New Member - Lots of stickers and swoosh noises. Don't wash it often.

[M-Sport fan]

Hey, so as some have seen, this car was built originally for SEMA by IceNine in Detroit, and the story goes that it was planned for ARA use after Ford gave the car back. Speaking with one of the drivers, he claimed the car was homologated and log booked, but the log book was long gone by the time I got the car. It has the same cage and suspension as the Team O'neill cars, 5-point harnesses, but does not have a fire suppression system (I think ARA lets you get away with two hand held bottles).

I hadn't raced dirt or FWD before picking up this car a couple years ago, so I wanted to get a few seasons of rallycross and maybe some RallySprint under my belt before I attempt stage. May also seek a driver school before then as well.

Currently running either MRF ZDM3's (185/65R15) or Blizzaks (205/40R17) depending on the surface running on.

Michigan does not give you any grief over the no air bag setup, and the full cage, or do you not have any inspection at all in your particular county?

And yeah, both JDG and I (as well as others on here) really want to know the suspension setup under this beast.

 

[Philld_with_donuts]

Would love to hear more about your wheel, tire, suspension setup. Are you using wheel spacers to push those wheels out?

Hey JDG, so I was running pretty wild spacers to push the wheels out. I recently took the flares and spacers off to try and correct some dynamics issues, and also prolong the life of some of my bushings, bearings, lugs, and reduce some unsprung weight. They also were not hub centric, so I didn't feel the most comfortable beating on the car with them on.

I'll try the normal set up for a few events and see if I put them back, or get wheels with the proper offset.

I mentioned the tire set up in another post, but the suspension is all the Bilstein's common with the Team O'neill cars. Bilstein B8 5160's in the rear, and a single adjustable (Edit: oops, non-adjustable) Bilstein coilover in the front.

If you're looking for camber, caster, and toe I have absolutely no idea lol

(Edit: I also raised the front 2" to try and shift a bit of weight to the rear, and calm all the ridiculous lift off oversteer... also don't have the skid plate on... If you're wondering about the holy wheel gap batman...)

 

[Philld_with_donuts]

Michigan does not give you any grief over the no air bag setup, and the full cage, or do you not have any inspection at all in your particular county?

And yeah, both JDG and I (as well as others on here) really want to know the suspension setup under this beast.

No inspections here although it doesn't see street use tooooo often. The 5-points are probably one of the most obvious "please pull me over" items, since they are definitely not street legal.

***knocks on wood*** But I've been okay so far...

And Bilsteins all around B8 5160's in the rear and not sure on the exact model on the front. (Please excuse the crappy pictures, I was focused on the brakes, but you can kind of make out the shocks in the background.)

 

[M-Sport fan]

Those might be the R2 Bilstein/M-Sport 'budget' option, fronts (as compared to the multiple adjustable, remote reservoir, R2 Reigers which cost 4x-5x as much).

But you mentioned that the fronts were single adjustable (for rebound I'm guessing?), which those R2s were most definitely NOT, as they had NO adjustability for rebound/compression whatsoever, so .

 

[JDG]

Hey JDG, so I was running pretty wild spacers to push the wheels out. I recently took the flares and spacers off to try and correct some dynamics issues, and also prolong the life of some of my bushings, bearings, lugs, and reduce some unsprung weight. They also were not hub centric, so I didn't feel the most comfortable beating on the car with them on.

I'll try the normal set up for a few events and see if I put them back, or get wheels with the proper offset.

I mentioned the tire set up in another post, but the suspension is all the Bilstein's common with the Team O'neill cars. Bilstein B8 5160's in the rear, and a single adjustable Bilstein coilover in the front.

If you're looking for camber, caster, and toe I have absolutely no idea lol

(Edit: I also raised the front 2" to try and shift a bit of weight to the rear, and calm all the ridiculous lift off oversteer... also don't have the skid plate on... If you're wondering about the holy wheel gap batman...)

View attachment 30301 View attachment 30302 View attachment 30303 View attachment 30309

Awesome, thanks. I run a similar setup with a 3/4" lift and Bilstein B6 F/R with OEM springs. I run for similar wheels for rallyx and I know the offset is not nearly low enough for the car to look good with the flares, hence my question about the spacers. Those spacers look sketchyyy lol

 

[Philld_with_donuts]

Sick car! I dig it. Any awesome footage to share or parts and build breakdown?

Not too sure about "awesome" footage, but I have some video from a few events. I'll have to figure out how to get it into the Youtube so I can share it.

