2014 Ford Fiesta ST project

[koozy]

I've been emailing back and forth with Auto Specialists, Core size is 710mm x 150mm x 70mm

Thanks, for those interested in the conversion that's, 28" x 6" x 2.75"

 

[Sourskittle]

Good job on the logs !!!

 

[razorlab]

Went and got the car aligned today by Jack at Motorsports Techniques in Hayward, CA.

I've been going to Jack for about 14 years now I think. He has aligned all my cars and does great work.

For a recap, the car, suspension wise has:

Bilstein B14 PSS coilovers (#47-167490)
Goldline camber bolts (#81250)
Lowered 1.25" front and 0.75" rear

I set the camber bolts at full negative camber before bringing the car in to see Jack and here are the numbers after an alignment:

Front

Camber: Left -1.9* / Right -1.8*
Caster: Left 3.4* / Right 3.6*
Toe: Left 0.00 / Right 0.00

Rear

Camber: Left -0.7* / Right -0.4*
Toe: Left 0.08 / Right 0.13

This is the first rear beam car I have owned so it pains me a little that I can't do any adjustment in the rear but it is what it is I suppose. I'm so used to Evos that you can adjust pretty much everything straight from the factory.

The car feels amazing now. Turn in is awesome, almost as good as my Evo 8 was, which is no small feat. Lateral grip and stability is way up too. I'm hoping this all translates well to the track. I will find out next month!

The brakes....

The car just stops NOW. I'm running the Wilwood BP-20 pads up front, which is a step up from the BP-10's they usually put in the kit and the BP-20's are supposed to be their street/track hybrid pad. Braking is really amazing now and all the squirrelyness with the back wanting to come around that the stock setup had under braking is completely gone now.

Totally happy with the brakes, especially for under $900 including the upgraded pads and the upgrade GT spec rotors. Total bargain.

With true race pads the car will probably feel like I threw a 5,000lb boat anchor out the back on braking.

 

[ryst]

Braking is really amazing now and all the squirrelyness with the back wanting to come around that the stock setup had under braking is completely gone now.

Totally happy with the brakes, especially for under $900 including the upgraded pads and the upgrade GT spec rotors. Total bargain.

With true race pads the car will probably feel like I threw a 5,000lb boat anchor out the back on braking.

So the brake balance is *better* with the BBK up front? Are you running stock pads in the rear?

 

[razorlab]

So the brake balance is *better* with the BBK up front? Are you running stock pads in the rear?

Remember I did suspension, alignment and brakes all at the same time. It's probably a combination of all three. I am running stock pads in rear.

I'll have a better review of how everything is working together after my track event next month.

 

[RAAMaudio]

Pretty amazing we can take such a great car and make it noticeably better with a few relatively simple mods

It is also great to get a real alignment, most shops use a the widely "acceptable" factory specs and then do not always install the sending units on the wheels properly, I have seen some horrid "alignments" done so I do my own and have for many years, decades really.

You cannot beat Wilwood for quality, price, replacement parts cost, pad availability....wise choice and the GT rotors are very very good.

I am testing BP10 front and rear on my BBKS and have BP20 fronts for the track, it is what was recommended as a starting point and the pad prices are very very reasonable. I will have brake cooling as well so I should be good to go but can easily step up to more aggresive pads and these are super easy to swap out.

I am doing the final work today on the bracket design then sending parts and info out to get the 11" GT rotor 4 piston with parking brake setup working and on the car asap. I will post this up as soon as can and where to get them if you are interested.

Keep it up, you are building a very sweet ride!

Rick

 

[razorlab]

So far the BP-20's are great on the street. No noise so far but I only have a couple hundred miles on them so far. They have a nice progressive feel. If you lightly use the brakes they grab lightly, if you give it more pressure, they STOP NOW.

I'm starting to wonder if I even need to go BP-30 for the track. I will probably grab a set just in case the BP-20's can't take the heat.

 

[razorlab]

So I'm moving to another set of coilovers with higher spring rates. Nothing wrong with the Bilstein coilovers but I wanted a higher spring rate.

Anybody want a barely used set of Bilstein coilovers for cheap?

 

[Harvick]

So I'm moving to another set of coilovers with higher spring rates

What are you getting?

