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What nikasil bore issues? Other than not being able to increase, they've stood up incredibly well over time, or at least that seems to be the consensus of project puma, puma people etc... When we bought our track puma we found it had never had oil, filter or plugs changed, and was 20 years old and 164k on the clock. With the fomoco stuff off and out, it turned out it was in amazing nick, and that's not uncommon. As far as the gear box, not they are different, and one of the first scavengers to a puma being broken are fiesta owners wanting to either drop it on to the 1.6 or they'll take the block as well, it's that well regarded, despite there being limited available parts compared. Almost all nikasil issues that have shown up have been found to be lpg related (for this specific engine). The frp has this engine, with different cams, 421 exhaust and fancy manifold (plus map to accommodate cams and exhaust).
Re:track, no it's not. The frp is totally different track wise, although the spacing at the rear is easily replicated using the frp behind hub spacers, and at front you may be able to swap frp wishbones onto the sport ka? Google says no, but who knows what you could jam in, although I doubt there is space in the arches. We just got hubcentric spacers for now to throw it out, far from the best solution from a suspension design point of view, but it cost 200 quid, so what you going to do?
The puma has an even more illustrious racing pedigree, having had numerous manufacturer supported series in its heyday, and even now the puma Cup is one of the most popular accessible series in the UK.
Out of interest which number frp's have you driven? We may know the same people although, I'm jealous you've been able to have a go, the owners tend to be very precious with them!
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JesperXT
Was a quick answer.
The floor pans are the same for the fiesta, ka and puma, ford platform b from memory. Puma 1.7 normal wasn't great, nikasil bore issues and destroying big ends too. Comparing the kurb weights of the ka and the puma, the ka is over 100kg lighter. The 1.6 ka engine has more torque than the 1.6 puma and likes to rev... suppose down to the 8v and 16v difference.
Gearbox wise I think you are talking about the ford racing puma, quite a different beast compared to the usual puma and so the gearbox and drive shafts are stronger than road cars. If not the puma has the same box as the fiesta, ka, escort? focus too.
I have no idea why the puma is a track day car, can understand the ford racing puma but not the normal ones. The street/sport ka have a wider track, wonder if they are the same as the puma or the racing puma...
The KA had a ford build rally car for a race series that proved quite popular.
Have driven all three puma models and lots of the Ford racing Puma ;) KA seems more fun and when they initially came out the sport ka disguised as a normal KA was so much fun as no other car users expected the car to be so quick and handle so well.