Ford Fiesta Race Car

[jason33]

Im new to the forum, been reading about all the competition cars on here and thought some may find mine of intrest.

My name is Jason, im a 21 year old engineering apprentice, I originally bought the little fiesta when I was 18 as my road car, but before long I had stripped it out to do some track days. Soon got bored of them as I missed my racing after selling my kart, I live right next to Castle Combe and I decided to build my car to race in class D (upto 1400cc) of their multi class saloon car championship. Castle Combe is known for its competitive home grown championships, voted some of the best in uk club motorsport.





So I first built the car over the winter of 07/08 for the 08 season, where I entered the Castle Combe Saloon Car Championship, the car was very basic to start with and I developed it as quickly as my apprentice budget could allow! It started off with mild head work, a set of Jenveys 4-2-1 manifold and a DTA S40, with standard cams rods and pistons I wasnt going to set the world alight, but 137bhp was enough to get me oput their racing competitively.










Its had a few bashes along the way too:





Which needed abit of this sometimes!



In the end I had a successful first year of racing, just missing out on the class and overall title, as I had developed it into the car to beat by the end of 08. Making it lighter, changing the gear ratios were the main improvements but a set of cams were bought for the end of the year which brought it up to 164bhp.

Some of you may have seen me in the beat the ST feature in Performance Ford in November 08, where I set the fastest 2wd time, only beat by a few yb powered beasts.




With abit more buget secured I rebuilt the car from the shell up for the 09 season, which was a good move as I had some new faster competitors to dice with, but the year couldnt have turned out much better, as I was unbeaten in my class, broke an 8 year old class lap record, and also showed alot of the faster cars up, especially in the wet.






















Sometimes trying abit too hard! Ive yet to find the wall yet though, thank god, and I hope I never do, thats too expensive!




Ive now just started my 09/10 winter rebuild, as I couldnt bring myself to sell it knowing I could still make it so much faster, so for 2010 im staying the same class as I just like embaressing the bigger engined cars!

It currently stands like this, I fitted two new rear quarter panels last week, now I need to prep the shell for paint.





Im making it lighter, more powerful, better brakes, better clutch, respray etc etc so I mean business in 2010!


A move to the Fiesta ST championship is the most likely move for 2011, as I had a sucessful one off hire drive in the series earlier this year taking two podiums.





Few pics, spec list and achievements over the past two years:















Car built, prepped, setup, repaired and maintained by Jason Cooper and Andy Thompson.


160bhp @ 7500rpm
127lb/ft @ 5500rpm
800kgs
200bhp per tonne



Engine:

• 1388cc Zetec SE, built and mapped by Sandy Brown
• Standard Rods
• Standard Pistons with valve cutouts
• Balanced standard crank
• Lightened and balanced standard flywheel
• Ported head by Mark Shillaber of SRD
• Suzuki GSXR throttle bodies
• Custom Colin Satchell inlet manifold
• 8 injector setup
o 4 off Ford 1.25 in head injectors and rail
o 4 off Pico injectors GSXR fuel rail
• DTA S40 ECU
• Sandy Brown/JC Designs custom engine wiring loom
• Customised Milltek 4-2-1 manifold, with lengthened secondary’s
• Modified full race Milltek exhaust system
• Powerflex poly exhaust mounts
• Piper 100 cell Sports CAT
• Vibra-technics race engine mount supplied by zippy racing
• Millers racing 10w40 Fully Synthetic Oil
• Custom profile Piper inlet cam
• Custom profile Newmans exhaust cam
• Piper valve springs
• Piper spring caps
• Braided fuel lines with anodised red/blue fittings
• Standard fuel filter fitted in engine bay
• Standard in tank fuel pump
• Colin Satchell lightweight Aluminium foam filled baffled fuel tank
• Nissens 1.9 Peugeot 205 Aluminium Radiator
• Lightweight slimline radiator fan


Clutch:

• 184mm 4 paddle AP Racing clutch
• Standard 184mm cover plate
• Girling .625 master cylinder
• Standard Slave cylinder

Transmission:

• Ford IB5 Gearbox
• 1.7 Puma gear ratios
• 1.6 Fiesta Final Drive
• Quafe Automatic Torque Biasing Differential
• Vibra-technics Torque link mount supplied by zippy racing
• Vibra-technics race upper gearbox mount supplied by zippy racing
• Silkolene SILKTRAN SYN 5 75W-90 Fully Synthetic Gear Oil

Suspension:

• Gaz GGA height, bump and rebound damping adjustable front and rear coilovers. Built with 1.5 degrees negative camber built into strut, supplied by zippy racing
• Peugeot 205 GTI Solid concentric top mounts
• Custom rear solid top mounts
• 400lbs front springs
• 600lbs rear springs
• Powerflex front anti roll bar bushes
• Powerflex front wishbone front bushes
• Powerflex front wishbone rear bushes
• Powerflex rear beam bushes
• Long front wheel studs
• 20mm front wheel spacers
• Standard refurbished front subframe
• Standard referbished hubs
• Standard new bearings
• Standard refurbished rear beam
• Standard drop links
• Standard ball joints
• Standard lower arms
• Standard power steering rack with power steering removed


