Spending weekends lapping at the Nürburgring and Spa would satisfy most enthusiasts, but in 2007 Warren decided to make the jump to time attack, starting with a round at Brands Hatch. “I entered this round mainly due to pressure from my friend Glen Horncastle, owner of Time Attack UK,” Warren says. “The event went well for me, and I managed to get into the final. The year after, I entered two rounds: Brands Hatch and Snetterton. I made the final in both, and at this point the bug had well and truly bitten.”
That’s when, over the winter of 2008, Warren decided to change a number of things on his Cossie, both in terms of appearance and performance. For starters, the body was upgraded to WRC spec carbon-Kevlar body panels and the wheels were downsized to 18-inch Rota Boosts wrapped in 265/40R18 Pirelli P Zero race tires. The suspension also got a serious overhaul, thanks to sponsor Black Art Design, which replaced the rubber OE bushings with a combination of polyurethane, spherical and solid bushings to go along with its highly sophisticated triple-adjustable coilover dampers.
There was no turning back at this point, so instead Warren turned up the wick even higher. A revised turbo setup and a 120mm Airtec front-mount intercooler was tacked to the Cossie’s nose such that the retuned Pectel T6 2000 ECU was now in control of a stonking 700+ hp and 660 ft-lbs of torque on race fuel.
The biggest thorn in Warren’s side had been the reliability of the Cosworth gearbox, so to solve this problem once and for all he made the significant investment required to mate a FFD 7-speed sequential gearbox to his Escort’s YB engine, having already upgraded to a Quaife ATB front differential and a Titan rear differential with GRP A uprated driveshafts. For in-car evidence of the incredible flat-shifting soundtrack produced by Warren’s Cossie and its FFD gearbox, search YouTube for the video “Time Attack Snetterton 200” and turn up the volume.
Warren Kelly is clearly a man on a time attacking mission, given the relentless improvements he and his tuning partners (most notably Rob Denney and the team from Mountune, the same group that crews for Tanner Foust in the European Rallycross Championship) have made to his exquisitely prepared and presented ’94 Ford Escort Cosworth. There’s little doubt in our minds that Warren’s Cossie and many of his Pro class compatriots from the UK series would give the top time attack dogs in Japan and America a serious run for their money. If only a big-time sponsor would step up to bring this type of international competition to a head — hey, Red Bull, are you listening?