 

[jayroddrumz]

You can't just get different spring sets?

 

[razorlab]

You can't just get different spring sets?

I also wanted the car to be a little higher in the front for my intended usage. The Bilsteins max front is about -1.2, which is fine for street use but I want it a little higher and also more possibility to fit wider tires.

What are you getting?

BC's with custom rates and dampening.

 

[jayroddrumz]

Oh gotcha

 

[razorlab]

Track tires/wheels came in yesterday.

Brand new Dunlop ZII Star Specs which just came out about two weeks ago. Looking forward to trying these out.

Going to go wider next time but for now, these will do.

 

[rodmoe]

Of you go wider you going with a 8 inch wheel then ??

 

[razorlab]

Of you go wider you going with a 8 inch wheel then ??

Yes most likely. Things are getting heavy though.

These tires with Sparco 17x7 Garas are approx 44lbs each. :-/

 

[rodmoe]

Yup I went there and ended up going with a 15x8 but that limits my brake options so maybe a 16 inch if you can find anything.. Also think for next year I might just snap for a set of Hoosiers as in A6 as they don't make the A7 in 205/50/15 yet.. Oh well let me know how the new Star Specs are I love my current DZll's wet or dry they are good..

 

[RAAMaudio]

Soon you will be able to buy the WW 11.75" GT rotor 6 piston DP caliper setup to fit 15" wheels. I am paying to have mounts made and the pattern will be available so easy to order and for a good price. There are much cheaper rotors that fit this setup as well, pads are cheap and a ton available.

---------------

Rear brakes are a bit more effort but I am making mounts right now for 4 piston WW calipers with parking brake arms, 11" GT rotors, modified knuckles, etc....but rear brakes for a bit of work with the same great rotors but are much less in that size and pads are less and many options as well.

---------------

Depending on cost to mod the parts unless you do it yourself I imagine both front and rear sets with pads and SS lines might come in under $2k for the front and rear

-----------------

Do the hub re-bore and you can get 15x8 in the 12 lb range for $120 or so, roll formed, 15x9 $130 range, roll formed and 13 lbs as well as the new version of the 15x9 12 lb roll formed UL6 which is a beautiful wheel but will have to be careful to ensure they fit over the brakes.

If they do later on I will sell my 15x9 wheels and get them as always wanted the UL6 but they were no longer sold while working on the new version.

-----------

225/45/15 RA1, $40-80 each fresh from race teams, I always get the best as shipping costs the same, $400 or a bit less a set to your door, and you can get A6, R6, R888 and others.

My 15x9 with 225 tires, balance weights, aluminum valve stems, 31.6 lbs per corner!

-----------------

There is a method to my __________after all

 

[razorlab]

Another little update.

Went back to E30 as that is the mix I plan on running at the track and I wanted to refine the track tune since I've learned a bunch about the ECU and car since the last time the car saw E30.

One big discovery I found was that the stock ECU basically turns off it's dynamic ignition timing strategy over 2.0 load and 5500 rpm. If you are running over 20psi, you pretty much are hitting higher load values than 2.0. This manifests itself in "lazy" dynamic timing advancement at peak torque, then the ECU will do its dynamic timing advancement thing until 5500rpm where it will just decay off until you shift or hit the rev limiter.

So I set the load higher and the rpm to 7,000 rpm and now the dynamic timing is a bit more responsive at peak torque and doesn't decay off after 5500 rpm. Which is great when running any sort of Ethanol blend. Makes the pretty awesome and useful OEM dynamic timing strategy even more awesome and useful!

Anyway enough of the geeky stuff. Below is where the car currently sits power wise on my E30 track tune. I'm running it a bit conservative, because it's a track tune. One thing to note is the peak torque is higher than before and I contribute that to the things I have learned in the ECU since the last E30 tune.

Power mods:
Cobb ATR custom tune (by me)
E30 fuel
Airtec FMIC
22psi peak to 13.6psi at 6500rpm

 

[rodmoe]

Good Info that is about what I have seen with E30. pulls out of the hole like a monkey with its tail on fire...

 

[Sourskittle]

Razor I was just fixing to PM you and ask you to post this
Good job !