Gaunt596's Open 2WD Focus Rally Car Build

alright, we have more progress, did i mention this will be a super slow build? the car now runs and moves under its own power for the first time since i got it, it seems vacuum bleeding the clutch is necessary for it to work right. now if i get my portable garage bought and setup and maybe ill have a proper rally car soon

 

More work done on the car over the past few days, Mounted my snows from last season since they've all got at least half of their life left, found and plugged all of the vacuum leaks, which has alleviated the rough idle/stalling problem, changed spark plugs, and finished up with the clutch pedal pivot pin fix. the first rally cross event of the season is in a little over a week, and ive got a short list of things to fix before the event.

• diagnose/fix squishy brake pedal & abs light
• change oil & filter
• Fix broken shifter
• Fix heater tube leak
• Press in new wheel bearings

 

Sounds like a fun project so keep it updated! I daily a 2002 focus zts (same zetec and 5 speed).

For suspension what are you going with? Coilovers or thinking the Ford SVT setup (.5" lower but ford racing). Any real plans for the motor or keeping it stock? Ive been toying with the idea of a fswerks tubro kit. for the price its not bad for a daily drive and would be more fun

 

Yeah, i really do need to make some updates. unfortunately im limited on the motor to an Intake, Exhaust and a tune because of class rules, however i do have a 4-1 Race header and 2" ehaust system on the car now, and as for the suspension im planning on custom springs from Coil spring Specialties, and pairing them with KYB AGX shocks. a turbo would be cool, but for rallycross your on and off the gas so much that unless you run Anti lag the turbo wont ever fully spool, and im not sure i want to rebuild the turbo every 3 events yet lol.

In other news, i have a Skidplateguy Skid plate on the car, i got my Winterforces mounted on the OEM alloys, the Metal SVT shifter was swapped in, the passenger seat was swapped for one from the parts car since it broke on me randomly, and i swapped in my spare passenger side knuckle since the wheel bearing decided to go out on me.

 

Okay, since im terrible with updating build threads, heres another update that should have been posted months ago.

Our season kicked off with the first event in march, a Test 'N Tune on Saturday followed by the first points event on Sunday. Car ran okay on Saturday, i realized the rear brakes didnt work at all after a few runs so i (Attempted) to pull the drums to diagnose with no luck, ended up running all weekend with no rear brakes or Ebrake, made for a slow weekend. Sunday, i brought my co driver down, we started the morning off with some decent runs, the lowering struts on the car made for a real handful, getting railroaded all over the place since we didn't have the suspension travel to keep out of the ruts. it was also super muddy, and as a result the snow tires packed up with mud really fast and turned into slicks, making for even less traction. In the afternoon, the only other focus driver there lent us his spare set of gravel rally tires and wheels (which cost more than i paid for the car and parts combined) since he broke a CV axle on the last run of the AM session. Holy Balls, the traction those tires provided made for some lighting fast runs, even with the other issues the car had. It was like we were driving on pavement. Unfortunately, on my co-driver's second PM run, between the rough course, the blown out lowering struts not able to control the extra weight of the rally tires, and us really pushing the car, we blew out the passenger side CV axle and ended our day there as we didn't have a spare, and the other focus guy has an SVT so his axles are different than ours. I also found out that, at some point during the day, i broke the rear trans/engine mount, this probably is what caused the CV to fail. And now for the pictures, the first are the carnage pics, then the AM runs, then the PM runs (since everybody loves carnage pics) and ive also updated the build plan again, since it keeps changing as I learn what i really need and what can wait.











Heres a pic of my Focus next to the other Focus SVT that comes out


And both Foci loaded up to go home, we have similar tastes in tow vehicles as well

 

looks like a fun time at least. And CV axles are pretty cheap to replace

 

well, Stock replacments would be, i dropped some coin on a reinforced set from Gator Axles so i hopefully wont break any more

 

Sub'd for ideas. Hoping I can do this sooner rather than later. Not a big rallycross scene in Texas though.

 

I have lots of ideas, unfortunately that list is long and my wallet often laughs at it. I always tell evryone, go spectate an event or two, get some ride alongs with different guys and figure out what you'll enjoy racing. Then, acquire beater car, throw a set of snow tires in there and race it. Everything else can come as you get time and experiwnce. But you won't get any of that if the car sits in your garage for three years waiting on parts.

 

And, now for a proper update. The car has made it to two more events, a single day event in May, and a double header in June. After the march event, we realized that the header we installed was not legal for Prepared Front Wheel Drive, so we made the decision to move to the Modified class. That was accompanied by the removal of all but the dasboard and seats from the interior, and all of the exhaust heat shields from underneath. (They got partially torn off and mangled at The last event, so they were coming off anyway) The may event went well, the new axles and transmission mount bracket stayed together. I removed the skidplate and elected to run without it, as I believe it was a contributing factor to the broken trans mounr, as it does not have the clearance for the header and was pushing the motor at a wired angle in the mounts. The car ran strong all day, the only major issue that popped up was the bolts holding the header to the flexpipe backed out, and caused the two to separate mid run, resulting In a very loud last three runs. I also had acquired three rally tires just prior to the event, so I ran a mixed set of rally tires up front, and snow tires in the rear. This proved to make a very tail slide happy setup, and combined with the blown lowering studs made for some slow runs. For June, we replaced the blown lowering struts with stock replacements, and that helped considerably in not getting railroaded by the ruts. We also double nutted the header to flex pipe connection, and haven't had an issue with that. Additionally, we aqquired another 4 rally tires and had them mounted, this greatly reduced the tail slide tendencies. Due to the intense 100* heat and VA sun baking us, late in the day Sunday we can-openered a roof scoop to get some cooler outside air in the car, as the interior temperature was reaching over 130* with the exhaust heat coming through the floor. A proper roof scoop was put in its place soon after. And, currently, we are taking a two month hiatus for July and August to do some much needed suspension overhauls, as well as attempting to squeeze some more power out of the car. Pics to come in the next post, along with a video from June once it gets edited.