2 years old but still fearsome!
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@v8griff
@frenk
@rsdom
@faber
@oaskedMany thanks for stopping by. Some of you inspired me to finally write this up. I am aware that I am late to the game but what is more complete than going full circle? I started the hardcore mods around October-November 2018 so logic dictates *Spock face* that I must do something around October-November 2019?
THE ONE WITH MORE MODS
You may have noticed that in all my previous posts there was something missing. A COLD AIR INTAKE. My tuner had a few to offer but I was not really sure. I had a dilemma and truth be told did not really like to remove sound proof / bonnet deadening. So I waited patiently for a year. I read this board, an american board I am also registered, I even had a chat with @faber on his Eventuri.
I was stumped because the hungry for performance person inside of me wanted something that went all the way to the Turbo. Mountune had an item but was never in stock. I could buy the turbo inlet side but not the filter one. So I checked the site a few months and spoke to them. I was told that stock should be okay mid to end October 2019 but it never was. I even called mountune and no joy. I then looked at the price and was not really keen on paying 600 pounds on two pieces of plastic. I then saw on other UK racing shops custom NB assemblies from Mountune. These were the two parts I wanted. Still the price for plastic was not appealing.
I then looked at the mk3focusrs club shop. I saw the stock and checked all the Youtube Videos around this. Some of them were very nice but required modding of the airbox. Not a big fan of this. I wanted something discreet and plug an play. I also remembered a track event I was at where a guy with a Mustang GT500 Boss Edition had carbon parts in his engine bay. I said, do i really want to add more plastic to mine? So then I narrowed down my choice to carbon.
I had an offer on the Eventuri cold air intake. I was very close to buy it but did not really fancy a system that was not going to the turbo. I was running some numbers on how to get more than one product and mix them. I then stumbled by accident on the REVO website. It was love at first sight! This one had everything I wanted. All the way to the turbo, minimal turbulence as it was smoother than stock and, of course, B L I N G : Carbon. I then saw the price and jumped like a school girl. Soon I realized it was without VAT :(. So what did I do? I purchased the damn thing and had it delivered in 48 hours.
Before this was delivered, I spoke to REVO and they said that should something not be okay, they will ship a new one asap while I ship mine back. Excellent service and things were looking up.
Nitrous Blue Dyno Tuned @ 600 NM | Wagner Tuning – Competition IC | REVO Carbon CAI |
HJS 200 Cell Sportkat | Remus Cat-back | SS Black Chrome Tailpipes
Fischer-Hydraulik SS Brake Lines | Endless RF 650 Brake Fluid | Endless ME20 Pads F+R (squeak king)
Rotors: TSP XG150 – DBA 5000 T3 SLOT | DBA 4000 T3 SLOT | Suspension: MR – KW Clubsport 2 way with H&R ARB F+R
My best friend is awesome. He drives a Manthey Racing M2 and he treats my car like his sometimes. So he got this crazy idea, based on the Mustang I mentioned a while back. He wanted to make my engine bay look more appealing. The old adage good things come to those who wait comes to mind because after a few weeks he found the perfect item to make my RS unique.
The item that nobody has in the US on their RS 🙂
As some of you know, Ford has expanded their performance offering to include the RS. Having said that, my buddy found something on the Ford Performance website in Germany. While this part is on offer in the Benelux area, Switzerland shop and France, for some reason stock is a pain. I guess they work with Mountune *hue hue*.
I ordered the above and had it delivered to Germany. Once it arrived. I counted the days till my mechanic gets to have some fun. Of course, in a typical fashion for me and what I purchase, snags would be met along the way. The item is beautiful and perusing carefully the instructions, I found that the stock intake had to be filed a few mm for the bar to fit. Believe me, the first word in my mind was not awesome it was actually ‘shit’. I will have to file my Carbon intake??
What do you think happened? Answer in the next post *cue commercial*
GOING BACK TO MY FIRST MOD
Remember my epic ford performance carbon knob mod? Yeah, i mentioned in my post that at the time I knew more could be done with the shifter. So it was time for me to do what needed to be done. I purchased a Mountune part which, thank god, was in stock. I got so many loyalty points that I think I can get 75 pounds off the next purchase *hue hue*. So my Mountune Billet Short-Shift Arm arrived and like the Rear Motor Mount the quality was top notch. Being so well informed on Cold Air Intakes and the complaints people had, I also ordered with this Short Shifter a Sound Suppression Chamber. *spoiler alert* I never installed it!
