[MR and MRS Focus Schultz]

we want to race our lx sedan but we need some suggestions, whether it be price, or performance, we need the best price and the best performance for the price we would also like to know if putting in a 3.8 v6 from a our stang, or a 351 winsor from our bronco would be cheaper thnx

 

[ClintB#1]

your best bet would be spent money on getting a helmet and go the some open track days instead of going to your local mountain road to "race". mods wise you should spend money on some mild handling and brake mods and a good summer performance street tire, either one of your motor swaps wont make as much of a difference on a road course OR in the "touge" as a good handling and braking setup. Also, if my point didnt get across....STAY OUTTA THE MOUNTAINS, TAKE IT TO THE TRACK

 

[BOWERSdaAZIAN]

you best bet would be spent money on getting a helmet and go the some open track days instead of going to your local mountain road to "race". mods wise you should spend money on some mild handling and brake mods and a good summer performance street tire, either one of your motor swaps wont make as much of a difference on a road course OR in the "touge" as a good handling and braking setup. Also, if my point didnt get across....STAY OUTTA THE MOUNTAINS, TAKE IT TO THE TRACK

Couldnt have said it better myself. :bow:

 

[HotRodKougar]

Go race on the track.

The end.

 

[pzev04boy]

LX Sedan? SPI = FAIL

 

[MR and MRS Focus Schultz]

she is the one that wants to race it, she doesnt like track races, I drag my mustang and my bird so does anyone have any ideas, preferrably if you have a simple parts list for some handling and performance

 

[MR and MRS Focus Schultz]

we want between 250 to 300 hp and the touge would be done legally if anyone is wondering

 

[error54]

This is going to sound incredibly rude but if your wife doesn't "like" the track, then she certainly doesn't belong on a mountain road racing with a 300hp car. That being said, if you have the mechanical/fabrication ability to swap in your v6 then by all means do it (because it would be cool) but your best bet is a DIY turbo kit for your SPI or an zetec engine swap followed by a turbo.

To be frank, any touge event is probably going to require a full cage and safety gear and when you add that onto the engine, suspension, and braking modifications then you're looking at a lot of $$$$. I would suggest Autocross to her. It's cheap, they usually take place locally, you don't need any mods (other than a helmet) and it's an excellent way to hone your driving skills.

 

[ClintB#1]

she is the one that wants to race it, she doesnt like track races, I drag my mustang and my bird so does anyone have any ideas, preferrably if you have a simple parts list for some handling and performance

when i say track...im talking road courses, not drag strips. road courses have turns and straight a ways. some popular road courses locally are...

streets of willow....

and on the same property, Big willow...

or another great road course with many fun configs, buttonwillow raceway...

Unless you and or your wife have driven at least ONE of these road race courses, i cant see how you can be in any position to say you "dont like track races"....

we want between 250 to 300 hp and the touge would be done legally if anyone is wondering

for tight stuff related to the "touge" that much power would NOT be benifical, like i said, braking and handling mods will, but non the less, i have NO idea where your going to go in socal for "legal togue races" it doesnt exists, i know, i USED to be in the mountain 2-3 times a week till i woke the F**k up and got my ass on a track.

check out....

redlinetrackevents.com

speedventures.com

nasaproracing.com

speedtrialusa.com

these are the top socal open track organizations where you can go and have fun LEGALLY on a road course and get top instruction to help you learn the ropes of high performance driving.

 

[bmylez]

Maybe they know something we don't about touge? Anyways, surprised no one has mentioned that getting 250 - 300hp out of an SPI is laughable. Waste of money. Get your wife a better car. Yeah, you can make it handle better and such, but unless she wants to do AutoX just as a hobby, not competitively, she needs a better car.

 

[Croc_Tease!]

#1 Tires (sticky autox tires, kumho xs, dunlop star spec, hankook rs2, etc)
#2 Brakes (svt brake kit w/ performance pads)
#3 Suspension (coilovers/sway bars)
#4 Torsen
#5 Everything else.

You wanted a list, there you go!

Putting a v6/v8 in the Focus for Touge racing is not a good idea. Unless by Touge you meant Drag.

 

[bmylez]

Just buy her an old ass Miata and slap an eBay turbo on it @ 5 psi. It will smoke any stock or lightly modded Focus on AutoX or "touge".

 

[MR and MRS Focus Schultz]

ok so i've gotten my wife to stop wanting to touge race and now she is interested in open road, thank you for the examples, thanks for the advice on the mods, does anyone know good suspension mods that wont break the bank, we are thinkin of doing the zetec swap with an iceman, im a mechanic so a swap isnt that tuff

 

[bmylez]

Well the swap is a little harder than you think because all of the wiring is different. There are a lot of connections to be made to get all your lights and gauges working and it's not that cut and dry. You need to pull a complete wiring harness from the *cabin* of a Zetec and even then there is modification needed. When a guy did an SVT swap into a Zetec, he even had issues and both of those cars are Zetecs.

As far as suspenion, you can get a lot of stuff from C-F-M. Eibach sway bar kit and Ford Racing struts shocks & springs will tighten the car up a lot.

Or Tire Rack has this Eibach kit. Would make the car at least competent.

 

[hafftrak]

For what you want to do with the car, you would probably be better off selling it and starting with something different.

