Brick's Babyrunner Do-Everything Funmobile Daily Driver

[Brick]

Hey!

When my wife and I found out we were going to be welcoming a bundle of joy, I knew it was time to sell my previous ride; a 1999 Corvette. It didn�t have a backseat, I couldn�t turn off the passenger airbag and it was going to essentially waste away in my garage as my wife and I both work and would need to share daycare drop-offs and pick-ups. It was time to find a new ride. I enjoy spirited driving too much to simply buy a typically daddy-mobile. I wanted something still performance oriented that could haul a bicycle, get decent mileage and under 25k.
It was love at first youtube review. A relatively cheap hatchback that was performance oriented with a manual that was equally comfortable in the canyons as it was driving daily to work. Sign me up. The only option I wanted was the Recaro seats. I was looking for a used variant with recaros, but they were nonexistent at the time. Many dealers thought their fiestas were made of gold. Eventually I found one in silver at a price I was willing to pay.


Stories and pictures to follow of autocrossing, rallycrossing, comparisons to the 1999 corvette, will it baby?, canyon rides, mods and a basic journal of my experiences with the fiesta.


Mods to date:

2/21/2015 Fiesta ST purchased
3/1/2015 Shorty Antenna
3/5/2015 Curt Hitch
4/13/2015 Gas Pedal Riser
4/13/2015 Cobb RMM
4/15/2015 Covercraft Sun Shade
4/20/2015 Camber Bolts
4/24/2015 Window Tint
4/24/2015 Rally Armor Mud Flaps
6/5/2015 Accessport
8/8/2015 TB Torsion Bar
12/20/2015 Pierce Motorsports 2 Point Bar
9/4/2016 Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 15x8 et 35 anthracite wheels
9/4/2016 BFG Sport Comp 2 195/55/15

Future plans:
More autocross
More rallycross
More canyon drives
More daycare duty
More mountainbike excursions

Wheels and sticky ass tires

Lap Times:
Streets of Willow CW Nov 15 2015 1:34.6

 

[Brick]

The babyrunner!!!

(7/3/2015):

Current Configuration (11/6/2016):

The things we do for kids.....

Previous Ride

 

[CanadianGuy]

Congrats on the FiST and the new addition to your family.

 

[Brick]

First time Autocrossing, 1 week after getting the car

Here is video from my first autocross event in February with 250 miles on the car. It was a local event, so only about 30-35 cars. The fiesta ended up winning a lot of fans that day. As an added bonus, I posted the fastest time of the day just barely edging out a couple of modified evos, wrx's and my buddy's s2000.

The most important thing I picked up from autocrossing the fiesta st was just how badass of a frickin daily driver this car is! I was flickin her with ease, the brakes were on point, and I was having a blast! I gave some friends some rides (the dudes mentioned above) and they couldnt believe how the fiesta handled. That and the recaros are SO awesome coming from the shitty excuse for seats in the c5 corvette. I had so much fun autocrossing the fiesta, I thought about keeping my car stock and being set up for the HS class, but honestly, that would be too limiting for me. Simply put, I bought the car because I love to drive, but it's just one of the several things I love. With the new addition to the household, I'll likely be splitting full days of free time by hitching a bike to the back of the fiesta st, driving some badass mountain roads, going mountain biking, and driving those badass roads back home.


[video=youtube;2D_ZXPkH3tQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D_ZXPkH3tQ&feature=youtu.be[/video]





Thanks [MENTION=2253]CanadianGuy[/MENTION]. Having our little girl crawling around the house is something special. I'm really enjoying being a dad.

 

[rodmoe]

Welcome and looks like you have a good plan there

 

[RAAMaudio]

Welcome and great choice and plans

I too had a Vette but traded on a new dually as never used the car after we got to big puppies.

I also had a Scion tC, race/street car what was very modded and fast as well as was building a nuts 95 M3 forged LS powered race car.

