Kansei's Garage Queen

[M-Sport fan]

I don't care about the brake component wear at all, i'd really prefer things to wear quickly so I have more reason to upgrade .

I would think the same way, except for the 100 things I want to spend my limited coin on modding wise (i.e.; suspension, seats/steering wheel, diff, carbon/vented hood, lighter battery, winter wheels/tires, etc.), BEFORE even touching the brakes, let alone big power mods.

Hopefully, by that time Stop Tech will have their shit together with a BBK that fits under MANY wheels instead of ONLY the Rota Grids, so I will not be forced to spend 3x as much on the ap Racing, or Brembo kits.

 

[M-Sport fan]

I hope you guys at least put it on when conditions aren't ideal... Not that I want to preach but traction control saves lives. Or backs.

I DID leave it fully engaged the only time it has been driven so far in the snow/slush, and I will at least leave it in 'Sport' mode when the roads are wet.

 

[kansei]

Used the car yesterday (Thursday) to get some cycling time in on the other side of the Cascades, which meant driving over Stevens Pass twice (daytime and at night). Loads of fun even at elevation. I think my Pierce Motorsports front upper and lower bracing arrives Saturday. I think I'll be able to get driveway time at a friend's place soon now that it's a bit drier here. I've been holding off anything electrical because I know I'd get stuck in the middle of the job and need to run to a parts store for some little supply. Easier when it's at a friend's place and I'm not rushing.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Mountain biking or road riding (the cycling)?

I REALLY need to lower mine now at least an inch with the 17x8 1.2s and 215/40-17 RS-RRs on it, as they are not quite as tall as your Star Specs, and appear as if they are only about factory 205/40-17 PS AS/3 height, even though they are ~.3" taller than those stockers.

 

[kansei]

Road, though there's certainly a lot of both around here. I'd need a hitch and rack (and a new mountain bike) to do that though.

it was the first time I rode it in years actually. When I was living in NYC I used Citibike to get around a few times a week but never wanted to suffer on my own fragile bike on those streets. Now that I'm back out west I can get back into this hobby

 

[M-Sport fan]

Road, though there's certainly a lot of both around here. I'd need a hitch and rack (and a new mountain bike) to do that though.

it was the first time I rode it in years actually. When I was living in NYC I used Citibike to get around a few times a week but never wanted to suffer on my own fragile bike on those streets. Now that I'm back out west I can get back into this hobby

NICE, a classic Celeste color Bianchi! (Fausto Coppi would be PROUD!)

I REALLY need to start riding my Merlin Road again, and drop some weight/get fit, and it will help with the FiST's performance as well!

 

[kansei]

Got back from a little traveling and decided to make some progress on the car today.

To install:
- Piercemotorsports 6 Point Lower Chassis Brace
- Piercemotorsports Upper Front Strut Brace
- Piercemotorsports Midship Brace
- Piercemotorsports Lateral Rear Trunk Brace
- Piercemotorsports Rear Torsion Bar
- cp-e Fiesta ST Nexus™ Resonator Delete Pipe

Per their recommendation, started with the 6 point brace. It was trickier to install than all the others combined, for sure. Lining up 6 bolts at the same time while the lower crossmember is unbolted and a bit loose. Luckily I was on a 4 post lift and just stuck a tall tripod stand under the brace to kinda jack things into position. Next up was the cp-e resonator delete. That joint on my catback was the one that got the most banged up in shipping so it was a pain to remove the resonator section. Ended up jacking/clamping the rear section of the exhaust to stabilize it a bit and then using a good old dead blow hammer on the resonator section. Installed the midship brace while I was down there but had to skip the torsion bar as I left the little bag with the hardware at home. The only other brace that comes with any hardware is the strut tower brace, comes with 4 washers to put on two of the studs the bracket sits on to get it nice and flush. Those two studs being ones from your upper strut mount. The trunk brace sits below the upper load floor so it's totally hidden from view. I'll have to cut the plastic trim pieces that hold our floor in place to fit with the brace. The weathertech liner I have on the lower floor (the non-ST Fiesta part number) will have to be trimmed but only a tiny bit to get around the bar.

Anyway, on to the good stuff (pics):

the undercarriage before work began:

Initial Impressions:

cp-e resonator delete: whoa! hello turbo whistle out the tailpipe. The resonator delete seems to have done exactly what I was looking for, namely make the exhaust sound a bit more clear/crisp, less boomy. Only had the ~10 mile drive home from the shop to test it out, but planning a multi-day road trip to go on maybe starting tomorrow so more to come. I did try closing the windows on the highway to see if it sounded different and it really doesn't seem louder then. Maybe it's not actually louder at all, just a different sound?

