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2014 Ford Fiesta ST project

44074 Views 126 Replies 27 Participants Last post by  twendt
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So I picked up a 2014 Ford Fiesta ST to play with. There are a bunch of reasons I did this so I'll just make a simple numbered list to help explain why.

1. I wanted a small lightweight car again (It's 27XXlbs)
2. I wanted to learn the Ford ECU
3. I wanted to track a small lightweight car
4. I wanted a small lightweight car that got great gas mileage for my commute

That's about it overall for the reasons. With over 20 years of driving Mitsubishis, Subarus and VW's I never ever ever ever thought I would own a Ford....

For some reason the Focus ST never really intrigued me. After reading all the press about the Fiesta ST, it did intrigue me, I went and test drove a bunch and I totally fell in love with the car. It really feels like something special, a Ford engineering baby.

I still own my current Evo, an Evo 10, for now. It's in a different league for sure, but I didn't buy the Fiesta ST to replace the Evo. So enough about that.

This thread will serve as a place to post my findings as I learn the car, the ECU, etc.

I come from a tuning background. I used to tune Mitsubishis professionally, mainly Evos. Most recently a 2005 Evo 8 MR for 10 years that was my personal project, that I tuned and tracked. It had 500hp on E85. I also had a 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart that I also tweaked and tuned to 400hp on E85. As stated above still have my Evo 10, 400hp, also on E85. You can sense what's coming for the Fiesta ST then.


Initial photos, 100% stock minus upgraded wheels/tires.

2014 Ford Fiesta ST
Options:
Recaro Package
Navigation
Sunroof
"Rado" wheel package (painted wheels and brake calipers)

Wheels replaced with Sparco Assetto Gara 17x7 +42 satin black
Tire replaced with Bridgestone Potenza S-04 205/45/17
















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Another track day under my belt in the FiST.

Weather was amazing this time around. Mid 60F as the high, 50's in the morning. Sunny. What a difference from the 98F day last time.

Slowly getting my track legs back and getting used to the car. I went six seconds faster this time around, getting there, slowly but surely. The car still has a good amount left in it but I'm taking it slow as I still have six years of track cobwebs to clean out. Tried a couple different ways to drive the car this time with different success. I can tell once I get fully comfortable with car I will want to loosen up the chassis. Right now it's pretty darn stable but I can tell it will be faster with the chassis set up looser.

Now that I'm going faster in it I can predict a LSD could be in my future if I keep tracking the car. It would do some really weird hopping stuff in hard third gear corners on power and I would even get some wheel spin in 4th on track out in some places. That and not being able to put power down in off camber corners started to get a little frustrating, especially coming from tracking an AWD Evo.

I also think I need to get an exhaust of some sort as the car is way too quiet on track with a helmet on, hard to judge the RPM.

I used the GoPro for the first time this event too. You can see from my video I didn't mount it in a great spot to see all the track. You get to see my mug though. ;) I will try another angle next time. Scroll down to the end of this post for the video if you are interested.

Now, more data!

First, some engine data logs. Here is an overlay of a session from this event with an overlay of a session from last event. It's fairly obvious it was a much cooler day by the charge temps. Huge difference! The interesting data to note is that coolant and oil temps show a much less difference. They are obviously cooler this time but not by much!

Blue plots are from last event in 98F weather
Red plots are from this event in 65F weather



Next up is G-force. One lap. Lateral and Lineal. You can tell pretty quickly from looking at this overlay that I was much quicker this time and that is shown in the offset. Also note higher Lateral G's of 1.02 max compared to .99 before.

Left and right Lateral G's are shown as positive/negative.
Accel and Decel Lineal G's are shown as positive/negative. Note much harder braking this time.

Blue plots are from last event
Red plots are from this event



Here is the video. Unedited. One session. As noted camera position sucks and the car is way too quiet. First lap is my warm up lap so you can forward to the start of the second if you wish.

[video]
Did your impression of the BC's change? Different settings?
I used to have a couple Evo's also. I followed your work on the Evo forums.
I live up in Portland and have been to T-Hill many times.
What tires were you running?
Alignment?
How much did you lower in the front? Any rubbing under compression at track?
I'm getting ready to buy the BC's and hope that I can run the R888:
225/45/16 - 9 - 8.7 - 23.8
I had 275 nto1's on my X lowered on KW V3's so I'm used to a little rubbing on full lock!
about .65 lower in the front. No rubbing on track or anywhere
Thanks for the info Razor!
Hey look, I haven't fully left the forums yet.

The Fiesta comes in pretty handy to bring parts for my Evo home:

That's one of the thing I hated about my X, the back seats didn't fold down.
But, I could get 4 Volks wearing 275's NTO1's in the back seat for trackdays.
Great write up. That's a big disparity in lap times. No disrespect but you're either very slow in your Fiesta or very fast in your Evo.
OR I was very slow in my Evo and very fast in the Fiesta.
I overlaid my data from 2 tracks, one very similar track to T-Hill and the Fiesta was within 5 seconds of the Evo on both. And the Evo was on bfg r1's and the Fiesta on z2's!
I totally agree. But, I was very surprised by how capable the Fiesta is.
I logged over 25 track days in two Evo X's on 6 different tracks.
I have logged 10 track days in the Fiesta on 5 different tracks.
I have compared, contrasted and data logged. The Evo is faster AND much more fun. It also burns through money faster as well:)
But with comparable mods and rubber it was never "much, much, much" faster.
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