oldskool
Well-Known Member
Cruise control added to the fun aswell if memery serves me correctly
Pikey
Dummy Ejection Facilitator..
Just done a bit of googling and the 1.6i orion had the same engine as the XR3i was also built to compete with all the top saloons of the day was lighter and faster than the Bmw316. and the ovlov360. So can't see why it wouldn't have been entered in Touring car series.
50 pence
New Member
Now your talking.
My mate who competed in Mk 2 Escorts and the rwd Fiesta I mentioned earlier, ran a 6R4 Metro.
It was widely accepted as one of the nicest in the country at the time. It had had the rear half of the roof cut away. ( replaced with a fiberglass hinged one RS 200 style ).
He did a lot of pioneering work with the suspension set up and made it very competative indeed.
Before he died,( on the Nurberg ring ), he got pally with Colin McRae who also raced at club leval in a 6R4.
McRae came down to see my mate, and landed his Squirrell in front of my brothers house on the farm. ( as we lived near his village ). Poor bugger, he died within a year of that.
Really great car.
Del.
Personally i prefer the Ford RS200 which in rally cross spec would run upto 750 bhp. They were nutters cars and thats why they banned them from rallying along with the 6R4s.
????
Are you sure?
AFAIK all group B cars (including RS200 and 6R4) were banned because of a few high-profile accidents where spectators were killed, not the drivers or co-drivers.
disco dickie
Active Member
I had a citroen hy camper, I dont think GRAVITY could make it go 60
Disco Moneypit
New Member
McLaren do not, and never have built there own engines. Cosworth, Porsche-TAG, Honda, Peugeot, Cosworth / Nicoleson, and now Mercedes - Illmor.
Also the Orion was never entered for homologation to the FIA to compete in either Saloon Cars or Touring Cars. Fords 1991 Super Touring entry worldwide was the Mondeo, using the 2.5 V6 block brought back down to 1999cc. Also the Orion never used the 1.8 motor. IIRC that was only available in the Sierra, so must have been a Pinto deriative? The Escort / Orion used Fords CVH, which only went up to a 1.6.
Disco Moneypit
New Member
Wow Red, your a really safe driver aren't you?
Driving like a **** and racing on the motorways, blocking people from exiting the motorway? Good job their wasn't any police around to see you doing that.
Disco Moneypit
New Member
When did Ford / or the lads at SVO in Boreham ever build even one Orion to compete in international touring car racing?
I can't find any mention of this project anywhere else on the internet, or in my bumper book of Cosworth, which details all projects, including the one off prototypes, from Duckworths & Costins original meetings, all the way up to 1996?
In what touring cars series did these Orions compete? Who drove them? They certainly wern't used in the British, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Austrialian or South American championships?
Also at what point have McLaren ever built engines? This is something that they have never done themselves, right back to the days that Bruce Mclaren set up his own team back in 1966 they were getting Cosworth to supply, build and rebuild their engines.
So, please do tell us more about these 125 McLaren engined Orions that were used in touring car racing that no-one, not even Cosworth or Mclaren themselves have ever heard of?
Here's a little tip mate. Don't go talking bollocks when there is a fair chance that you are going to get found out. It just makes you look like a ****.
Disco Moneypit
New Member
The Orion was never used in the BTCC or the BSCC, or any saloon or touring car championship the world over.
From the late 70's / early 80's onwards, Ford homologated first the Capri, then the XR4i, then the XR4ti, then Sierra Cosworth, then Sierra Cosworth RS500, then Mondeo, and finally the Focus to the FIA for use in various touring car championships throughout the world, but never the Orion.
Disco Moneypit
New Member
Thats like comparing chalk and cheese.
One was designed and developed specificly as a Groupe B rally car, with only the very basic silloette of the production model used.
The other was first and foremost designed as a mid-sized family car, before being modified as a touring car, which still had to keep the same basic bodyshell and suspension mounts, engine placement as the road cars.
And yes, I do remember Stig Blonkweist using the official Ford / Texeco backed Sierras in the 1987 & 1988 WRC, but that was only a brief stopgap untill the 4WD Sapphire Cosworth was used from 1989 IIRC?
Disco Moneypit
New Member
This ^^^^^^^^^^^
It wasn't so much the cars that had become the problem, but the **** poor levels of spectator safety, especially on events such as Portigal, Monte Carlo and Corsica.
Disco Moneypit
New Member
Because Ford never homologated it for use, as they preffered the Sierra and later Mondeo to be flying the flag for them around the world in touring car championships.
Edited to add;
I forgot to mention that BMW used the E21 323 / 333, then the E30 323 & M3, then the E36 318 for the Super Touring regs in the 1990's.
Volvo used the 240 / 260 in the early to mid 80's, mainly in the ATCC and ETCC. They never used the 360.
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if you used multi quote you could have saved a lot of time there disco m 
not sure about touring car spec orions but i think they did release a 1.8 in mk5 escort form although by then they had gotten rid of the orion badge and started calling it the escort saloon. the 1.8 iirc was used in the si and later mx5s running around 130bhp
not sure about touring car spec orions but i think they did release a 1.8 in mk5 escort form although by then they had gotten rid of the orion badge and started calling it the escort saloon. the 1.8 iirc was used in the si and later mx5s running around 130bhp