 

[AcIdBuRn02ZTS]

.... im curious to why people on a focus site suggest buying a different car when the focus is a very "mod friendly" platform if you know what your doing.

anyways... if your wanting to build a road race car or any type of race car for that matter... dont start with power... adding power to stock brakes and suspension and putting it on a race track is not ushually a good combo...

start with handling... if you want a cheaper package that will net a decent gain over stock... go with the eibach pro-kit package.. comes with the pro-kit springs and dampners and will greatly help the car stick to the pavement... if you want to run their sway bars... I would strongly suggest re-inforcing the rear control arms a bit (either boxing them in or adding plate steel to the weak points... do some research)... ive seen way too many damaged/broken rear control arms when hard driving meets a performance rear sway bar...

strut tower braces help a bit... maybe make some custom subframe connectors to help stiffen everything up a bit (although i dont know if its been done before... i'd always thought about it)

brakes... a full svt front and rear swap would be a pretty decent improvement over stock... i'd suggest using Hawk HPS street pads front and rear with that setup and it would pretty well stop on a dime and give you change back

onto engine performance... if your wanting to make 250-300whp... the cheapest way to do this reliably would probably be to track down a low mileage svt engine with wiring harness and ecu... swap it all in and boost it... the stock svt version of the zetec engine will support 325-350whp on a SOLID tune... and with the use of piston oil squirters, would probably be more track use friendly at those power levels... otherwise... build a forged internaled zetec and turbo it... the spi engine isnt a bad engine... ive seen a few built to those levels... but the money involved in doing so and making them reliable is fairly high... along with the dreaded valve seat issues those engines are prone to.. and btw.... a zetec engine with an iceman (im assuming intake) is gonna net you around 110-115whp if your lucky... if you want large power gains... forced induction is the only way to go.

depending on what kind of racing your wanting to do exactly... the tranny itself can give you a decent gain also... if you plan on road racing the car... with the svt engine swap... i'd track down an svt tranny also... they are great for road race tracks and "mountain" runs... the close gearing makes keeping the engine in the power band fairly easy... i personally love the 6spd i put in my sedan... if the car is an atx... i'd strongly consider swapping to either the zetec based 5spd or the svt 6spd when you swap motors... the power levels you are wanting will grenade the atx without quite a bit of internal work... and im not sure if the spi tranny will bolt up to a zetec block or not... havnt messed with it before.

for starters... i'd suggest doing some research in the race specific forums before going any further.... there are quite a few people out there that have built track only foci with awesome outcomes... you can also do a search in the "rigs" forum for race cars and you'll come up with quite a few ideas there... a cheap route may be to find a totaled svt parts car or a complete car that someone needs to part with cheaply... pull the engine, tranny, brake setup, even the suspension would work for a decent improvement over stock... then part the rest of the car out...

also keep in mind... these are just opinions and ideas... you can take what ever route you wish to take... but do the research... it'll help you out quite a bit
anyways... good luck
-AcId-

 

[MR and MRS Focus Schultz]

thanks that was a lot of advice couldnt thank you enough, would you by chance happen to know if i can use magnesium paddel shifters with the svt tranny? my wife doesnt like stick, ill try to research it to see if i can or if i have to get a specific tranny

 

[AcIdBuRn02ZTS]

if you want to run an automatic... you can... its just going to take some work to get it to hold up for any length of time....

if money isnt and issue... contact lentech and see what they can do for you as ive seen several high whp drag guys running them... or if you have the know how... you can build one yourself... only problem is the lack of an LSD... but i think the atx case can be modified to use one out of the mtx-75... but im not positive (i thought i'd heard it could)

ive never seen a paddle shift setup on a manual transmission and i dont think its possible. the only paddle shift setups ive seen are used on automatic trannies that are electronically controled (the paddles are just switches) or semi-automatic trannies which use a clutch instead of a torque converter which get complicated and no... there isnt anything like that available for the focus that i know of.

there were a few people interested in a paddle shift atx for the focus but the design never left the drawing board... i was looking for the same thing for quite some time before i decided to get over it and swap in the 6spd...

-AcId-

 

[MR and MRS Focus Schultz]

cool thanks so if i stick with the auto should i upgrade it or pull out another model or just use the stock spi?

 

[AcIdBuRn02ZTS]

im not sure about the atx thats from an spi model car... but the atx from the zetec based car will hold up to 150-160whp (from personal expereince) on a day to day basis aslong as the fluid is kept changed (the use of an aftermarket tranny cooler is stronly suggested)

the stock atx behind the zetec will not hold up in stock form with any type of forced induction... so if you want power... the tranny is going to need attention whether you swap it for a manual with a highperformance clutch.... or you swap in a built automatic from a company such as lentech... swapping in an automatic from a different model wont effect power handling by much... and if your wanting 300+whp... i dont believe there is any option as far as a "stock" automatic goes that will swap into the focus and hold up to those power levels... lentech transmissions will be the only way to go.

do this... dont worry about power and trannies and all that for the time being... focus (no pun intended) on getting the car to handle well first... complete the suspension setup and get some decent rubber under it... then brakes... then start researching the power side of things... if your wanting 300+whp.. your looking at spending $6k+ on the motor and trans.. proabably closer to the $10k range depending on what you want to do... but a 300whp focus that sticks to the pavement is hard to beat...

to put it into perspective... ive got roughly $22k invested in my car including purchase price which was 7k... so $15k in performance and aftermarket parts... which it isnt finished yet... to finish it up... i'll have closer to $17k in aftermarket parts total to have it where i want it to be.... a daily driven 300+whp car that can out handle most factory higher end sports cars... so basically since 99% of the car is new or has been replaced within the last 5k miles... ive got the car I want basically new (exept the shell) for a total investment of around $24k that can out-run and out handle any factory car in that price range.. and with a power to weight ratio better then some corvettes... you get the picture... but the look on the guy in the corvettes face when you blow by them at the track... priceless (considering their investment to purchase that stock car was more then my investment to build the car that is passing them... and the fact that its a 4cyl focus just adds insult to injury)

anyways... back on subject... suspension, brakes, and tires first... get that lined out and worry about power later... you'll be amazed at what a good handling car can do on the track compared to a high whp car that cant keep the tires stuck to the pavement.

-AcId-