First time doing a build thread, thought it might be fun. This is my 2018 Magnetic Fiesta that I told myself I was going to keep stock. 2+ years into it and here we are. Will keep updated as changes are made.
Instagram: cleanbean_st
Bone stock, few days into ownership
So far, I've accumulated the following:
Power:
Suspension: Swift Springs
Fun Wheels & Tires: TD Pro Race 1.2's 15x8 on 205 50r15 Continental ExtremeContact
DD Wheels & Tires: OEM Black Rados on 205 40r17 Hankook Ventus V2
Cooling and Others: Mountune Radiator
Interior:
Exterior: TB Performance Crash bar, anything else TBD
Bought the car brand new back in September of 2018. Made the jump from a modified 2009 MazdaSpeed3 GT. The Mazda was a great car and was very fun to drive, (bolt ons, suspension and ~370whp) but was originally bought used and had a lot of blemishes/high mileage that bothered me constantly. The Fiestas always looked like an appealing little package, so I decided to make the jump and pick one up new so any damage done to it would be on me. Originally looking for a white FiST but quickly fell in love with the magnetic, which reminded me a lot of my old MazdaSpeed. No Recaros, red calipers, black rados
A picture of my MazdaSpeed driving away from me, for those who are curious
16,100 miles and 2+ years later
One of the only things I was not a big fan of with the fiesta was the achievable power with the stock turbo. I think a 10lbs:1hp ratio is a sweet spot for a fun daily driver and, despite the car's low weight, the turbo can't support enough power to make 10:1 happen.
At my elevation (5000+ feet above sea level) the factory turbo really struggles to hold boost, making an already wheezy top end even less desirable. For a while I did a bunch of monitoring of the calculated mass airflow in different conditions and quickly found that even on cold, dry days the car would not see over 19lbs/min on the factory turbo at elevation. On hot days this was even worse. So, I decided to make some changes to turbo to make the car a little quicker. This was all around the same time the s280 craze started, so I jumped on the bandwagon and ordered and s280 and tune+ 14psi WGA. This was all around the June 2020 timeframe.
For the time being I decided to stick with the factory fuel system since the car is my daily driver and I don't need the temptation to keep turning things up and ending up with a broken car. I also want to take the car to local tracks and I figured ~280whp would be plenty of power to have fun with.
The s280 is a very nice turbo. Install was done by me in my garage in about a day's worth of time spent working on the car. Clearance to the block was surprisingly easy and everything else fit nicely. Side by side, the S280 looks pretty big compared to the factory turbo - I'm sure there's plenty of side-by-side pics in the forums but here's my own.
I have been tuned by Dizzy tuning since I had a mazdaspeed. I think Jason is a great tuner and overall good guy - helpful and responsive, so he's done the tuning for the fiesta. Currently done with the 91 octane tune, should be starting an e30 mix here soon. First, I need to get the upgraded MAP sensor installed and verified - more on that later.
I do all of my logs on the same road, so I figured it was worthwhile plotting some logs with V-dyno to track gains through the tuning process.
Yellow line shows factory turbo, e30 tune with an st200 intake, crossover pipe and intercooler. Probably not the best log I have, but it gets the point across. Highest vdyno readout there was about 180whp, nothing to brag about, but to be expected at 5000+ft elevation.
Red, blue and green show the 14psi base map, 2nd revision and 5th revision for the tune, all 91 octane. Overall very happy with the gains over the stock turbo
First weekend of December 2020 a local dyno opened up with ~15 slots for a dyno day. I was able to get on the list. The timing was great since Jason had sent the last revision for the 91 tune about a week prior.
Below is the dyno results for the day with the mod list from before
The shop was definitely a little generous with the correction factor, as you can probably tell from the numbers. 339WHP on a factory fuel system on 91 octane, lol, as if. This tends to happen around here a lot in my opinion. Likely causes are dyno days getting overcorrected to make people excited and the dynos being setup to correct too much for the elevation. If I had to guess, I would say they overcorrected by 15%, which would put my highest number ~280whp, which is more reasonable given fuel quality and factory fuel system. I didn't say much at the dyno event since I was the only person that met or exceeded their power goals and I didn't want to make things worse by questioning how much the shop wanted to correct. A friend's bolt-on e30 FiST put down 214whp, which would make some sense at sea level and about lines up with the 180-190whp I told him he would probably put down given the elevation. So maybe the correction wasn't as bad as I think - who knows, all I know is the car drives very well and makes a healthy amount of power now, very happy with the setup for now
It was funny to see everyone's reaction when the factory-looking fiesta put down more power than the 2-3 Subarus and Focus ST (Coloradoan's love subarus and focuses or focii?). There's a video of the dyno pull on my Instagram for those interested, as well as some pictures of a friend's 600+whp Evo 8, a very nice Evo X and some other very nice cars.