Piercemotorsports bracing: haven't gone on a fun drive of course but can definitely feel something. The bars are super pretty. Can use the 6 point brace as a pull up bar lol. More to come.

A couple video clips of like tiny throttle blips:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/clauretano/34672025744/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/clauretano/34672003154/

 

[TyphoonFiST]

I wonder how they would stand up to the elements AKA Mn winters?

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[kansei]

the bracing is all powdercoated, but yeah it's steel. I imagine it won't hold up any worse than all the black painted low grade steel Ford used down there, like the original midship brace I removed. Doubt my car will ever see snow or salt to collect any real data though.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

Did you do the whole kit? I'm anxious to hear your review....id like to do the trunk brace and underhood....just for the fact they are away from the elements.....

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[kansei]

yeah, bought all the parts they offer other than the 2 and 4 point lower front tie bars since I got the 6 point.

This is effectively their Race Suspension Package http://www.piercemotorsport.com/2014-2017-fiesta-st-race-suspension-package/ + the trunk brace and midship brace. I still need to get the rear torsion bar installed though, might see if I can borrow a friend's driveway (I have a friend with one of those, how fancy of them) to pop that in since it looks easy.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

4 piece kit?

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[kansei]

5 pieces total but I'd hardly say the midship brace is a necessity. It does give more clearance to the exhaust though. There was evidence of the exhaust banging my stock midship brace, though it could just be how i have the exhaust clamped. The Race package comes with three of the 5 pieces, which I think suggests something about how important the other two (trunk brace and midship brace) are.

 

[Business6]

Seems like the 6 point brace hangs quite low. That was a brace I was interested in but that photo alone is enough to make me second guess it. Just appears like it would put things at greater risk from road debris.

 

[kansei]

Certainly looks that way in photos. The 6 point doesn't appear to be any different in design to the 4 and 2 point in terms of how low it hangs though, judging by their photos. I could take measurements the next time I'm under the car though. I don't think it hangs any lower than the rally armor mud flaps. Some of it is the camera angle, it's an angle you wouldn't be able to get with the car on the ground and one you wouldn't see with a car on a 4-post lift. I noticed the black trim piece under the front bumper is scary low to the ground too. I'm not sure how my ride height compares to the common lowering springs out there either, but I suspect I'm on the low side.

May go on a bit of a road trip tomorrow and i'll be hitting some mountain and forest roads (dirt) so I'll probably have some more data on the ground clearance.

I also took a stab at getting through the firewall, what a horrible area to access on this car wow. Makes working on my Miatas look easy. I found the symposer hose that is just sitting up under the dash, but it's of course taped together with all the other wiring and stuff going through. I wonder, if I cut the symposer hose off on both ends and left a short section through the firewall, would that work? Don't care about returning the sound Symposer to stock ever. I need to get a boost gauge and subwoofer wired through that at some point.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Seems like the 6 point brace hangs quite low. That was a brace I was interested in but that photo alone is enough to make me second guess it. Just appears like it would put things at greater risk from road debris.

^^^THIS, especially in my area, is what would cause me to avoid the Pierce setup, IF I ever decided that all of this bracing (and the added weight involved, as little as most will claim that is) is actually a necessity.

I DID get and install, their mid brace only as a preemptive, cp-e Nexus clearance measure, and it does save a pound off of the factory stamped steel piece. LOL

IF I could be convinced that all of this bracing was needed on this platform, I would probably go with the Mountune stuff, and NOT because; 'fanboi' as some on here would pronounce, but due to them being the lowest profile, minimal 'hang down' options of the bunch.

Kansei; let us know about how the resonator delete pipe functions on long road/highway trips, because even if it adds only ONE decibel to the overall volume, I probably could not stand it.

 

[kansei]

I'd say it doesn't hang down below the black plastic deflector under the front bumper. Did a 700 mile or so trip this past weekend in the mountains, lots of logging roads and such. Didn't scrape even once. Then, just outside downtown Seattle, only a few blocks from my apartment, I got a nice loud scraaaaaaaaaaaaape going straight down a straight and level road. Extreme ruts from heavy bus traffic in one lane. oops.

