It seems like an eternity ago that the curtain came down on my last XR2 (see Webmasters old XR2) Having enjoyed putting together and driving that XR2 as much as I did and with a lost race to a relatively standard but much lighter xr2i stock hatch racer in mind, I decided to build another one this time free from creature comforts and one with more power than the last one, what you see on this web page is what I ended up with...which is almost exactly how I had wanted it to be from the concept 10 months ago.

After finding one that had moved only 42,000 miles in its life that was moth mechanically and structurally superb it was time to start removing unwanted weight...Out came the seats, rear bench, parcel shelf, headlining, boot floor, carpet and anything else that was not needed and could save weight...this lot came to well over 30 kg's alone so just under half the weight of an adult passenger in real terms...after everything that could be physically pulled out or unbolted was out I was left with a bare interior with nothing other than the last bonded sound deadening mat left...I wanted to do things properly so these had to come out too...Never before have I nearly lost my patience time and time again as this took nearly 2 days solid of scraping and heating from a heat gun to remove.

The sweat paid off though as as well as a greater weight saving it cleaned the interior up nicely and left it ready to be prepped before painted. I wanted to do as much as possible with this car so after prepping the interior I borrowed a friends paint shop and paint gun and began spraying...After a few more hours the general covering was pretty good but there were areas that I had made a complete cock up of...thank fully Craig at Shepherds came to my rescue and eradicated the majority of these to leave a much better finish.

With the interior bare and freshly painted it was time to fit the Sparco Ultra lightweight race seats and harnesses, after enlisting two of my engineer friends some ally spacers were made to allow me to keep the existing seat runners...the Sparco adaptor bars I had were simply too heavy and at least this way I kept the option of adjusting the seat too.

Another weekend later and I had fitted the Safety Devices 6 point cage, rear strut brace and had cut some ally chequer plating to shape and mounted them to the floor for mats in the front. A Momo race steering wheel, sparco pedals and Autometer carbon fiber gauges were also a must have to complete the interiors race car looks and functionality.

In the quest to save more weight I looked into the possibilities of Perspex windows and fiberglass body panels, in the end the rear window and rear quarter widows were exchanged for Perspex equivalents and the bonnet made way for a fiberglass skin which although a bit flappy at speed weights absolutely nothing...this was then pinned into place again to aid access to the engine bay and for the motorsport look -.another 15kg+ saved.

A B&M quickshift was acquired an I attached it to my linkage bars before connecting it all up - a slightly fiddly job but one that has now provided quite unbelievably precise gear changes.

With regard to suspension choice it had to be only one...and that was Leda - having seen stock and hot hatches with these fitted to them going round the UK's various different circuits at quite awesome speeds it was not a difficult decision to make. Fortunately two separate friends living within 10 minutes of each other were selling a front and rear set of these so without hesitation I made a trip and collected the complete set and have not looked back on doing so. All bushes were replaced with polyurethane to tighten the chassis up as much as possible and Shepherds came to the rescue with a set of adjustable Track Control Arms to give precise adjustments to Caster and Camber settings - essential for hardcore track use!

Wheels wise it had to conform to three separate conditions, firstly it had to be light, unsprung weight counts for a lot in terms of performance so the lighter the better, secondly they had to be a 15" as to get a sizeable to set of discs and calipers behind and thirdly they had to look like they are meant for motorsport or even better are used for motorsport...these things led me to the OZ Super Leggera - with it being one of the lightest and toughest looking wheels around a set was soon snapped up.

Behind the 15's had to go the biggest brakes that could be squeezed in...HI-SPEC came to the rescue with a set of 285mm discs and 4 pot calipers...which you can probably imagine on a car as small and as light as this gives very pleasing results in the stopping department.

The engine in my last one made a solid 130bhp @ flywheel so for this engine I wanted something noticeably more powerful but keeping the instantaneous response a naturally aspirated engine gives over a turbo'd equivalent - particularly for sustained hard driving at track days.