All gone, totally happy with my FiST, street, race and dog hauler

 

[Brick]

5/3/2015 High Desert Trails Rallycross in Ridgecrest CA

[video=youtube;OH9Ofzbu8Mo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH9Ofzbu8Mo[/video]

I participated in my first rallycross earlier in May. 15 cars entered in stock 2wd. The smartest people were the ones who rented cars, got the insurance, and went balls to the wall out on the rallycross course. I was asked how I rented a Fiesta ST by a dude in a new mazda 3 and I was like... i bought it. He proceeded to tell me he rented his mazda 3 and my jaw hit the floor What a damn good idea! There were at least 3 rentals in the field. One debeaded her rental minicooper.

I was worried about debeading a tire as the course started to get a bit rutted out. It's my daily driver do everything fun mobile, so I left some on the table. With that said, I tried left footed breaking and using the e-brake to get the ass end to rotate. I turned all the nannies off. E-brake turning was pretty effective, however rallycross is something I havent figured out yet with this front wheel drive bullcrap. Sorry, but not nearly as fun as dicking around in a rwd truck with a locker. None the less, still a great time!!!!

Frankly, there wasn't any traction with the 200hp of fury the fiesta has. I was fighting spinning the tires all the time. You can hear it in the video. Also, the clanking you hear is my exhaust hitting my Curt Hitch.

Overall, a damn good time, the fiesta handled it like a champ. Would I do it again? Ya, the only real risk i saw was debeading a tire, so why not. A day out on a track is better than on the internet talking about wanting to do fun things.

 

[sharpie]

Another silver baby-wagon. Love it!

 

[Brick]

Painted the calipers on the car gold.

I'm going to be on the stock wheels/tires for at least another year, and I'm thinking about something like this with the stock rims.

or this

 

[Brick]

Went to Sequoia National Forest with a Focus ST friend and drove some really fun b-roads. Roughly 140 miles worth. The Fiesta ST really impresses me. I only have experience with a C5 Corvette to reference performance to, so bare with me. This car handles SUPERBLY stock. Honestly, for the most part I only wish I had a lil more oomph between corners. But I had more than enough fun as is. I am taking next week off from work and will hopefully be dipping my wheels in the darker grey color as seen above.

 

[Brick]

Played with plastidip this weekend. This color required a perfect single coat of copper metalizer over black... and I wasn't perfect...haha, but I really do like the color. It changes depending on how the light hits it. At least now I know I will be ordering bronze colored wheels when the time comes.

 

[Brick]

Went on an epic drive sunday with the San Fernando Valley area ST owners.
Almost about 200 miles of canyon driving for me, 370 round trip. It was an epic day. I did all the canyons twice based on where I live relative to everyone else. So worth it.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Pane...d34.385568!3e0

The rear torsion bar was added to the rear. I'm going to be honest, I don't get to play often enough to know if it TRULY makes a difference.
The car handled like it was on RAILS. I had so much fun... this platform is simply amazing. Chasing a few focus STs and fiesta STs was just a blast.
We were about 19 strong I believe.

 

[Brick]

