Fiestavus

[GotVic]

Project Intro:

The last year I'd been traveling for work and getting rental cars, and typical refills before returning the car were in the ~$5 range, whereas it'd be a half tank in my old Magnum RT. After dropping $1k on tires, I'd had enough.



I really, really liked that car. After 9 years I'd grown attached. It just wasn't a great driver's car.

The FiST had been on my radar due to numerous positive reviews, mostly Motor Trend's Top 10 Driver's Car:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MiMyfFvX0c

and Matt Farah's Smoking Tire glowing reviews of the car:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbcj-zE7gBw&t=11s

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRu_iQUVNtg&t=2s


On a work trip the rental was a standard Fiesta, and the handling/steering really impressed me. I thought, if this thing is this good, that ST really must be something special. Got back home, got on the internet and saw there was $4k off the '16 model year cars (this was late Janurary '17).

I picked up this car for two reasons:

1. I wanted an inexpensive car to get back into warranty, with low operating costs
2. I wanted something fun to drive

1/30/17 I picked it up: Magnetic, Recaros, sunroof, nav.
I thought I wanted the sunroof, but after getting it, it's so small on these cars it really didn't matter. Didn't care about navigation either, but it was discounted $490 off and I kind of had to work with the remaining inventory, so...




Initial Goals:
Because I wanted cheap with a warranty, I'm not planning anything crazy anytime soon. As soon as I start modding it's neither cheap nor warrantied.

I'm heavily influenced by both DloST (his car in the prior-linked video) and Accel Junky.

That said, I'm wanting to track this car. Once upon a time I was an avid autocrosser, but to date I've not yet done an open track event. Open track events while maintaining daily driver status is the plan. As I get faster, I plan on fixing the weak spots.


Mods Done:

1. Fifteen 52 Turbomacs, silver 17x8, with Black SSR splined lugs (ordered the day I took delivery of the car)
2. Ford SYNC nav upgrade to latest version w/Android Auto and hacked the ST Performance boot screen (done the first weekend)

Planned Mods:
Will be upgraded as-needed.(List updated 12/6/19)

• Cooling: temp pegged in traffic last summer, and I overheated and went into limp mode on a 65 degree track day. Radiator, and oil cooler will be done this summer: Mishimoto is planned.
• Rear Seat Delete: I've a big dog - 160lbs at 12 months and still growing; how it worked in my Magnum http://instagr.am/p/_rmY4pjfwI/ View: https://www.instagram.com/p/_rmY4pjfwI/
  (the old dog, RIP). Then again, I might make a baby, which requires the rear seat. I've gotten married. Need the back seat.
• Cobb AP
• Intercooler: Whoosh V3
• Motor mount: Whoosh Street-Spec
• Short-throw Shifter: Whoosh (and a white Hurst knob)
• BBK: Not decided yet. May want something to fit inside 16" wheels. Powerbrake X4ES is under consideration.
• Coilovers: KW V3 coilovers? Bilstein? or just upgraded springs/shocks?
• Turbo: Whoosh Hybrid most likely, but maybe S280
• Bolt-in roll bar and harness: properly engineered w/harness bar (not for "stance cred")

Potential/Maybe-someday Mods:

• Cat-back: The idea of having an overly quiet exhaust w/fake engine noise piped into the cabin bugs the crap out of me. The Thermal R&D is what I'm looking at.
• Flares: Could go with 9" or 10" wide wheels. Don't know how far I want to take this car.
• Downpipe: ?

Final note: I'm not a millennial and can handle constructive criticism without getting butt-hurt. If something's questionable, bring it up and let's talk through it.

 

[GotVic]

I love these wheels. It's amazing how much this changes the car. The extra inch in width is noticeable in person.

 

[Plainrt]

Are you gonna put some wider tires on those? Tires kind of ruin the look.

 

[GotVic]

I don't disagree. But these tires don't even have a thousand miles on them. I'll replace them when they're bald. A couple of track days should solve the problem.

 

[WeTheNorth]

Nice start! Time for. Ap from Strat and their Ots tune


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GotVic]

Finally got around to adding a bit of an intro to the thread.

 

[GotVic]

That's me acting a fool with my hand on my junk.

Track Day Vaca 11/16/18
A couple friends and myself did some private instruction for a half-day at MSR. We ended up with one short lead-follow session, then four, 20-minute on-track sessions in our cars. I'd done a bit of autocrossing a long time ago (late 90s, then a little 2008 or so), trekked to the ST Octane Academy last year after buying the car and added on the single Mustang school day. So this was my 2nd real track day, first in my FiST.

