D

[url="http://www.wimedo.nl/pag-uits220314.html"]Results page, scroll down a bit for my class[/url]