On November 15th I had a track day with extrmespeedtrackevents.com at Streets of Willow in Rosamond, CA. The configuration was Clockwise and it was anywhere from 45-62 degrees during the day, with some sessions completely dry and others in the wet!
My car is stock other than an Accessport and TB Torsion Bar Stiffener. I did put on DTC-60 track pads for the front of the car for the track day.
I’m by no means a superb-driver, I’m just your run of the mill guy with roughly 10 track days of experience over the last 5 years, all of those in a c5 corvette.
Here’s what I thought:
DTC-60 pads up front, OEM pads in the rear and Rotul 600 fluid:
10/10 would run this set up again. Never boiled the fluid and the DTC-60s held up to the task during the day. With the car pointing straight, braking was fairly uneventful.
Occasionally I would experience the rear end wagging a bit during braking, but I believe this was more so based on my driving ability than the pads and the characteristics of the car. The initial bite of the DTC-60’s is noticeable more aggressive than the OEM pads. I felt minimal brake fade, if any, during each session.
Tires:
Stock tires are good for about 5-7 minutes before they get greasy. Unfortunately, they are just not up to the task for a full session if the goal is to put in a hot lap every lap possible. This has been my experience with other “normal” street tires as well.
Handling:
Holy off-throttle oversteer batman. It took a couple sessions to get a hold of the off-throttle oversteer before I was comfortable with it. Bare in mind, I have the TB torsion bar. I was able to utilize this characteristic in the later sessions to help with turn in to the apex of turns. My first session, I was too herky-jerky with the throttle and it upset the car to the point that the torque vectoring had to kick in to help me out. Smoothing the inputs (both steering and throttle) really helped control the car better. Overall, I learned how to use it to help me hit the apex or to correct my line. Definitely an interesting sensation that my previous car did not exhibit much of.
I had issues with on-power understeer with the wider radius turns such as the bowl and the last turn before the front straight. I followed Ryan in a bone-stock fiesta ST and he was able to get more speed out of these turns and would leave me in the dust on the straights. This is definitely a racing-line/experience/decision making thing I can improve on. I never felt like I was able to hit those turns optimally.
Handling Wet:
This was my first time playing in the rain and I was really happy to see the difference between dry and wet sessions. Basically, cornering is much slower relative to the differential in time for accelerating and braking. Throttle input made a difference and getting off line in the wetter corners made a difference as well. We didn’t have puddles on track, but I had two sessions with the wipers on as the trac k transitioned from dry to wet. Overall, it wasn’t much different than the handling in the dry, just at lower speeds.

Fiesta ST oil and coolant temperatures: With it being roughly 60 degrees out, I hit 244 oil and 224 coolant for maximums.. My other sessions the ambient temp and oil/coolant were lower. I believe Ryan in the stock fiesta ST had his go into limp mode at least once.

It was cool to meet Pete and some other people in fiestas and foci. Pete's car is badass.

Unfortunately my gopro footage didn't come out very well, I will have to change the location for the next time.

[video=youtube;XEaYk9t8ALY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEaYk9t8ALY[/video]

Disregard the arrow. We ran in the clockwise direction.

 

[Brick]

Today I made a drive to pick up some beer. I haven't taken this road for about 3-4 years and I forgot just how badass it is. There is a stretch of 10 miles that will rival anything southern california has to offer. I could just do laps of that section all day long, and best part is, no one is ever on it. Finally, a perk to living in the boonies.

picked up 6 of these

The handling of this car blows my mind. I can't believe my daycare baby runner is such a badass canyon carver.

I do wish it came stock with a LSD.
I got the oil up to 230? and 220 for coolant in 60 degree weather on a 11-14% grade for 6 miles pushin the turbo pretty hard. Finally saw heatsoak with charge intake temp being 107 max.
I don't push it nearly as hard on public roads as on the track. There's just no room for error on public roads.

 

[Brick]

I forgot to make an update back in october.

I drove down to Pasadena for the USA vs Mexico soccer game and took Angeles Forest Highway and the lower portion of upper tijunga canyon. USA loss and I woke up early the next day to take Angeles Crest Highway to Angeles Forest Northbound, to Upper Big Tijunga, to Angeles Crest running south, and then looping back to Angeles Forest northbound to head home. It was a great drive.

Here's a cool write up for Angeles Crest Highway. http://www.joeography.co/?p=788

I'm a broken record by now, but this car really shines once you give it the gumption.

How about the things I don't like now that I'm 5000 miles deep in almost a year.

Dont like:
No sunglass box/homelink near the rear view mirror.
Cruising at 3k rpm is weird at 75mph coming from a v8 where it was maybe 2k tops.
You feel EVERYTHING in town if you have shitty roads. I <3 <3 <3 new asphault.
Seat heater is either off or BURNING hot... but in a good way.
touch display lag is too long.
Gauges are pretty cheap.
Headlights would be better if Xenon.
Sit high.
GPS Navigation doesnt display Altitude.
Rear seats dont fold all the way down
Spare tire doesnt exactly fit the hole.

Things I like.
Handling. Why I bought the car. That and a backseat for the kid-o.
Gas Mileage, pretty decent for the amount of go-karting I do with the car lol.
The Recaros. I love not flailing about while having a good time.
Consumables are relatively cheap for the car.
Bluetooth phone connection.
Torque.
Boost. It's pretty fun coming from a N/A v8.
Incognito hatchback. No one knows how badass this car is.

 

[jeff]

Great thread. I appreciate your love for driving. Yes having a little girl is awesome, mine is 6 now, I smile every day.

My favorite thing about this thread is how much you love the ST after leaving the C5.

Keep having a blast and be careful!!

 

[Pete]

Love the rally cross video! Having a taller tire like a 45 series will help in pushing the car more comfortably. Although when I was in my dirt faze I had to put coil boosters in the stock springs to raise the car to allow the 45 series tire to not rub. I found left foot braking to be the most fun on dirt as the car would rotate in any turn with a dab of brake. It was nice meeting you at Willow springs and hope to run into you again at another event sometime in the future!

 

[Brick]

After Christmas, I went for a drive with some friends that own a 2015 Porsche Cayman S and a 1991 Honda NSX. It was a pretty casual drive with occasional twisties. Transfering roads, the fiesta's lack of horsepower compared to the sportscars was pretty clear. Watching them out accelerate me on a different level made me wish I would have kept my c5 corvette, but the reality is, it's gone man! let it go! hah. All that changed when we got into the twisties. When it comes to driving on public roads, the fiesta is more than capable and is just flat out fun. I did not feel out of place running with these guys. And I think that's the important message out of this. Run whatcha brung! It doesn't matter who you are driving with. Just go out and have a blast. This was our first outing together and we had a great time talking about our cars at lunch in the mountains. We all know the Cayman S and NSX are cool cars, but you guys probably want to hear about their thoughts of the Fiesta ST. Mainly, they were impressed with the handling of the car. We were having fun through some of these roads and I was right there with them and they thought that was impressive. That and we talked about the sleeper aspect of the Fiesta ST. Your average car guy would be seriously concerned with why a little fiesta is catching up or leaving them behind in the canyons while they are cruising in their Camaro, m3, etc etc.

This was my first outing with the Pierce Motorsports 2 point bar. I'm just going to sum up the experience in a couple of sentences. Overall, I would say that the car's response for cornering is "smoother". I feel like it has smoothed out some of the movement that would be experienced while in a turn. A more... taut feel. To me, a nice result for ~100 bucks.


[video]https://youtu.be/c7wPHe-ZuZQ [/video]

 

[Brick]

Not too much new since the end of January. The fiesta ST has been serving as my daily driver for daycare duty for my 1.5 year old daughter, and a bouncing baby boy is expected in September! The Fiesta ST will continue daycare runs for the foreseeable future!

The car is proving its utilitarian worth. I have a hitch on the back that I use for mountain biking. My friend and I took a day trip up to Kernville for some great riding. The car is just too damn fun in the corners and I had to remember I had precious cargo hanging off the back.


In February, I got to shoot a commercial for Kumho Tires. It really was a blind tire test and I had the opportunity to drive the Dodge Viper ACR and a V10 Audi r8 in anger. Let's just say... it was a badass opportunity. Attached is the video.
The ACR was AWESOME to throw around a track.... just awesome.
[video=youtube;MOzZDOGFEyI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOzZDOGFEyI&list=PLEJwK65YqbCgJ_9Fv667lEj1S2pdgPnBZ[/video]

 

[Pete]

Love how in the video you just have the biggest grin on your face compared to the other drivers. Those ACR's are crazy fast. I still remember trying to keep up with one in December at streets of willow. Congrats on the upcoming boy! Got to love how the fiesta really does double duty so well. So how did you manage to get in that commercial/drive those awesome cars?