I recently ordered a mountune splitter from another forum user, very excited to get that in and installed. I was planning on making the car a little less factory looking through 2021, so seeing a mountune splitter in good shape for sale right before the new year was very cool. Will post pics once that's done, as well as more detailed pics of the other mods (cerakoted thermal r&d tips, boost gauge, crash bar, etc)
I will also post more plots for boost, airflow and some e30 numbers once that's underway, as well as the new MAP sensor from Dizzy Tuning
I'll leave the thread here for tonight (12/12/2020).
I will upload more content as I have free time and we'll keep the thread going from there.
Check back in for:
Instagram: cleanbean_st
Bone stock, few days into ownership
So far, I've accumulated the following:
Power:
- S280 turbocharger w/ Turbosmart WGA
- 2J downpipe + Thermal R&D Catback
- ITG Intake
- Turbosmart Vee Port BOV
- DizzyTuning + AEM upgraded MAP sensor
- Whoosh V2 IC
Suspension: Swift Springs
Fun Wheels & Tires: TD Pro Race 1.2's 15x8 on 205 50r15 Continental ExtremeContact
DD Wheels & Tires: OEM Black Rados on 205 40r17 Hankook Ventus V2
Cooling and Others: Mountune Radiator
Interior:
- Ford Carbon Fiber Shift knob + whoosh short shift plate
- AEM Classic Boost Gauge
Exterior: TB Performance Crash bar, anything else TBD
Bought the car brand new back in September of 2018. Made the jump from a modified 2009 MazdaSpeed3 GT. The Mazda was a great car and was very fun to drive, (bolt ons, suspension and ~370whp) but was originally bought used and had a lot of blemishes/high mileage that bothered me constantly. The Fiestas always looked like an appealing little package, so I decided to make the jump and pick one up new so any damage done to it would be on me. Originally looking for a white FiST but quickly fell in love with the magnetic, which reminded me a lot of my old MazdaSpeed. No Recaros, red calipers, black rados
A picture of my MazdaSpeed driving away from me, for those who are curious
16,100 miles and 2+ years later
One of the only things I was not a big fan of with the fiesta was the achievable power with the stock turbo. I think a 10lbs:1hp ratio is a sweet spot for a fun daily driver and, despite the car's low weight, the turbo can't support enough power to make 10:1 happen.
At my elevation (5000+ feet above sea level) the factory turbo really struggles to hold boost, making an already wheezy top end even less desirable. For a while I did a bunch of monitoring of the calculated mass airflow in different conditions and quickly found that even on cold, dry days the car would not see over 19lbs/min on the factory turbo at elevation. On hot days this was even worse. So, I decided to make some changes to turbo to make the car a little quicker. This was all around the same time the s280 craze started, so I jumped on the bandwagon and ordered and s280 and tune+ 14psi WGA. This was all around the June 2020 timeframe.
For the time being I decided to stick with the factory fuel system since the car is my daily driver and I don't need the temptation to keep turning things up and ending up with a broken car. I also want to take the car to local tracks and I figured ~280whp would be plenty of power to have fun with.
I have been tuned by Dizzy tuning since I had a mazdaspeed. I think Jason is a great tuner and overall good guy - helpful and responsive, so he's done the tuning for the fiesta. Currently done with the 91 octane tune, should be starting an e30 mix here soon. First, I need to get the upgraded MAP sensor installed and verified - more on that later.
I do all of my logs on the same road, so I figured it was worthwhile plotting some logs with V-dyno to track gains through the tuning process.
Red, blue and green show the 14psi base map, 2nd revision and 5th revision for the tune, all 91 octane. Overall very happy with the gains over the stock turbo
First weekend of December 2020 a local dyno opened up with ~15 slots for a dyno day. I was able to get on the list. The timing was great since Jason had sent the last revision for the 91 tune about a week prior.
Below is the dyno results for the day with the mod list from before
It was funny to see everyone's reaction when the factory-looking fiesta put down more power than the 2-3 Subarus and Focus ST (Coloradoan's love subarus and focuses or focii?). There's a video of the dyno pull on my Instagram for those interested, as well as some pictures of a friend's 600+whp Evo 8, a very nice Evo X and some other very nice cars.
I recently ordered a mountune splitter from another forum user, very excited to get that in and installed. I was planning on making the car a little less factory looking through 2021, so seeing a mountune splitter in good shape for sale right before the new year was very cool. Will post pics once that's done, as well as more detailed pics of the other mods (cerakoted thermal r&d tips, boost gauge, crash bar, etc)
I will also post more plots for boost, airflow and some e30 numbers once that's underway, as well as the new MAP sensor from Dizzy Tuning
I'll leave the thread here for tonight (12/12/2020).
I will upload more content as I have free time and we'll keep the thread going from there.
Check back in for:
- high altitude dyno numbers (real dyno and vdyno)
- updates as we finish tuning
- more updates/upgrades to the car
- an electrical engineer trying to do mechanical engineer things
- breaking things
- maybe even some road course racing content
Last edited:
