What did you do to your Fiesta ST today ?

[AthenaAutocross]

Had autocross today. Car ran pretty good, confirmed the issue with 2nd was from the battery tray since I had no pops outs today after the fix. However, I think it's time I get coilovers and realize that I made an awful mistake on the 205s lmao, they just can't hold the power down, they corner nice and they are super responsive but I for sure need to go back to 225s or even the 245s since I put camber bolts in up front. Which that really helped the way the car held the corners and the slalom.

Finished 23rd out of 61 raw time and the fastest FWD at the event which is neat.

 

[XanRules]

Finished soundproofing the doors and installing new speakers. I don't have enough material to do the full floors, fortunately I anticipated this and ordered some more last week. It's weird - the total weight of the soundproofing in the car as of right now is 12lbs and the car just feels different. Likely all in my head - my cat and her carrier weighed about that much and it didn't drive any different when she was in the back seat - but really interesting.

Today I'm going to finish stripping the interior and deep clean everything before putting soundproofing down under the front half of the carpet. I am doing this because it is, for some reason, going to be 90 degrees and sunny today, so it'll give everything plenty of time to dry after I deep clean it.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Had autocross today. Car ran pretty good, confirmed the issue with 2nd was from the battery tray since I had no pops outs today after the fix. However, I think it's time I get coilovers and realize that I made an awful mistake on the 205s lmao, they just can't hold the power down, they corner nice and they are super responsive but I for sure need to go back to 225s or even the 245s since I put camber bolts in up front. Which that really helped the way the car held the corners and the slalom.

Finished 23rd out of 61 raw time and the fastest FWD at the event which is neat.

Aren't the 225/45-15s a shorter sidewall than 205/50-15s?

The steering response and turn-in should be really close on an 8" wide wheel, no?

 

[XanRules]

Finished soundproofing the doors and installing new speakers. I don't have enough material to do the full floors, fortunately I anticipated this and ordered some more last week. It's weird - the total weight of the soundproofing in the car as of right now is 12lbs and the car just feels different. Likely all in my head - my cat and her carrier weighed about that much and it didn't drive any different when she was in the back seat - but really interesting.

Today I'm going to finish stripping the interior and deep clean everything before putting soundproofing down under the front half of the carpet. I am doing this because it is, for some reason, going to be 90 degrees and sunny today, so it'll give everything plenty of time to dry after I deep clean it.

So which of you guys were going to tell me that the carpet doesn't come out?

 

[AthenaAutocross]

Aren't the 225/45-15s a shorter sidewall than 205/50-15s?

The steering response and turn-in should be really close on an 8" wide wheel, no?

Just a smidge shorter I believe and I had 225/45r15 RT660s in the past and I'm not noticing too much difference in response. Maybe a bit less on the 225, but those were worn out by the time I got the diff in. The sidewall would probably be the biggest benefit plus a bit more grip. I actually took a look comparing my run against one of the top 10 guys with a 280+whp Miata with 300mm 200TW tires and I kept up everywhere except in the high speed corner in the back. I was letting off way~ too soon. and went too high. I was actually super nervous about that corner as I've not hit anything banked like that before at speed.

Also forgot to mention I did put on MOOG camber bolts (K90473) and they actually made the response quite nice. Not sure what they were at, I sort of eye balled it and maxed them out so maybe an extra -1.25 to -1.75 degrees on both sides.

 

[XanRules]

So which of you guys were going to tell me that the carpet doesn't come out?

To be clear, the carpet does come out if you cut it in two places, one under the e-brake and one behind the cabin air filter. I am glad I did - it turns out I had black mold growing in the rear passenger footwell, likely from water ingress back when I first got the car in 2017 and it had to have the headliner and sunroof seals replaced twice. It was still damp in there. Super gross.

Yanked the carpet out, did several passes with the extractor on both sides, let it bake in the sunlight upside down (so the mold spores would be in the sun on a 90 degree day) for six hours, then put it back in upside down and set off a chlorine dioxide "odor bomb" overnight. That should kill it. Also cleaned the metal part of the interior really thoroughly before putting down sound deadening and soundproofing.

I thought I smelled something musty in that car no matter what I did, and now I know what it was.

Anyway, the car has not been put back together yet. I am running all wiring for a sub and amplifier but not connecting everything up that requires splicing into the factory harness just yet because I do not trust myself to not mess that up, cannot afford to mess it up, and a local shop will do it for significantly less than the cost of an entirely new wiring harness.