The first full 20 minute session with the instructor was still just the instructor showing us the line, trying to learn the track. Second session was solo, where I was trying to pick up speed, but I was a mess; definitely NOT "smooth is fast." Unsure of what gear to be in where, over-driving, under-driving, and traction control was an issue toward the end of this session - it kept cutting in and killing power coming out of corners.

Third session I disabled traction control and the car was WAY faster. And because I was moving now at a pretty good clip, the car started overheating. Ambient temperature was only in the mid-60s and the car would go into limp mode in two or three laps. One slow lap the temp would come back to normal, then two-three laps it'd be back to limp mod again. No bueno.

For the fourth session I ran the heater, which eliminated the overheating issue. Also, was going fast enough now that I wasn't using 2nd anymore, just 3rd and 4th gear. Not worrying about shifting so much allowed me to concentrate on the line more and so was finally putting together some decent laps considering my skill level. We'd no timing equipment, so no times, though I would have liked to know how I was doing in the grand scheme...

I don't know why more people aren't hip to these little Fiesta STs as starter track cars. Other than the overheating, the car was fantastic. It is such an easy car to drive, with no surprises - far different from the foxbody/sn95 world from which I come. We were running MSR counterclockwise, so there was only one hard brake zone and I experienced no fade. In our group was a very stock high-mile but clean E36M and an S2000. E36 had a bit of track experience, but the S2000 was completely green without even a lot of autocross experience. At the beginning of the day, I was a little faster than both (car is stupid easy to drive fast), but by the end of the day we were all running pretty even. The S2000 was probably the fastest at the end and the E36 wasn't pushing his car to the limit as it's got 180+k miles.

The E36 guy ran the next day, Saturday, with the big driver's event that weekend. Halfway through is second session he was really starting to haul ass (probably would have made me and the S2000 look silly if he was running like that the day before). He said running with all the cars was far more difficult than our private instruction as there were many more things to remember and pay attention to while on track.

That said, I'd recommend private instruction to start. Our half-day was only $375 for each of us, and one of our two instructors had three track records at MSR. FWIW, we may have gotten a slight discount as there were three of us, $475 might have been the standard price - still a bargain for the one-on-one time and hardly any traffic on track (go on a week day).

Everyone wants to know what the car needs? Cooling. Unless you're running on a cool-ish day and remember to run your heater, you'll probably bump the car into limp mode. I'd even pegged the temps once sitting in traffic last summer. I had stock brake pads and stock tires, and everything was fine. I couldn't make the most of what I had, so the thought of needing more is kind of silly.

And that is the story of my first track day in my fantastic little FiST.

ps
Also met a guy in an orange FiST, had a bit of work done to it, but he was driving the wheels off that thing on Saturday. He passed a lot of hardware that should be a lot faster than our humble little Fiestas, even with a few mods. Not sure if he's on this board or not.

 

[theblue]

nice write up. you can consider adding some water wetter also for cheap to get temps down a little

 

[GotVic]

Just shy of 30k miles. Ordered some stuff for maintenance; ITG panel filter, Whoosh magnetic drain plug, Ford brake pads, Motul RBF 600, white Hurst shift knob - because most of my Mustangs had them and this review:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI62PV8YaiQ


Hopefully everything will be delivered for next weekend. Still going to have the oil changed at Ford; right around the corner from me and don't have to deal with disposing of the old oil.

Warranty went up a few months ago, so now saving for a RMM, Cobb AP, and Whoosh V3 intercooler. Unless the car overheats again this summer, in which case I'll do radiator and oil cooler.

 

[GotVic]

I'll not recap everything I already explained here, but it looks like I've made a few decisions on the future automobile plans.

Back in December, i traded the Fiesta in on this:



And a little over a week ago I picked up this:



I got myself a pretty decent win-win here. I've replaced the functionality of the 4 door hatchback with "The Burb," and the sportiness of the car with the C5 FRC. What am I planning to do to the Corvette? Everything. (Build thread here.)

And I want to wrap it up with this. Hands-down, as this C5 sits, the Fiesta was a more fun to drive around town daily driver. The steering in the Corvette is a big disappointment, and the seats are crap (particularly in mine as the driver's seat is torn the hell up). The gearing in this car is TALL, so it doesn't pull anywhere near as hard as you'd expect given its power-to-weight. Obviously, the Corvette has much more potential on the big end, and so I'm really excited about the new toy.

Thanks everyone, it's been a thing.

 

[WutApex]

Nice FRC. I’d love to get a C5/C6 and put a fat cam in it and some nice suspension upgrades.

I’m afraid if I do get one, I’d go down my own rabbit hole and prep it for Spec Corvette, ya know just in case, and soon after find myself spending WAY too much money to go racing again.