Hi all,
Happy to join the FiST community with my new to me 14' Race Red Fiesta.
A bit of backstory on my acquisition of this car. I currently have a ~100 mile/day commute (99% highway miles) and though economical, I was growing tired of my wife's 19' Honda Fit CVT and it's lack of engagement/fun. I own a 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse GST with many mods and it is far too fickle to daily drive, but scratches the itch of being loud, raw and "special" (to me at least). So that put me in the market for a fuel efficient (must be able to run on 87 octane), fun, affordable and manual car that is relatively easy to drive (my wife would be learning to drive stick on this car). Cars that I considered were the Honda CRZ, 3g or 4g Mitsubishi Eclipse (4cyl only), Hyundai Tiburon, 5th Gen Camaro V6 and of course the Fiesta ST.
I looked at a few cars but really felt that something like a CRZ compromised on the fun part and a Camaro may compromise from the fuel efficiency and practically standpoint. That led me to this Fiesta ST which I found on marketplace and had a productive phone call with the owner, Fynn. This is a 77k mile car with a few mods (Swave chassis brace, sway bars, Koni Orange struts, Whoosh intake) and a hand-written maintenance log dating back 6 years. I've heard the saying "when you buy a used car, you're buying the owner" which I think is incredibly true. This was the right owner. Very open about the car, diligent about maintenance and recording it, it's positives and it's flaws, which were minimal but include a rebuilt title. He also offered to throw the car up on his lift so I could get a good look under it. The cherry on top was he was located in Durango, Colorado, a very special place to my wife and I and it gave us the excuse to go visit a beautiful, familar place, see some friends and potentially come home with a new car.
Loaded with two dogs, tools, and a pocket full of cash, we made the 6 hour trip from Colorado Springs to Durango to meet Fynn, his beautiful property tucked in the mountains and of course the fiesta. I spent my time looking over the car, took it on a drive and inspected it from underneath on the lift. Man, this thing drives nice. Plently of power, handles and stops like a champ and has all the necessary creature comforts to drive 2+ hours a day. If I was not told this car had been in a front end accident that totaled it, I would've never known. Everything was straight, no leaks, signs of accidents and even the pinch welds are perfectly straight.
Fynn gave me the backstory on how this car was owned for many years by a friend he auto-crossed with and constantly lost to it before purchasing it himself, competing and winning many autocross events, completing scheduled maintenance and parking it for awhile as he started a family. He was excited for it to go to a good home but I could tell he was pretty bummed it was leaving and that he has not being able to use it as much as he'd hoped. In fact he had put only 5k miles on it in the 2 years he had owned it. Nevertheless, we struck a deal, loaded up the 2 extra sets of wheels & tires, along with many spare and stock parts and I hit the road back home.
Here are some moments from that first drive home
After returning home, very satisfied with the purchase, it was time to christen our new car. I'm not a big car name guy, my Eclipse which I've owned for 13 years is "The Eclipse", but my wife is by no means into cars and naming cars is one way she can be engaged. After some thought, we decided it should be named after the previous owner Fynn for the time and care he put into the car. Helps that the alliteration of Fynn the Fiesta flows well.
I'm a big fan of personalized plates, especially in states like Colorado where they don't add much cost. I spent too much time thinking about this and came up with a few options:
FISTFUL
FISTBMP
FIESTRO (Party animal in spanish)
ECNOBOX
LILBITS
FIESTIVE
Feel free to steal any of these, you can see what I went with below
The next chapter of this story is pretty damn boring. Fluid changes and putting 400-500 miles per week on the car, averaging ~35 miles/gallon. Slightly worse than the 38-40 the Fit can get but with way more engagement. I do feel slightly bad about the amount of mileage I'm putting on the car so I do switch it up and drive the Fit every once and a while but I have way more fun driving Fynn.
However, recently it was time to test for myself the capability of the car. I booked a spot at Pike's Peak International Raceway's Super Sprint event, a auto-cross style event that uses both the infield track as well as a part of their former NASCAR oval. I threw on the 200 treadwear tires that came with the car, put premium gas in it (for once), added some safety gear and attended my first event with it. I am still learning the car for sure but man this thing can take a corner. It did suffer on the oval sections compared to other more powerful cars but I managed times close to STI's and about 5 seconds slower than a fairly modified Focus ST.
Overall I am having a ton of fun with this car and am looking forward to continuing to learn about the platform and connect with you all
Peace!
