Hello all,
I've posted a few times in the forum before introducing myself officially. I picked up this little gem two weekends back...
I had just purchased a low mileage (19,000), mildly modded Focus ST ST3 (you can see the tail end there) with some nice goodies (Cobb AP, FRPP exhaust, motor mount upgrade) and got to thinking about the Fiesta version. I happened to find this Fiesta listed a for a few weeks in nearby Austin and reached out after watching it not move for a few weeks. I was also personally trying to temper my excitement about it to see if I still had an interest after a few weeks because I can be quite the impulse buyer at times. Well it definitely stuck and I found an opportunity to go have a look at it in person, at which point I was in love and made a reasonable offer.
Post offer, just to get the finances prepared for the transaction, I looked around and found this cars&bids auction online matching to the VIN, which just furthered my resolve to finalize the deal. I could tell the car had some nice modifications, without negatively affecting it's stock appearance (I prefer most of my cars to be generally sleepers), but the seller did not have a lot of familiarity aside from the exhaust and intake (just the easily visible stuff). Here's the link to that ad so everyone can have a look at the mod list: https://carsandbids.com/auctions/3yyDR1Ed/2018-ford-fiesta-st
I gather that the seller's father was the person that won this auction originally, but his recent passing prompted the recent acquisition and subsequent relocation to nearby Austin. I got her with just above 17,000 miles and setup with the stock wheels and original OEM tires (not in bad shape, obviously stored, but now six year old rubber). I simply love it! It reminds me a lot of my naturally aspirated 2.5L swapped 06 Miata, which produces a swell of torque down low and his a diminishing curve up top so that you essentially need to rev it to keep up the acceleration. It's plenty of power and gearing to get up to 70-90 mph with some enjoyable excitement and obviously the other part of the equation is the handling fun that these types of cars excel at.
Anyway, I'm super excited to enjoy this car. I don't have much plans for modding it further other than...
I've posted a few times in the forum before introducing myself officially. I picked up this little gem two weekends back...
I had just purchased a low mileage (19,000), mildly modded Focus ST ST3 (you can see the tail end there) with some nice goodies (Cobb AP, FRPP exhaust, motor mount upgrade) and got to thinking about the Fiesta version. I happened to find this Fiesta listed a for a few weeks in nearby Austin and reached out after watching it not move for a few weeks. I was also personally trying to temper my excitement about it to see if I still had an interest after a few weeks because I can be quite the impulse buyer at times. Well it definitely stuck and I found an opportunity to go have a look at it in person, at which point I was in love and made a reasonable offer.
Post offer, just to get the finances prepared for the transaction, I looked around and found this cars&bids auction online matching to the VIN, which just furthered my resolve to finalize the deal. I could tell the car had some nice modifications, without negatively affecting it's stock appearance (I prefer most of my cars to be generally sleepers), but the seller did not have a lot of familiarity aside from the exhaust and intake (just the easily visible stuff). Here's the link to that ad so everyone can have a look at the mod list: https://carsandbids.com/auctions/3yyDR1Ed/2018-ford-fiesta-st
I gather that the seller's father was the person that won this auction originally, but his recent passing prompted the recent acquisition and subsequent relocation to nearby Austin. I got her with just above 17,000 miles and setup with the stock wheels and original OEM tires (not in bad shape, obviously stored, but now six year old rubber). I simply love it! It reminds me a lot of my naturally aspirated 2.5L swapped 06 Miata, which produces a swell of torque down low and his a diminishing curve up top so that you essentially need to rev it to keep up the acceleration. It's plenty of power and gearing to get up to 70-90 mph with some enjoyable excitement and obviously the other part of the equation is the handling fun that these types of cars excel at.
Anyway, I'm super excited to enjoy this car. I don't have much plans for modding it further other than...
- Ordered and received some 17x8 Hypergram wheels (intending to probably go with some Yokohama UHP summers)
- Like my Focus I noticed the stocker wheels are significantly heavy for their size and these Hypergram wheels from Konig have proven to be a fantastic performance:dollar value since their introduction. I have 2 sets for my Miatas (17x9, 16x8) and a set for my Focus (18x8.5).
- I'll put fresh summer rubber on the lighter/wider wheels and put some UHP all seasons on the stockers for the winter season.
- I love how both the Fiesta and Focus ST OEM suspensions feel. I'll stick to the OEM dampeners until they get tired and do the Bilstein upgrade later for a tighter paring.
- I have various coilover setups on my Miatas (Meister GT1s, Ohlins, Fortune Auto, etc) and Lotus (Penskes), so I'm well aware of the benefits, but for my hot hatches, I want to keep them capable, relatively comfortable, and versatile, so I'm not eager to diminish qualities like wheel travel or up the power to require really sticky summer rubber/stiffer suspension. My high powered Miatas have now been restricted to warm weather days because they get too squirrely in <50° weather. Rain isn't the biggest problem to me as you just got to have adequate tread depth on your tires and know how to respect the conditions.