Nitrous Blue Dyno Tuned @ 600 NM | Wagner Tuning – Competition IC | REVO Carbon CAI |
HJS 200 Cell Sportkat | Remus Cat-back | SS Black Chrome Tailpipes
Fischer-Hydraulik SS Brake Lines | Endless RF 650 Brake Fluid | Endless ME20 Pads F+R (squeak king)
Rotors: TSP XG150 – DBA 5000 T3 SLOT | DBA 4000 T3 SLOT | Suspension: MR – KW Clubsport 2 way with H&R ARB F+R
How to make friends and … alienate your mechanic!
The night before the dealership appointment arrives. I am getting the car ready, folding some seats, putting the oils, strut, and the plethora of parts and look at the car and say ‘damn! this car is fast but also a family hatchback’. The following day, I wake up bright and early. I get to the dealership at 07:30 and have a chat with the mechanic. I take out the parts, explain everything and tell him to be careful as I do not want any damage on the carbon items. He understands and when he sees the parts he starts smiling. I said, laugh it up man, if my significant other finds out, I shall end up in the dog-house. I told her that I am here for winter tires and that you will check for oil leaks :). He smiled again and I said, please also check for oil leaks while you change the oil.
They gave me a replacement car a brand new EcoSport. Funny how I give them a 400+ hp car and in return I get a sub 120 hp car. It had 4 wheels, it could get me to work. I am at work at 08:20 and around 10:00 I get an itch. Did he manage to install the Cold Air Intake? Did he have any issues? My boss wanted me to do something so at around 13:00 I said. Hmm, no news, he did not manage to install the Strut. So I give them a call for a status update. They pick up and say my car should be ready in 2 hours. I should call then.
I call in 2 hours and they say, the car is still being worked on. It is not ready and I should call at 17:00. Close to 17:00, I start to worry. I was the 31st of October and Friday was 1st of November. Nobody works that day so I did not really want to end up with an EcoSport for the weekend. So I call the dealership and they tell me the car was just finished now and the test drive complete.
I hop in my epic EcoSport and hit the biggest traffic jam in the world. It takes me 45 minutes and I get to the dealership 5 minutes before closing. I speak to the chief mechanic and he says that they have never done so much Cirque du Soleil Gymnastics to fit the Carbon Strut without Damaging the Carbon Cold Air Intake.
You are already familiar with my Winter Set-up.
LIKE A GLOVE
You can actually fit a cloth here. In addition, you can see that he put some foam on the Carbon Strut not to damage it. The guy spent 4 hours trying to fix this strut for me. He also had issues hooking the Cold Air Inlet Side for the REVO as his hands are a bit big.
Nitrous Blue Dyno Tuned @ 600 NM | Wagner Tuning – Competition IC | REVO Carbon CAI |
HJS 200 Cell Sportkat | Remus Cat-back | SS Black Chrome Tailpipes
Fischer-Hydraulik SS Brake Lines | Endless RF 650 Brake Fluid | Endless ME20 Pads F+R (squeak king)
Rotors: TSP XG150 – DBA 5000 T3 SLOT | DBA 4000 T3 SLOT | Suspension: MR – KW Clubsport 2 way with H&R ARB F+R
All good stories have some memorable moments. I guess I should call them bloopers because such is life when we take a box and make it do other things.
BLOOPER NO 1.
Last spring, weather was sunny car was waxed and was super shiny. I was turning heads and on the highway people were pulling next to me and making gestures towards my car.
Some were friendly gestures others were let’s race and a bit more aggressive. One week these gestures amplified with people more often pointing towards the front of my car. I shrugged it off until one morning when my boss was driving behind me he makes a statement saying something is moving under my car. He thinks my exhaust is dangling.
I have no jack stands or anything. So I go down and look, nothing was moving. All was flexing as it should. The next day I go to work I hear a scraping noise and some parts hitting the under carriage. After this I hear slapping sounds from the front.