I'm still trying to determine fact from fiction when it comes to some of the internal parts for the build... when I bought the car there were many people in the Detroit area who said they were associated with Ice Nine or knew one of the previous owners, so I have many stories about wild boost pressures, turbo upgrades, Quaife Diff, etc.. but so far most have proven to not be true.

The chassis was shipped to Team O'Neill for the cage install and suspension bits.
Completely gutted (although still have A/C compressor and condensor? - on the list to come out)
What appears to be a stock driveline, stock motor/trans and stock tune.. (Currently seeing 19psi with 21 psi overboost, but older photos of the car show a COBB tuner and many stories of ~30psi?)
Banks Turbo back 3" exhaust
Unknown brand FMIC with GReddy? BOV
17" Braid wheels powder coated by Team Illuminata with Blizzaks and 15" Tire Rack Special wheels for the MRF ZDM3's
Hydro E-brake
Stock cluster and gauges (For now..)
All 4 door windows switched to Lexan (Need to add window sliders)
All 4 doors gutted with carbon close out panels
Carbon hood with 4-post mount
Carbon grill insert
Carbon naca ducts replacing the A-pillar quarter glass
Carbon rear spoiler
Roof scoop with air vents to cabin
Carbon sunroof replacement panel
Driven Motorsports steering wheel
Sparco Ergo Drivers seat
OMP passenger
G-force 5-point harnesses
Stop Tech Stainless brake lines
EBC Yellow Stuff Pads
Autozone OEM replacement rotors
Pentosin DOT4 LV Brake fluid
Heavy duty aluminum skidplate
Vibrant Ultra Quiet Muffler

Awesome, thanks. I run a similar setup with a 3/4" lift and Bilstein B6 F/R with OEM springs. I run for similar wheels for rallyx and I know the offset is not nearly low enough for the car to look good with the flares, hence my question about the spacers. Those spacers look sketchyyy lol

10/10 on sketchiness lol do not recommend.
When they built the car they shelled out for some nice braid wheels. I always wondered why they didn’t just get the right offset to start.

And if the 2" lift proves too much, I'll dial back to something closer to what you're running.

Those might be the R2 Bilstein/M-Sport 'budget' option, fronts (as compared to the multiple adjustable, remote reservoir, R2 Reigers which cost 4x-5x as much).

But you mentioned that the fronts were single adjustable (for rebound I'm guessing?), which those R2s were most definitely NOT, as they had NO adjustability for rebound/compression whatsoever, so .

Hey M-Sport, I just went back and edited that, they are non-adjustable, you're right.
I thought they had a knob on top for rebound or compression, but they do not.

 

[MagnetiseST]

I neeeeeeed that grille. Props to you for using it for more than a show car!

 

[M-Sport fan]

Banks made an exhaust system for these cars, or was that a 'one-off' custom build for this car?

I'm guessing that is a Team O'Neil skid plate from back when they were still making them for these cars (or even stage rally prepping these cars at all), since they did the gutting and full cage?

You also have the base Fiesta uprights/knuckles in the front, since those are required in order to use those M-Sport/Bilstein R2 coil overs.

 

[Philld_with_donuts]

Interested in the flare setup

Hey PunkST, the flares are fiberglass and are attached to the body with rivnuts. Not sure if they have a particular brand or were hand made... or are even for a fiesta...
The wheel arches also look like they were cut to raise the arch a bit, especially in the rear... either that or Ford is pretty rough with their fit and finish behind the wheel liners lol

 

[Philld_with_donuts]

Banks made an exhaust system for these cars, or was that a 'one-off' custom build for this car?

I'm guessing that is a Team O'Neil skid plate from back when they were still making them for these cars (or even stage rally prepping these cars at all), since they did the gutting and full cage?

You also have the base Fiesta uprights/knuckles in the front, since those are required in order to use those M-Sport/Bilstein R2 coil overs.

It might have been a one off custom by banks. I'll snap some pictures next time I have the car in the air.

And that's a good catch/good to know about the uprights/knuckles.

And I believe the car was shipped to Team O'Neill as a bare shell, they did the cage/gusseting, suspension, and I believe painted the cabin white, then shipped it back to the shop in Detroit to finish the car.
From what I can tell it looks identical to the cages they run in their school cars, minus a crossbar under the dash between the front uprights. I believe their motorsports cars are a little more in depth, and have bars through the firewall to the shock towers IIRC, and tubes under the floor as jack points. I do not have either of those. (another reason I'm sticking to autocross at the moment. I'll have a professional cage builder go through it all before I make the switch to full stage - just to be sure)

Does this look like one of their skid plates? There's a brace made of box steel that this mounts to under the front of the car.
It's 1/4" thick aluminum, and HEAVY.

 

[JDG]

It might have been a one off custom by banks. I'll snap some pictures next time I have the car in the air.

