No progress on the red car, it's been a crazy busy last few months. The white car developed engine problems, mainly lack of compression on a few cylinders and the crank pulley bolt loosened. That caused the timing belt hub to chew up the end of the crankshaft.
I ended up using the original short block leftover from the red car, rebuilt/ported a head from a parts car, and swapped in a five speed from the same parts car. It got all new seals, belts, hoses, water pump, tune up parts, CV boots, clutch kit, and I converted it to use an early 80's Escort carburetor which is basically a progressive two barrel Weber. It should be good to go for a long time.
I had to rush to finish the white car since I had signed up for a track event at INDE Motorsport Ranch in Arizona with the FordFestiva.com group. I got the car running the day before we left out with only 80 test miles, so I ended up trailering it out there just to be safe. It ran great from the shop we met at to the track (~150 miles).
At the track it ran good enough to set a new track record for fastest original engine (1.3l b3) Festiva. The old track record was a 2:22.xx. I was running 2:23 with a 215 pound passenger and a 20-30 mph headwind down the 2200 ft front stretch, so I figured I had a shot at beating the record. With no passenger I ran a best of 2:20.26 on Saturday with a string of back to back 2:20.xx laps; the car was very consistant. On Sunday there was very little wind and I was able to run multiple 2:17.xx laps, with the best being a 2:17.14. The ported head, along with the Escort carb and sticky tires went a long way in getting the car around the track that quickly; I ran within a second of a 1.6 DOHC swapped car with summer tires, and another 1.6 swapped car wasn't able to pass me on the 2,200 ft front stretch without me letting off to let him pass.
The best part of the weekend was watching Charlie (he's the guy in the vids I posted earlier, and who developed the suspension I'm using) outrun a new GT350R Mustang in his old 180 hp turbo daily driver Festiva. The guy driving the Mustang slowed to let Charlie pass so he could "reel him back in", but Charlie was ahead by half the front stretch in only two laps.
Pulling the parts car out to steal the cylinder head and 5 speed, along with the A/C parts for Charlie.
Porting the head.
New parts.
Original engine pulled.
