2016 Time Attack/TT Fiesta

Recently picked up a 16 ST, registered it the next day, went to NJMP and did a trackday as a shakedown. Already ordered a bunch of suspension parts, bushings, chassis braces and some fun stuff. RPF1 wheels on the way, autopower roll bar, bucket seat, its going to be a proper track toy but street driven, full interior (street class)

(I used to track a fully built foxbody mustang, gutted, cages, gen 2 coyote, etc etc, now im staying more budget friendly)

(trying to upload pictures but the forum keeps erroring out)

so results from my shakedown

1. The car desperately needs front negative camber
2. Bucket seat is a must, i was sliding all over the place and im only on a set of 340 treadwear tires
3. Brake pads and rotors are getting replaced. Stoptech rotors are on the way, stoptect SS braided hoses and Hawk HP Plus pads
4. Front brake cooling is a must, after a few fun laps the front brakes were not happy and this was after we flushed the fluid with Motul 600.
5. Outside temp was 55-60 so the car ran cool but im going to swap to an aluminum radiator and a cobb intercooler before the summer comes.
6. Another note on cooling I noticed the car has a stock oil cooler, im going to run a duct to the aluminum housing to aid in keeping the oil cooler

Cheers

Not only does it need a ton more negative front camber, but it needs a front contact patch that x8” wheels simply cannot supply.

Those Hawk HP+ pads aren’t going to cut it even with ducting. Hawk DTC60s are more up to the task but also more like a light switch, very little modulation and cant stand up to the TVS/ESC systems applying the brakes everywhere for a full session. Glocs have more modulation at that heat range & have no problem with the balljoint/caliper boot melting heat the brakes still put out with those nannies turned off in Forscan.

You will need the radiator and ic long before summer, and an oil cooler once it gets over 85 degrees ambient.

High on the mod list should be a LSD. These cars suck to drive on the street open diff imo, one wheel peel is gonna get old quick on track I bet. Engine mounts & spherical beam bushings slot in right below LSD in the usefulness in my experience.

So years ago I ran the Hawk HP Plus and really liked them, I was actually looking at the G loc's but never ran them so I just ordered the Hawk for now, again its a street car. Can a tuner turn off the TVS/ESC with hptuners or cobb? Im new to the fiesta world, I also want to turn off the brake and throttle safety thing.

Are hood vents a must on these cars?

Buy separate rotors & pads for the track, swap them the night before. It’s the only way, I run R14 & R10. I DD my FiST 40k+ miles per year and track it once or twice a month when it’s cools off out here.

TVS must be turned off in Forscan by someone that actually knows what they are doing so something else doesn’t get messed up. Will still probably need to pull the ABS fuse to keep crash detection at bay.

Hood vents are race inspired cosmetic enhancements primarily. The tiny radiator and fire breathing turbo weren’t designed to be in boost for 20 minutes at a time. Since coolant is used to cool the oil, it’s a negative feedback loop.

You know its funny you mention about swapping pads and rotors, because I was actually thinking that might be the best bet, then I can run more aggressive pads once the Hawk ones wear out.

Can you explain the TVS system?

So you run no ABS on the track by pulling the Fuse?

I found a local guy selling an aluminum radiator really cheap so im planning on going to buy that soon, Going to install the Cobb intercooler, radiator, front tow strap and this intake scoop to the airbox all at once so I dont have to pull the bumper cover off again. Also I noticed the bottom half of the grill is solid plastic do track guys open up the entire grill for more airflow?

The torque vectoring system is an electronic nanny Ford used instead of a mechanical LSD to control wheel slip by applying the brakes to the inside wheel while cornering (but really all the damn time). The electronic stability control also uses the brakes to control yaw. Both are incredibly invasive on track and will overheat the brakes to the point you can melt the boots on the ball joints & calipers. My track pads might last 3 events. Those HP+ likely won’t survive a full day.

Airflow isn’t the issue imo, but installing a skid plate will increase air flow into the engine compartment.

Ah yes ive heard about this. I need to disable this ASAP. So can I buy ForScan and do this myself?

Westley from EMS got on teamviewer on my laptop and went through Forscan to do it for me. I don’t know anyone else that can do it. It’s not entirely effective though, ESC button doesn’t work anymore but I can still feel it intervene at times. Mostly wet mornings, first session before track gets rubber and heat in it. Only the ABS fuse seems to be able to turn the nannies fully off & this is also necessary to avoid crash detection at certain racetracks.

So I also just learned by holding the ESC button you can completely shut off Stability control. I was unaware when I did my shakedown, i just pressed it once which enabled sport mode.

the Sport mode is constantly applying brakes to simulate an LSD and eats through your front brake pads - that explains the heat issues you encountered

ESC is definitely still on, but consider it muted. Like I said earlier, the nannies never completely turn off until the ABS fuse is removed.

So I was reading a post on this site last night. The guy mentioned theres actually 3 ABS fuses, and talked about removing wheel speed sensors. Man I wish I could find those B spec ABS modules off the fiesta racecars.

I did a bit of research into this - Unfortunately the B-Spec ABS module is only compatible with 2013 and older Fiestas that have an entirely different, older style ABS unit made by ATE. And from what I could find, it’s actually just a slightly older Ford F-150 ATE ABS module that’s been programmed not to reject the Fiesta. It can work on the 2013 and older Fiesta ST from the UK and overseas, but not Mk7.5 2014+ which is what the USDM FiST is based on.

2014 and newer Fiestas (and most Fords) have moved to a Bosch ABS module with internally coded TVS. It’s actually Bosch TVS, Ford just tunes it for the chassis despite their press releases, and every other model car that uses newer Bosch units has the same system. Because the Fiesta (and a lot of newer Fords) uses “central configuration” with modules reporting back to the BCM for all permanent settings, Forscan doesn’t seem to know how to actually disable TVS on the Fiesta without it reverting as soon as the car reboots and the BCM tells the other modules what they should be set to. Even cars like the Mustang (up to 2023, even the GT350) still have it with ESC all the way off, since it’s baked into the Bosch modules. 2024+ Ford have move to a different unit integrated into the master cylinder.

Currently the only way to totally disable the TVS is to still to pull the ABS fuses and lose the ABS as well.

@Stubborn Approach I’m curious what your contact at EMS did - it sounds like it’s not fully disabled?

Running with ESC “totally off” or ESC-off/Sport with a tune that uses Cobb’s TC, the remaining TVS seems fairly unobtrusive, and it only actuates the rear brakes. So if you’re overheating the fronts, it’s all driver induced, and the stock brakes just can’t quite handle the heat.

I haven’t had problems with the rear brakes overheating, especially after going to the SVT rears. Also haven’t had any fade problems with the fronts after moving to Boxster/SVT up front with good track pads, at least so far. Aftermarket BBK’s do better, but some of them specifically the Wilwood have a serious flaw and can still have issues and require more ducting because while they do use a larger diameter rotor, they use a lighter 20.5mm thinner rotor which has better surface area, but less thermal mass than even the stock rotor, so you’re relying more on airflow to cool the brakes and don’t have the thermal mass of rotor to handle the heat spikes.

But keeping the ESC or Sport Mode on on the track will very rapidly eat brakes and overheat them no matter what you do.

There were a handful of modes to select and we went with the option that disabled it all but left ABS on. ESC button doesn’t do anything, but I can feel it still intervening when making sharp turns with heavy throttle inputs or high yaw moments in slippery conditions.