Formula Ford Restoration Project

Since September, a group of us have been in the process of restoring a 1600cc Formula Ford Kent which is owned and run by our former course leader’s company Speed Factor.

The Restoration work was initally started by students of the formula student team UWE Racing and was carried out in their free time. Unfortunately this was not enough to complete the work required and so the car was moved to our garage for a complete overhaul of all of the body panels and preparation ready for racing.

The majority of the panels needed minor adjustments and repairs to ensure correct fitment and minimal bodywork gaps as the car had previously acquired damage when last on track.

The nose cone had taken its fair share of abuse and had been repaired numerous times but not always with care! We decided that this needed all the previous attempts as repairing ( copious amounts of filler applied haphazardly) to be removed and instead sections replaced with new glass fibre.

The existing engine cover ( not in great shape) was deemed unusable as the air filter had been relocated to behind the driver’s head instead of the side port and alterations were required inline with the Formula Ford Kent regulations in order for the car to compete at race tracks such as Castle Combe. The decision was made to make a new engine cover out of glass fibre reinforced resin using an existing mold that we modified.

The engine required rebuilding as two of the valves had collided with the pistons and caused damage to the cylinder head. The work is currently being performed by Speed Factor and we are eagerly waiting on news that the car is yet again running.

Over the next few weeks we will post about the restoration and race preperation work that we accomplished including engine cover and nose cone fabrication, spraying and detailing and general maintainance. Hopefully the work over the past few months will cluminate in the car being tested on a track day soon and being entered in a championship in the near future.

Images courtesy of Jonathan Hawkes

First Post

Now that I’ve finished University for the year, I have finally had time to create a WordPress blog/website where I can present all of my thoughts and progress on current engineering projects and other design work.

I will be posting about University projects I’m currently involved with, such as Formula Student, on here and the UWE Racing website.

Look out for progress updates on the Mk2 Golf Gti that Dreamtec Racing are currently race preparing, this will certainly be a busy month where the majority of the build will be undertaken. Also over the next month I will be posting updates about the Formula Ford that we restored for Speed Factor over the last year. The engine cover is stil waiting for some final sanding down and preparation for paint but should be finished within the next two weeks. There have been rumors that a track day will be booked to test the Formula Ford after its long absence from racing!

Personal Portfolio