New here and in the market for a FiST, (almost) no idea what I’m doing but I’m excited!

[SpeedandPower]

Maybe a little more color to the recaro “issue.”

There are two problems. One is the seating position which plagues the focus and fiesta and several have spoken to so won’t elaborate further. The second is the width, which is more of a problem in the fiesta.

If you have normal sized legs, you’ll be fine in the fiesta recaros. If you’re a squatter, you’ll squish the family jewels between your quads trying to sit in them. I’m not huge by any means but 26” quads are a no-go for the fiesta recaros even if you don’t mind the seating position.

Got it. Well that seems like I might fit into the body width issue. I lift regularly and squat. I’m not huge but I have a wider frame than average for sure. Guess there’s only one way to find out at this point! Appreciate the insight!

 

[SpeedandPower]

Some additional feedback. I swapped out the MBRP exhaust for a stock one yesterday. Now understand why so many people go aftermarket; it is VERY quiet, hard to believe it’s not restrictive and that there’s not power to be gained with an aftermarket exhaust on a stock car, although that seems to be the case.

When saying very quiet, for some wouldn’t that dull the experience of the car?

Plus there are some mods that just seem to make sense even on a relatively “stock” car. It being so hot where I live, I will definitely upgrade the intercooler which will allow for a very modest OTS tune for a nice small bump in power/torque. Since you need a Cobb APS or similar to do that, if you’re willing to spend the $ on one (which you can buy used for close to half price) you get the extra diagnostic capability plus up to six performance gauges to keep an eye on things.

The intercooler is something I’m already considering if I buy one they does have it as I live in the Sacramento area and 100+ F in the summer is very common and it can get upwards of 108-118 F on the hottest days. So that’s good to hear.

No mater what you do/do not do to the car, why not go with a short shift kit ? Likewise, why not go for a lighter set of wheels to reduce unsprung weight ? And go with upgraded brake pads (although I guess the originals were pretty awesome but it now appears Ford is substituting others). I will do all these changes to a car I was determined to keep “stock”.

Still so early, I’m learning what mods people like, don’t like, recommend, don’t recommend. I’m sure I’ll either buy one with mods, or stock and add some mods myself or somewhere in between.

Appreciate the feedback and input!

 

[SpeedandPower]

So

A lot of these cars are modded.

So it would seem, but I’ve seen quite a few stock as well.

 

[Zeille]

That's all very helfpul, thank you. Do despite those earlier issues, since then the ST has been running like a champ it sounds like? I do actually have two local to me, one of which has 57,xxx miles on it, the other a little over 100k. Both are pretty much stock and not the color I want. But the one wiht 57,xxx looks pretty clean, and as far as I can tell the only mod it has is an exhaust. I'll create a new thread to post pics and videos of it.

Was the 57k mile one the spice orange? I would definitely say that's the one to go for. The molten orange recaros are hard to come by, at least in my experience. And very desirable.

I am a 6'2" 175lb man, so I'm quite skinny & the recaros fit like a GLOVE. I love these things. Unfortunately, I have to sit with the seat at its LOWEST setting possible, and my head is still pretty close to the headliner. I have to have the headrest up two notches.

I have been led to believe that other "bucket" seats sit higher than the Fiesta (FA24 WRX, GRC, FoST/RS, etc)

I would recommend a FiST over a FoST/FoRS all day. Lighter, more fuel efficient, and stock suspension is tuned much better.

 

[Capri to ST]

Was the 57k mile one the spice orange? I would definitely say that's the one to go for. The molten orange recaros are hard to come by, at least in my experience. And very desirable.

I am a 6'2" 175lb man, so I'm quite skinny & the recaros fit like a GLOVE. I love these things. Unfortunately, I have to sit with the seat at its LOWEST setting possible, and my head is still pretty close to the headliner. I have to have the headrest up two notches.

I have been led to believe that other "bucket" seats sit higher than the Fiesta (FA24 WRX, GRC, FoST/RS, etc)

I would recommend a FiST over a FoST/FoRS all day. Lighter, more fuel efficient, and stock suspension is tuned much better.

I'm 6 ft 167 lb, so pretty skinny, and the Recaros also fit me perfectly. I love them. They really do help hold you in place whipping this agile little go-kart around, which is what they are designed to do. I have thought that if I was much wider they might feel a little pinched around the shoulders.I have the height setting in about the middle, and I still have room enough to put my fist sideways between the top of my head and the ceiling, which I had read was a good place to set the height.This is on a sunroof car too, which presumably has a little less headroom. If you try one, the height adjuster is down beside your left hand where you would think the seat back angle adjuster would be, that one is farther back.
I also love the stock suspension tuning on this car, and although I have not driven either of the performance Focus models, everything I've read says that it is better done on this car. Also our car was built second, so they had a chance to take a lot of the things they had learned on the earlier small front-wheel drive performance car and apply it to the FiST.

