Rally Spec Focus Build (56k beware)

[SVTBuckeye]

Early in the thread he said he used dry ice, then heated the last bits.

[DAK-Racing]

yeah thats what i read else where but living in south florida im gonna have to keep the car inside to keep everything cold or else it'll take forever outside in the dead heat.

[brads03zx3]

Actually, I left my rear hatch open with the sun shining on it. Softened up the adhesive and most came off with a screwdriver and by hand. The rest I heated up with a halogen light for a few minutes.

[Matt D]

How much did all the sound detning way? aprox?

[BigSandwich]

I think I posted it somewhere earlier in the thread, it was pretty light only around 45 lbs.

DAK, If you use the dry ice ins a fairly small area ambient temp should not matter since the dry ice will cool the area rapidly enough for your purposes. The only thing I don't like about heat is that it tends to smear the glue around and you have to spend a fair bit of time withe the goof off to get all of the glue off the floor.

[Hal]

Originally Posted by BigSandwich

Duratec Power!!. The car came with a focus sport cold air intake and stealth exhaust. The plan is build the motor up to the spec focus rules which are basically exhaust header, and software tuning. And then swap it into the rally car in place of the Zetec and then move the zetec to this shell to make it into a daily driver.

Are you changing classes? I thought the 2.3 wasn't legal in RSF.

BTW: I almost bought that car to make a RX- PF car out of it. You saved me a bunch of money!!

[BigSandwich]

Originally Posted by Hal

Are you changing classes? I thought the 2.3 wasn't legal in RSF.

BTW: I almost bought that car to make a RX- PF car out of it. You saved me a bunch of money!!

It is unclear at this point. The class has some challenges:
One, there are not enough cars.
Two, all the sponsors backed away probably because of the previous reason.
Three, the deal was just too good to pass up.

This year there have been no cars that ran as Spec Focus because there was only one car that did more than one of rallies. Everyone ran in M2.

My plan is to build it to the spec focus road race rules for starters. If more cars get finished and start going to races I will lobby to get the 2.3L added to the class. The HP per dollar was just not there with Zetec since I got the whole duratec car and likely will complete the swap and tuning for less than what a Spec Focus Zetec build would cost me. And if the class never really comes back I will be better positioned if I want to build a race motor, Trans, or turbo.

[Hal]

Good thinking. I never understood why the 2.3 was allowed for road racing but not rally.

Originally Posted by BigSandwich

My plan is to build it to the spec focus road race rules for starters.

Did they ever get the differences in cage rules straightened out to where you could do both?

[BigSandwich]

Originally Posted by Hal

Good thinking. I never understood why the 2.3 was allowed for road racing but not rally.



Did they ever get the differences in cage rules straightened out to where you could do both?

The 2.3L was deemed to have too much torque to allow the other cars to compete with it in rally. I think this is a kinda a moot point since no one in the US is driving the car at 100% all of the time on stage so the small difference in torque could be made up for with more courage.

I think you could build a cage that met both sets of rules. It would be a heavy road race cage and a under spec rally cage but it could get the job done. I don't think my cage will ever get a stamp of approval to run with the roadrace guys.

[BigSandwich]

Engine Swap has started!!!!

My co-driver and I made good progress the last couple of nights. Evertying is out of the engine bay except the engine and trans its self. All the wiring, PS pump / lines, radiator etc. Just waiting for a engine crane and then the motor will come out.

All of the fuel system wiring is out as well as the fuel tank. I will be removing some of the emissions stuff back near the tank in the next couple of days. I will post some picks once I get my hands on a card reader.

[conrsm1]

hey, im new to the whole Rally scene, but that is a work of art as far as i have seen. Read this thread front to back! Cant wait to see final production at sandblast! I would love to get more involved with Rally and eventually drive my own car, any suggestions?

[kimbo305]

Originally Posted by conrsm1

hey, im new to the whole Rally scene, but that is a work of art as far as i have seen. Read this thread front to back! Cant wait to see final production at sandblast! I would love to get more involved with Rally and eventually drive my own car, any suggestions?

how much money have you got? Most amateur rallyists are very creative and become pretty familiar with their cars so they can operate on the smallest budget possible. But even so, it takes a decent wad of cash up front to get into the sport. I've been sitting on a Focus rally car for almost a year and haven't been able to go to any events thanks to underbudgeting.

If you want to get a sense of what a stage rally is like, figure out what event is closest to you and look on SpecialStage to see if anyone is looking for volunteer crew members. I volunteered for the USUK Spec Focus team at a rally, and I can barely swap wheels and change oil. They drove super clean, so that meant very little work in the service area for us.

If you have a car that you wouldn't mind thrashing a bit, take it out to a rallycross and have fun driving on a loose surface.

[Silonius]

Sounds great Andrew! More torque is never a bad thing!

I'm out in Denver now, and am saving for my own Focus build, but also keeping my eye out for a used 2wd rally car. Oh and a tow vehicle of course.

[age]

this looks awsome but i am curious- is the fwd layout of the focus a big limitation in rallying? i imagine it would be very difficult to get power down coming out of slower corners. and it also wouldnt be possible to do big wrc style drifts through the wider corners. the inherent understeer of the focus can be tuned out but the front wheels still have a lot to deal with on a rather slippery surface. not criticising or anything but just curious if this is the case and if the focus has other redeeming features. why choose to build the focus into a rally car as opposed to a 4wd or rwd car e.g. wrx, mr2, silvia...