I was on the highway I pulled on the right lane slowed down and looked for the first exit. I go out and turn to enter the highway for the other direction. I needed to do the 13 km towards the dealership. Imagine a gorgeously waxed and shiny RS driving 40 mpg half on the emergency lane towards the dealership. Slapping sounds galore and tiny metallic parts banging against the under carriage.
While this was happening so many thoughts !! My exhaust broke ?? Something is banging and scraping ?? What is going on ??
So I get to the dealership and guess what ? My amazing engine cover lost some screws on the front side, air got between the frame and the cover, and started clapping ??. I completely tore it off on the upper part and it had to be changed.
This is one of the reasons I did not put the Eventuri intake as it has a lower scoop that sucks air via the engine cover. Imagine losing a few screws and having it tear itself like that.
Nitrous Blue Dyno Tuned @ 600 NM | Wagner Tuning – Competition IC | REVO Carbon CAI |
HJS 200 Cell Sportkat | Remus Cat-back | SS Black Chrome Tailpipes
Fischer-Hydraulik SS Brake Lines | Endless RF 650 Brake Fluid | Endless ME20 Pads F+R (squeak king)
Rotors: TSP XG150 – DBA 5000 T3 SLOT | DBA 4000 T3 SLOT | Suspension: MR – KW Clubsport 2 way with H&R ARB F+R
Found an older video where I was trying to prove that you can HT-DC without a spacer :).
I guess I need to shine a light next time :).Nitrous Blue Dyno Tuned @ 600 NM | Wagner Tuning – Competition IC | REVO Carbon CAI |
HJS 200 Cell Sportkat | Remus Cat-back | SS Black Chrome Tailpipes
Fischer-Hydraulik SS Brake Lines | Endless RF 650 Brake Fluid | Endless ME20 Pads F+R (squeak king)
Rotors: TSP XG150 – DBA 5000 T3 SLOT | DBA 4000 T3 SLOT | Suspension: MR – KW Clubsport 2 way with H&R ARB F+R
Sorry for the late reply.
I do not kind sir. I do have friends who work there :).A bit of hiatus on my side on the car front. It does not mean life was boring. For example, I found out that my car is a perfect environment for rodents to go crazy and lose it. I panicked a bit as I heard from other people that they like to chew on cables and stuff. I had an emergency appointment for Christmas with my mechanic and he looked everywhere. The car did not show signs of extensive damage but to be safe we booked the vehicle for a more serious check on the 31st of December 2019.
Hungry, hungry … rodents
I woke up at 7 am for New Year’s eve and dropped by my dealership. As this seemed damage that should be covered by my insurance I had to stick around and take some photos. The left front wheel was removed as the damage seemed to be coming from there. The wheel well cover was also removed as there was no access. What did we find there? S U R P R I S E!
We replaced the insulation on both sides and checked for additional damage. I was lucky enough that my car wasn’t as chewy as it looks. The rodents stopped in the insulation and they probably wanted to make a nest in there. So we used some special sprays on cables tubes and other areas in the engine bay. I also installed a device that gives off a special sound to scare these pesky animals away.
My next update
This should come in a few weeks as I need to perform a rather big revision on my car. As you can see from one of the pictures, I have some interesting marks on my front rotors. This has been a problem with the Mountune Rotors and my semi-metallic pads from the beginning. One high speed braking from 170 mph and the rotors have blemishes. The nature of my pads makes those go away as after a few hundred miles these will be removed.
I did not expect these rotors to suffer so much when used with Endless ME-20. They are the classic design with straight vanes and as their thickness reduces the remaining mass to dissipate heat is no longer able to cope with the strong bite. At the end of the day we have almost metal grinding on metal.
Nitrous Blue Dyno Tuned @ 600 NM | Wagner Tuning – Competition IC | REVO Carbon CAI |
HJS 200 Cell Sportkat | Remus Cat-back | SS Black Chrome Tailpipes
Fischer-Hydraulik SS Brake Lines | Endless RF 650 Brake Fluid | Endless ME20 Pads F+R (squeak king)
Rotors: TSP XG150 – DBA 5000 T3 SLOT | DBA 4000 T3 SLOT | Suspension: MR – KW Clubsport 2 way with H&R ARB F+R