 

[Zeille]

I'm 6 ft 167 lb, so pretty skinny, and the Recaros also fit me perfectly. I love them. They really do help hold you in place whipping this agile little go-kart around, which is what they are designed to do. I have thought that if I was much wider they might feel a little pinched around the shoulders.I have the height setting in about the middle, and I still have room enough to put my fist sideways between the top of my head and the ceiling, which I had read was a good place to set the height.This is on a sunroof car too, which presumably has a little less headroom.
I also love the stock suspension tuning on this car, and although I have not driven either of the performance Focus models, everything I've read says that it is better done on this car.

Steve (head of SVT team during development of the ST "suite") had more time to fine-tune the suspension on the FiST, due to the fact that the FoST had to be released early due to various marketing reasons/sponsorships (which I do not know 100% about, I am just quoting my uncle), which is part of the reason why the Fiesta handles better.
... it also helps that the Fiesta is ~300lbs lighter than the FoST.
There's a reason the Fiesta outpaced a 5.0 on the track.
(everything I just said is literally based off things I have picked up from my uncle over the past year or so)

 

[Capri to ST]

Steve (head of SVT team during development of the ST "suite") had more time to fine-tune the suspension on the FiST, due to the fact that the FoST had to be released early due to various marketing reasons/sponsorships (which I do not know 100% about, I am just quoting my uncle), which is part of the reason why the Fiesta handles better.
... it also helps that the Fiesta is ~300lbs lighter than the FoST.
There's a reason the Fiesta outpaced a 5.0 on the track.
(everything I just said is literally based off things I have picked up from my uncle over the past year or so)

It's nice to have a family connection to the development of the car. I'd be curious what your uncle had to say about the choices made on oil viscosity and tire size, two things which have been debated quite a bit on here.
Is your uncle Steve who was the development of the SVT team, or does he know Steve?

 

[Zeille]

It's nice to have a family connection to the development of the car. I'd be curious what your uncle had to say about the choices made on oil viscosity and tire size, two things which have been debated quite a bit on here.
Is your uncle Steve who was the development of the SVT team, or does he know Steve?

My uncle Buzzz didn't work at Ford, but he worked for Link & tested brakes for many different automotive manufacturers, including Ford.
I believe he was somewhat close with some of the Ford employees at the time, but I can't say for certain.
I recall he said that a great way to make the car handle better is throw slightly wider/bigger tires on (215/45). He has loved the Firehawk Indy 500s & has had those on his car for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, they went up in price quite a bit.
I'll have to ask him what he thinks about the oil viscosity.
I know his opinion on the brakes - he won't go for anything but the Motorcraft S-pads, as those are the ones he tested & still loves. They can stop on a dime, but the downside being major dusting & less life.

 

[Zeille]

It's nice to have a family connection to the development of the car. I'd be curious what your uncle had to say about the choices made on oil viscosity and tire size, two things which have been debated quite a bit on here.
Is your uncle Steve who was the development of the SVT team, or does he know Steve?

I spoke to my uncle, and he really didn't comment on the differences in oil when it comes to maintaining the motor. He mostly mentioned the power numbers with regard to it. He did say that you need to be cautious when the weather is super hot. Too thin is temp dependent. Even with zero weight oil, power gain is negligible. We aren't running pro stock cars, so there's need for 0/0 or 0/2 oils (yes, pro-stock runs that weight).
(he said "their machining is so exact, they could run water and still make 1600 horsepower" lol)

I would say that weight of oil is both a personal preference AND case-dependent. if you have a higher mileage motor with more wear and you want to be safe, run 5w-30. lifter tick or something like that? 5w-30. if you don't care, just run 5w-20 like the manufacturer specifies. also, oil is oil. additives are whatever. if you want, run a high mileage oil for one oil change to clean the motor a bit, and use a magnetic drain plug. it's not like you will get a BAD oil. any modern full synthetic should be good enough for our motors

 

[isis]

Steve (head of SVT team during development of the ST "suite") had more time to fine-tune the suspension on the FiST, due to the fact that the FoST had to be released early due to various marketing reasons/sponsorships (which I do not know 100% about, I am just quoting my uncle), which is part of the reason why the Fiesta handles better.
... it also helps that the Fiesta is ~300lbs lighter than the FoST.
There's a reason the Fiesta outpaced a 5.0 on the track.
(everything I just said is literally based off things I have picked up from my uncle over the past year or so)

Are you sure it’s only 300 lbs lighter? Wouldn’t that put the FoST at 3k? That seems awfully light for a modern vehicle that size. I suppose I could google it but that size car is usually 3200-3400 lbs

 

[atlantaM3]

Focus ST is 3223 per car and driver - https://www.caranddriver.com/ford/focus-st/specs

The RS is about 3450 with the 4WD components

 

[isis]

And I thought the FiST is like 2700 lbs right?