[Simoniac]

The beauty of classes is that you're not competing against cars that can "do big wrc style drifts through the wider corners".

Still tons of fun and a lot less $ than than the AWD guys. You need a lot more skill to drive 2WD fast than to drive AWD fast. AWD is very forgiving of mistakes. So by the time you get to AWD you'll be a better driver.

Simon

[age]

fair enough about the classes. i just figured rwd or awd would be more exciting in the world of rallying.

but im not so sure driving a fwd car will make u a better driver. i actually find fwd is very forgiving. especially the focus which is so easy and predictable. i find rwd takes much more skill to drive quickly. it really punishes you more for studd you could get away with on a fwd car. at the track (circuit), jumping from my focus to my brothers mx-5 was a disaster. all the habits i had picked up in my car (lots of trail braking to counter the understeer, getting on the gas too hard...etc) all came back to bite me in the ass when i drove a balanced rwd car. and ultimately the fwd really limits how early and hard i can get on the gas coming out of corners. thats not to say fwd cant be quick. at the track i go to theres an EK civic that laps only a few seconds behind a crazy EVO which is shooting to be the fastest in australia. and the civic is still na!

[Nliiitend1]

FWD vs. RWD vs. AWD all require different driving styles. It's as simple as that.

[Simoniac]

Bottom line: if you've never rallied before, any car will be fun. So jump in a cheap and easy car and go do it. Run a few events, finish a few events, then you can step up to your favourite xWD of choice.

Simon

[kimbo305]

Originally Posted by age

fair enough about the classes. i just figured rwd or awd would be more exciting in the world of rallying.

but im not so sure driving a fwd car will make u a better driver. i actually find fwd is very forgiving. especially the focus which is so easy and predictable. i find rwd takes much more skill to drive quickly.

The things that make rwd more complete and rewarding to drive make it trickier and more difficult to drive in rally. Driving in rally will absolutely make you a better driver. Starting on FWD will engrain different habits, certainly, but those aren't any different than from switching from car to car in real life or on the track.

A FWD platform allows you to give it gas to pull you out of an overrotate situation. With RWD you can try feathering the throttle and balancing, but you don't have as much of a choice. Even maneuvers like the pendulum turn are harder because you can't power the front wheels once you've set them down to bite into the dirt.

Originally Posted by Silonius

I'm out in Denver now, and am saving for my own Focus build, but also keeping my eye out for a used 2wd rally car. Oh and a tow vehicle of course.

PM me if you're interested in a G2 Focus rally car. You'd have to go a ways to get it though

[age]

yeah i agree completely with everyones comments about any platform being fun for rally and requiring a different driving style. my car is far from an ideal circuit car but its still heaps of fun on the track. given half a chance i would love to try rallying no matter what i drove.

[age]

Originally Posted by kimbo305

A FWD platform allows you to give it gas to pull you out of an overrotate situation.

reminds me of some advice given to me on my first track day: "if in doubt, power out"

[kimbo305]

BigSandwich, it was cool to see you in person!
Real bang-up job done swapping the two trannies. Hope you enjoy the extra acceleration, on my short test drive I could definitely tell my car lost some pickup.

Oh, and give my apologies to Ryan again for spoiling the WRC season! I feel really bad about that.

[BigSandwich]

Originally Posted by kimbo305

BigSandwich, it was cool to see you in person!
Real bang-up job done swapping the two trannies. Hope you enjoy the extra acceleration, on my short test drive I could definitely tell my car lost some pickup.

Oh, and give my apologies to Ryan again for spoiling the WRC season! I feel really bad about that.

Don't worry about spoiling the season for him. He is a big boy he can handle it.

Thanks again for letting us come and do the swap. I am just really happy that the weather held out.

For those that are following along, my co-driver, another rally friend, and I drove to Boston this weekend bought a transmission from kimbo. This transmission has a 4.5:1 final drive ratio in it which should add some good acceleration to the car.

This will knock the car out of Spec focus but if more cars start showing up I can always swap back to my spec focus transmission.

The trip was sweet. We drove 1,500 miles in 46 hours and did the transmission swap in a little over 5 hours. The swap was done rally service style in a parking lot in downtown Boston. All hand tools and floor jacks. I don't really have many pictures since my wife has my camera.

The Duratec swap has been delayed until after Tall Pines rally. Between the Duratec and the new final drive this car is gonna rock.

[gibgib]

Originally Posted by mievil

This is excellent freaking information. So they fit ANY 15" wheels? (well, any meaning anything we'd normally use?) And there's no other junk to worry about? It's the same as a SVT swap, without the size? Also, please let me know how much this costs. If necessary by PM. Thanks a ton. I was wanting to do an SVT swap just to get the rears, but didn't want to because of the necessity for a wheel up-size. This is really good info for rallycrossers, since the tire issue is still there for us.

the part number is M-2300-ZX3R i was a roush/yates racing and they said it would cost me $705 for a 4 wheels and $425or so for just the front