Here's a quick cameraphone photo i took that kinda shows the height of things currently:

something is wrong with the car after the alignment though, experiencing very loose steering with a shifting center point. Couldn't even really enjoy all the beautiful roads I was on. I gotta call the shop and get it back in there to have them check things out. From what I read on some threads here a misalignment of the front subframe could cause that sort of thing. Hoping it's something simple and that I didn't manage to break the steering rack in 3k miles. Was even seeing stability control trigger while engine braking and traveling perfectly straight down the road. The car doesn't know what's going on with the front wheels.

As for the resonator delete, I think I'm going back to resonator life. It's dramatically louder from idle to 2k rpm or so, which I guess makes sense, it is a mufflerless setup with just a tiny helmholtz resonator and the stock cat at this point, and our little 1.6s are a bit buzzy and loud. At higher RPMs it sounds really lovely but the low RPM sound is I guess too raw. Like at idle you hear the turbo whistling out the tailpipe kind of raw, sounds like an exhaust leak kind of. If the regular cp-e nexus setup with resonator sounds "tuned", without the main resonator it sounds "race". It's not possible to drive the car quietly anymore. That said, at cruising speeds I don't think it's louder, since at those speeds the helmholtz resonator helps a lot. At those RPMs with light steady throttle basically can't hear the engine much more than stock.

Here's a poor quality video (phone was bugging out and some of the audio got jacked up) revving to redline and bouncing off the 2500rpm launch control limit https://cloudup.com/ciIPBByHLu7

 

[M-Sport fan]

Thanks for the review!

I guess I am keeping the resonator as of now, since the neighbors would probably call the cops on me with the volume/sharpness of the non-resonated system at the speeds I must go in this development.
The thing is, EVERYONE who speaks to me about the car (last were two kids in a magnetic FoST with a Roush exhaust system on it, and before that was the tire guy at R/T Tuning, where I had the tires/wheels mounted and balanced) comments on just how GREAT the resonated Nexus system sounds, and they ALWAYS ask which system it is, I'm guessing because only our Ecoboost, and the Mazdaspeed communities even know that cp-e exists.

Those Star Specs definitely look wider than just the 0.3" they actually are in tread width than my RS-RRs, probably because of the much more square shoulders on them.
I'll bet they are also at least a little quieter at highway speeds than the screaming/singing Federals.
I will probably have to spring for them once these wear out (but the RS-RRs are PLENTY sticky on the street, no matter how much everyone says they overheat, and get 'greasy' after a couple of hard laps on a road course).

 

[kansei]

Agreed regarding the sound of the resonated cp-e, I've gotten compliments about it too. It's certainly a higher quality sound with the resonator in, which I guess is why that's the default configuration. Since the exhaust is just some 3" tubing with two resonators, you have to think most of the engineering effort was in selecting the right resonators for the best sound. I was hoping for a more crisp sound without much more volume, but got both. It does really sing at high RPMs, but with the powerband of these cars on the street that means you're always in the very loud RPM zone (idle to 2500 rpm). Oh well I'm happy to have tried it out. If anyone sees someone looking for a used resonator delete have them hit me up .

If you recall I thought the ZII Star Specs were crazy loud but then it turns out I-5 through Seattle features the original concrete pavement from when it was first built. Now that I've ventured out to actually enjoyable roads the sound level isn't bothersome at all, but to me it seems like the car has very little sound insulation so I think we have a fairly noisy ride in general. Doesn't bother me enough that I'd seek out quieter tires for my next set, even though these are really silly for what I use the car for. Most of the time the destination for any trip in the car ends with a dirt forest service road in the wilderness, since that was the whole justification for buying the thing.

Hoping I can have the shop that did the alignment get the steering situation sorted out next week, and I'll have them toss the resonator and the lower rear pierce brace on while the car is there... I might actually have them raise the suspension a bit all around as well. I haven't touched it since i first installed the coilovers and I was just guessing when I set it then. Looks good in photos but is probably suboptimal, and I'd like to avoid scraping the 6 point brace again if possible.

Next up I'd really love to get the boost gauge and subwoofer in, which both require tackling getting through the firewall. I can certainly see where the sound symposer tube goes through the firewall but it's all taped up with all the wiring going through at the same hole so it's a bit of a mess.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Yeah, if I were going to end up on fire roads/rally stage type roads often with mine, I would have gone for the S.drives, or such, as much as I don't like them as an all-out performance tire.

Raising the coil overs a little also helps for those conditions.

Did you have the alignment done before, or after you installed all of the front Pierce bracing?