Matt
Happy to join the FiST community with my new to me 14' Race Red Fiesta.
A bit of backstory on my acquisition of this car. I currently have a ~100 mile/day commute (99% highway miles) and though economical, I was growing tired of my wife's 19' Honda Fit CVT and it's lack of engagement/fun. I own a 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse GST with many mods and it is far too fickle to daily drive, but scratches the itch of being loud, raw and "special" (to me at least). So that put me in the market for a fuel efficient (must be able to run on 87 octane), fun, affordable and manual car that is relatively easy to drive (my wife would be learning to drive stick on this car). Cars that I considered were the Honda CRZ, 3g or 4g Mitsubishi Eclipse (4cyl only), Hyundai Tiburon, 5th Gen Camaro V6 and of course the Fiesta ST.
I looked at a few cars but really felt that something like a CRZ compromised on the fun part and a Camaro may compromise from the fuel efficiency and practically standpoint. That led me to this Fiesta ST which I found on marketplace and had a productive phone call with the owner, Fynn. This is a 77k mile car with a few mods (Swave chassis brace, sway bars, Koni Orange struts, Whoosh intake) and a hand-written maintenance log dating back 6 years. I've heard the saying "when you buy a used car, you're buying the owner" which I think is incredibly true. This was the right owner. Very open about the car, diligent about maintenance and recording it, it's positives and it's flaws, which were minimal but include a rebuilt title. He also offered to throw the car up on his lift so I could get a good look under it. The cherry on top was he was located in Durango, Colorado, a very special place to my wife and I and it gave us the excuse to go visit a beautiful, familar place, see some friends and potentially come home with a new car.
Loaded with two dogs, tools, and a pocket full of cash, we made the 6 hour trip from Colorado Springs to Durango to meet Fynn, his beautiful property tucked in the mountains and of course the fiesta. I spent my time looking over the car, took it on a drive and inspected it from underneath on the lift. Man, this thing drives nice. Plently of power, handles and stops like a champ and has all the necessary creature comforts to drive 2+ hours a day. If I was not told this car had been in a front end accident that totaled it, I would've never known. Everything was straight, no leaks, signs of accidents and even the pinch welds are perfectly straight.
Fynn gave me the backstory on how this car was owned for many years by a friend he auto-crossed with and constantly lost to it before purchasing it himself, competing and winning many autocross events, completing scheduled maintenance and parking it for awhile as he started a family. He was excited for it to go to a good home but I could tell he was pretty bummed it was leaving and that he has not being able to use it as much as he'd hoped. In fact he had put only 5k miles on it in the 2 years he had owned it. Nevertheless, we struck a deal, loaded up the 2 extra sets of wheels & tires, along with many spare and stock parts and I hit the road back home.
Here are some moments from that first drive home
After returning home, very satisfied with the purchase, it was time to christen our new car. I'm not a big car name guy, my Eclipse which I've owned for 13 years is "The Eclipse", but my wife is by no means into cars and naming cars is one way she can be engaged. After some thought, we decided it should be named after the previous owner Fynn for the time and care he put into the car. Helps that the alliteration of Fynn the Fiesta flows well.
I'm a big fan of personalized plates, especially in states like Colorado where they don't add much cost. I spent too much time thinking about this and came up with a few options:
FISTFUL
FISTBMP
FIESTRO (Party animal in spanish)
ECNOBOX
LILBITS
FIESTIVE
Feel free to steal any of these, you can see what I went with below
The next chapter of this story is pretty damn boring. Fluid changes and putting 400-500 miles per week on the car, averaging ~35 miles/gallon. Slightly worse than the 38-40 the Fit can get but with way more engagement. I do feel slightly bad about the amount of mileage I'm putting on the car so I do switch it up and drive the Fit every once and a while but I have way more fun driving Fynn.
However, recently it was time to test for myself the capability of the car. I booked a spot at Pike's Peak International Raceway's Super Sprint event, a auto-cross style event that uses both the infield track as well as a part of their former NASCAR oval. I threw on the 200 treadwear tires that came with the car, put premium gas in it (for once), added some safety gear and attended my first event with it. I am still learning the car for sure but man this thing can take a corner. It did suffer on the oval sections compared to other more powerful cars but I managed times close to STI's and about 5 seconds slower than a fairly modified Focus ST.
Overall I am having a ton of fun with this car and am looking forward to continuing to learn about the platform and connect with you all
Peace!
Matt