 

[Capri to ST]

And I thought the FiST is like 2700 lbs right?

That's right, 2742 lb according to this Ford spec sheet-
BASE CURB WEIGHT Manual transmission 2,742 lbs.
https://media.ford.com/content/dam/...2016/2016-Ford-Fiesta-ST-Tech-Specs-FINAL.pdf

 

[SpeedandPower]

Was the 57k mile one the spice orange? I would definitely say that's the one to go for. The molten orange recaros are hard to come by, at least in my experience. And very desirable.

I am a 6'2" 175lb man, so I'm quite skinny & the recaros fit like a GLOVE. I love these things. Unfortunately, I have to sit with the seat at its LOWEST setting possible, and my head is still pretty close to the headliner. I have to have the headrest up two notches.

I have been led to believe that other "bucket" seats sit higher than the Fiesta (FA24 WRX, GRC, FoST/RS, etc)

I would recommend a FiST over a FoST/FoRS all day. Lighter, more fuel efficient, and stock suspension is tuned much better.

Sadly no, and no recaro seats, which after sitting in the FoRS and test driving it, I'm sold on getting an FiST with them. Not all that skinny, I do work out but not huge either. I think I am right on that edge of the seats being comfortable / uncomfortable. And they felt great.

Yeah, I've decided against the FoRS. I can see it's a great car, but it's too capable as a daily. I see what people mean by it needs canyons or you need to track it. It's capable of way more than daily driving can throw at it without driving like a d-bag.

 

[SpeedandPower]

I'm 6 ft 167 lb, so pretty skinny, and the Recaros also fit me perfectly. I love them. They really do help hold you in place whipping this agile little go-kart around, which is what they are designed to do. I have thought that if I was much wider they might feel a little pinched around the shoulders.I have the height setting in about the middle, and I still have room enough to put my fist sideways between the top of my head and the ceiling, which I had read was a good place to set the height.This is on a sunroof car too, which presumably has a little less headroom. If you try one, the height adjuster is down beside your left hand where you would think the seat back angle adjuster would be, that one is farther back.

Yeah, glad I read through various people recommending me trying out the recaros myself. Was happy I did as I liked them a lot. Granted it was in the FoRS, but at least gives ma really good idea what they will be like in an FiST.

I also love the stock suspension tuning on this car, and although I have not driven either of the performance Focus models, everything I've read says that it is better done on this car. Also our car was built second, so they had a chance to take a lot of the things they had learned on the earlier small front-wheel drive performance car and apply it to the FiST.

Makes a lot of sense, and I've read from a few people roughly the same thing about the FoST vs the FiST. Good to know!

 

[SpeedandPower]

Steve (head of SVT team during development of the ST "suite") had more time to fine-tune the suspension on the FiST, due to the fact that the FoST had to be released early due to various marketing reasons/sponsorships (which I do not know 100% about, I am just quoting my uncle), which is part of the reason why the Fiesta handles better.
... it also helps that the Fiesta is ~300lbs lighter than the FoST.
There's a reason the Fiesta outpaced a 5.0 on the track.
(everything I just said is literally based off things I have picked up from my uncle over the past year or so)

Interesting!

 

[SpeedandPower]

It's nice to have a family connection to the development of the car. I'd be curious what your uncle had to say about the choices made on oil viscosity and tire size, two things which have been debated quite a bit on here.
Is your uncle Steve who was the development of the SVT team, or does he know Steve?

What aspects on tire size have been debated? Anything to do with the wheel size specifcally, or only do with the tires? I was reading some other comments talking about streatching slightly smaller tires to help improve grip even more. Seems ill advised, but others say it's not. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[SpeedandPower]

I spoke to my uncle, and he really didn't comment on the differences in oil when it comes to maintaining the motor. He mostly mentioned the power numbers with regard to it. He did say that you need to be cautious when the weather is super hot. Too thin is temp dependent. Even with zero weight oil, power gain is negligible. We aren't running pro stock cars, so there's need for 0/0 or 0/2 oils (yes, pro-stock runs that weight).
(he said "their machining is so exact, they could run water and still make 1600 horsepower" lol)

I would say that weight of oil is both a personal preference AND case-dependent. if you have a higher mileage motor with more wear and you want to be safe, run 5w-30. lifter tick or something like that? 5w-30. if you don't care, just run 5w-20 like the manufacturer specifies. also, oil is oil. additives are whatever. if you want, run a high mileage oil for one oil change to clean the motor a bit, and use a magnetic drain plug. it's not like you will get a BAD oil. any modern full synthetic should be good enough for our motors

Regarding oil when the weather is super hot, I live in the Sacramento area. So 100-100+ during the summer is fairly common. I assume that would be hot enough to qualify? If so, I should run a heavier oil during the summer time?