And that's a good catch/good to know about the uprights/knuckles.

And I believe the car was shipped to Team O'Neill as a bare shell, they did the cage/gusseting, suspension, and I believe painted the cabin white, then shipped it back to the shop in Detroit to finish the car.
From what I can tell it looks identical to the cages they run in their school cars, minus a crossbar under the dash between the front uprights. I believe their motorsports cars are a little more in depth, and have bars through the firewall to the shock towers IIRC, and tubes under the floor as jack points. I do not have either of those. (another reason I'm sticking to autocross at the moment. I'll have a professional cage builder go through it all before I make the switch to full stage - just to be sure)

Does this look like one of their skid plates? There's a brace made of box steel that this mounts to under the front of the car.
It's 1/4" thick aluminum, and HEAVY.

View attachment 30342

Yeah that's either the Team Oneil skid plate or an M-sport unit. Either way, it's the best you can buy "off the shelf". @M-sport and I are running the skid plate guy skid plate which uses bolt in brackets up front for mounting that is not nearly as strong as the welded brackets.

 

[Philld_with_donuts]

Yeah that's either the Team Oneil skid plate or an M-sport unit. Either way, it's the best you can buy "off the shelf". @M-sport and I are running the skid plate guy skid plate which uses bolt in brackets up front for mounting that is not nearly as strong as the welded brackets.

I might be running the same bolt on bracket you and M-sport are using...

Does it look like this by chance?

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^^No, the Skid Plate Guy bracket is a single piece of bent/formed steel for the front mount, which is bolted up to the front clip structure on top with ONE bolt.

Our SPG plates also do not come as far up into the bumper at the front as the more competition oriented, 'real' rally plates do, like yours.

It uses a 'catch' type, short steel bar bolt holder for the rear bolts, which is 'fished into' one of the cross member holes, and NO welded anything anywhere.

If your rear plate mounting bolts are screwed into a welded to the cross member nut, that plate is one of the Team O'Neil deals, although I thought that he used louver style cooling openings in his, vs. circular cutouts, so yes that might be the M-Sport R2 plate.

Yeah, those rally jack/jackstand tubular inserts which O'Neil (and M-Sport/every other rally prep crew) do/did for the actual Rally America/ARA prepped cars are cool, and a useful feature for stability when working under the car.

 

[Philld_with_donuts]

^^^No, the Skid Plate Guy bracket is a single piece of bent/formed steel for the front mount, which is bolted up to the front clip structure on top with ONE bolt.

Our SPG plates also do not come as far up into the bumper at the front as the more competition oriented, 'real' rally plates do, like yours.

It uses a 'catch' type, short steel bar bolt holder for the rear bolts, which is 'fished into' one of the cross member holes, and NO welded anything anywhere.

If your rear plate mounting bolts are screwed into a welded to the cross member nut, that plate is one of the Team O'Neil deals, although I thought that he used louver style cooling openings in his, vs. circular cutouts, so yes that might be the M-Sport R2 plate.

Yeah, those rally jack/jackstand tubular inserts which O'Neil (and M-Sport/every other rally prep crew) do/did for the actual Rally America/ARA prepped cars are cool, and a useful feature for stability when working under the car.

Ahhh thanks for that background M-Sport! There is a nut welded into the cross member to mount the rear.

This is a bit embarrassing, but it never occurred to me to use that as a jack point, or for one of those sweet rally jack points... It makes so much more sense now lol

 

[M-Sport fan]

I was actually speaking about the tubes all of the rally crews weld into the unibody itself (after cutting holes for them right through the lower 'rail' sections), so that they can use those 'male' jack stands/jack attachments to quickly get the car in the air, and stable, for quick wheel changes/servicing, and not the plate attachment points.

Right at ~22:10 on here;

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7C2b7eQ4VE

View: https://youtu.be/O8ZyeCeoQn0



And yeah, it looks like you DO have their skid plate as well.

 

[Philld_with_donuts]

I was actually speaking about the tubes all of the rally crews weld into the unibody itself (after cutting holes for them right through the lower 'rail' sections), so that they can use those 'male' jack stands/jack attachments to quickly get the car in the air, and stable, for quick wheel changes/servicing, and not the plate attachment points.

Right at ~22:10 on here;

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7C2b7eQ4VE


And yeah, it looks like you DO have their skid plate as well.

Ahh okay, makes sense. Thanks for the clarification. Yes that’s one thing I do not have on my car, but would love to add someday.

 

[flbchbm]

I messaged you, but didn't post a welcome here. I'm catching up on missed 2020 intro's.

Welcome to the machine.