This was a major project involving myself, Dean at Shepherds and a certain Mr. Bayjoo...the engine was all spec'd up before Ahmed took the head away to have as much done to it as possible, in the meantime a set of Steel H section rods were acquired and some pistons sent for machining to ensure clearances and to have a circlip machined in to allow full floating movement on the piston itself within the cylinder. Ken at Newman cams came up trumps with a prototype camshaft he had been working on for a while and this really is an awesome cam, it runs in conjunction with Newmans own solid lifters (setting valve clearances up is a tad fiddly) but once that is set it more than makes up for it with the performance and at the same time drivability it keeps...power comes in from around 3000 and pulls hard all the way through to 7000rpm although peak power is around 6300rpm. A new set of Weber 45's were purchased and with some assistance from Karl at Norris Motorsport were jetted up spot on before they were even on the car...the rolling road operator commented on this fact when a session on the rollers soon after the engine was run in resulted in no jet or choke changes needing to be made. One of the only remaining bits from the first XR2 was wrapped with exhaust wrap and fitted, this being a Magnex SS 4 branch manifold and system.

After a return visit from Ahmed who bereted the engine a compression ratio of 11.08:1 was established which was spot on for what we were aiming for and lends itself to instant throttle response!

With this spec the engine made 132bhp @ wheels...so around 155bhp @ flywheel and a nice amount more torque than the previous engine too! Couple this with around 50kg less weight and a stiffer chassis I knew I had a seriously fun car to drive!

As if that wasn’t enough and as the keen eyed amongst you have spotted already a Wizards of Nos Nitrous kit was also added for use at 1/4 mile and 60 events, this is the second kit I have had and must recommend the additional power the system gives you. As well as the basic direct port kit there is also a Maximiser progressive digital controller allowing me to tailor the setup for weather conditions and the type of event it is...it doesn’t make your breakfast for you but it isn't far short of doing it that with the number of options that are available...with the size of nitrous jet up to around 70bhp that pushes the power output of this naturally aspirated engine well over 200bhp

To put all this power down you need something a bit special obviously which is where Shepherds came in again and built me a custom close ratio box with uprated selectors and main shaft bearing, it also featured a Quaife ATB LSD and in conjunction with the AP Clutch means as much as possible is transmitted to the tarmac.

I like everything to look as good as the rest of the car so I consulted Lee @ Fusion Fabrication to make me a few run of the mill ally replacement parts and a few one off's making the car that bit more unique.

Ally washer bottle, wiper motor cover, cam belt cover, brake reservoir cover to name but a few...as well as creating off the shelf and custom ally parts Lee also provides a polishing service so I sent my RS1600i rocker cover to him where he did a fantastic job of bringing it up to a full show standard shine...

I set out to build the best all round XR2 that I could and believe I have done this to the full extent of my ability. Everything has been tended too and has been thought about and it shows as it is just so much fun to either take round track or a quiet back lane on a sunny afternoon.

At a recent group test this car recorded a time on Performance Fords V box timing gear of 6.3 seconds to 60 and a 14.7 1/4 @ 96 mph...not too shy considering there is still no turbo insight...the previous week at the mag feature it recorded a 6.1 to 60 - so the times speak for themselves.

The aim now really is to break 14.5 seconds over the 1/4 and get into the 5's to 60...oh and to have as much fun in it as possible which is not too hard as I end up smiling to myself every time I drive it.

Fully Rebuilt 1600 CVH Block, Line bored, Overbored 0.5mm, RS Turbo big end and main bearings, Lightened and balanced crank, Farndon H section Steel rods, ARP 2000 bolts, Cast ceramic coated Pistons with removed piston skirt, valve pockets and gudgeon pin inserted allowing fully floating movement, Baffled sump

Fully worked head, including Sodium filled big valves, full porting, multi angle valve seats, balanced chambers, Newman Phase X race cam with Newman solid lifters and double valve springs, Kent vernier pulley.

Weber twin 45 carbs, enlarged inlet manifold

Magnex S/S four branch manifold and system

Wizards of NOS Direct Port nitrous injection system with maximiser digital controller running 70bhp shot

132bhp @ wheels without gas = 155bhp @ flywheel

+ 70bhp @ wheels shot of Nitrous

Thanks to Dean, Craig, Shane, Bob and Gavin at Shepherd Motors in Essex (01245) 477 999, Dave Argent and Kev Dolby, Ahmed Bayjoo, Lee @ Fusion Fabrication, Ken @ Newman Cams, Karl @ Norris Motorsport