Thrashing on a Cosworth Vega

I've been thrashing on George's Cosworth Vega in my spare (ha!) time for a while now and have made a lot of progress. New brake hydraulics and friction stuff, changed all the vital juices, replaced the timing belt and water pump, new KYB shocks and Sumitomo tires, ran down a ground problem causing the gauges not to work. The FI problems tuned out to be a pooped out coolant temp sensor, George located a used one here in town and that's got it running quite well. Still to go: the tach is not reporting for duty, fuel gauge is stuck on full, the fuel tank fill hose has a split and there's a couple of pieces of trim to locate/reinstall. It also needs a bit more open exhaust and some reindexed cam gears to add a bit more snap.

I took it out for a rip this afternoon (don't tell him!) and this little car is a lot of fun. It feels a lot more solid than you'd expect a 32 year old car to feel. Power wise, it's pretty much on a par with other stuff of the era, not as fast as, say, a TR6 or my Jensen Healey but at least a match for an MGB or 510 Datsun. I haven't been able to push it to the edges of adhesion (too many gendarmes in the area!) but it feels pretty composed. This one has Positraction and I still haven't been able to test that thoroughly. At least there's no chattering in turns etc. The steering is a bit numb, but what would you expect from recirc ball steering? It responds quickly to steering input, though. The brakes have finally seated and it stops pretty well. We will probably take it autocrossing on July 13; that should work out any final bugs!

If y'all have forgotten what a Cosworth Vega looks like, here's a refresher:

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Especially love the comment "It feels a lot more solid than you would expect a 32 year old car to feel." I owned a new '72 Vega and yeah, It felt solid...most cars from the late '60s and early '70s did, solid like a brick. The car that was an in-direct replacement for the Vega, a '74 Audi Fox felt like a well crafted box. By which I mean that it felt like it was built out of aluminum (sp?) compared to the LEADEN-feeling Chevy.

BTW, love the FireThorn color...inside and out.

Yeah, it ain't exactly light on its feet. I got the fuel gauge fixed (open circuit in the sender inside the fuel tank and a 'perished' sender float) and replaced the fuel fill hose. Took it out for another snort, it's tossable and fun, it doesn't make enough power to be scary. I discovered it does NOT like hard cornering when the tank's under 1/8, it snorts and pops/backfires until it blows the air bubble through.

J-man,

I had a 1972 Vega GT; my first car. It had the big open egg crate grill, which was a bit better looking, but nowhere near the power the Cogsworth has.

I autocrossed the heck out of that car. It will respond well to heavier anti-sway bars, if the stock ones are the same as the GT bars.

Take some time to dial in the recirc ball steering. It can be made (somewhat) responsive.

It's odd, but I'm feeling a bit jealous.

Jack