Brakes:

• Hi-spec 4 pot front callipers
• 285mm grooved Hi-spec disks
• Mintex M1144 brake pads
• Front brake ducting from fog lights
• Standard rear drums
• Ferodo brake shoes
• Delphi brake fluid
• Goodridge stainless braided hoses throughout car including internally fed lines
• Tilton brake proportioning valve
• Compbrake rear linelock
• Girling .625 front master cylinder
• Girling .75 rear master cylinder
• Racetech balance bar
• Racetech adjuster cable


Wheels and Tyres:

- • 16x7” OZ Ultraleggeras Show
• 15 x 7” OZ superleggeras Dry
• 15” x 6.5” Ford Fiesta Zetec S wheels Wet
• 195/45 Toyo Proxies T1-R (New) Wets
• 195/45 Toyo Proxies T1-R (Worn) Intemediates
• 195/45 Toyo Proxies T1-R (New buffed to 3mm) Drys

Interior:

• Fully stripped interior.
• Colin Satchell custom 16 point fully weld in roll cage, gusseted A and B pillars, through to front turrets
• Custom floor mounted seat mount by Colin Satchell
• Recaro Apex Bucket seat
• Recaro side mounted seat mounts
• Sparco 6 point saloon harnesses
• Sparco 325 350mm diameter 95 dish steering wheel with dash control buttons
• Extended steering column
• JC Designs custom steering column mount
• Sparco quick release steering boss
• Swift Cooper Formula Ford Billet Machined Aluminium pedals
• JC Designs Custom pedal box
• DTA shift light
• FIA cut off switch
• Lifeline 2.25 litre fire extinguisher system
• JC Designs custom fiesta lightweight wiring loom
• JC Designs custom electrical control box
• Pi System 2 digital dash
• Pi system 3 club data logging system
o Water temperature sensor
o Oil temperature sensor
o Oil pressure sensor
o G sensor
o Wheel speed sensor
o Lap time beam sensor
• Flocked lightened dash by southwest flocking
• Carbon fibre dash inserts
• Sprayed gloss black by mr yella
• Varley red top 25 dry cell racing battery


Exterior:

• Fiesta Zetec S imperial blue shell
• Electric orange mirrors and bumpstrips sprayed by mr yella
• Lightened doors
• Lightened bumpers
• Lightened lift off bonnet
• Lightened lift off boot
• Rear euro light cluster
• Anodised blue aluminium bonnet and boot pins
• Schroth front and rear tow straps
• Vehicle Graphics by JC Designs




Magazine features:

Performance Ford Magazine, 6 page spead beat the ST feature, November 2008 edition

Fast Ford Magazine, 3 pages, featured car, local heros, Castle Combe ZSOC meet






Fastest laps

Castle Combe 04.05.09, 1.19.915, average speed of 83.3mph (Qualifying)

Castle Combe 04.05.09, 1.20.061, average speed of 83.18mph (Race, Class D Lap Record)




2008 Results: (9 races)

4 Class wins, 5 class second places, 4 class fastest laps, 7 class poles and 1 driver of the day, 2nd in class D championship, 2nd in overall championship, Michael Dowsett young driver of the year, nominated for Castle Combe Racing Club driver of the year, nominated in top 20 saloon drivers in the UK by Motorsport news 2008.

2009 Results: (9 races)

Unbeaten Castle Combe Saloon Car Champion, 9 class wins, 8 class poles, 6 class fastest laps, 1 class lap record, Castle Combe Racing Club Driver of the Year, voted 12th in the ones to watch in Motorsport News Fast 50 2009.


Thats enough for now, will update more as to where I am in this winters rebuild later.

[Dan]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

welcome to TS

looks like a very well sorted car that keep us posted on your progress, and not just the build we love having a good nosey of the racers exploits during a season

[gwxe]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

Well done you should be proud of yourself.

[Graham]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

good stuff, nice to see something different too

[team_zi]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

Stunning. Some money spent on that. With gr8 results.

Q where'd you source the carbon topped black boxes for the electronics and switches?

[jason33]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

Cheers. I certainly havent spent as much as it looks! Its just had ALOT of hours put into it.

Ive as much as I can myself with the facilities I have, from the whole wiring loom, to gearbox builds.

Sandy Brown (Known better in Peugeot tuning circles) has done wonders with the engine on a tiny budget, it would be abit expensive if I attempted that and got it wrong!

Stunning. Some money spent on that. With gr8 results.

Q where'd you source the carbon topped black boxes for the electronics and switches?

The electrical box looks quite good doesnt it! Its not carbon, I cheated, its actually a polycarbonate box I got from RS, which I had flocked and I stuck a sheet of laminated carbon on the front!

[jason33]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

Few pics of the wiring and the electrical box, the combe regulations require a full set of working lights so it still needs a good ammount of wiring in it, good job I like wiring!







Had to do quite a few of these over the years too, I have a habit of bending part of the selector mechanism (bent the same part about 5 times now!), plus I have had a detent mechanism break, syncro rings break plus the usual ratio changes!





I made the pedal box myself, from designing to making:







And the steering coloumn:





Few more pics of her

[jason33]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

Check out my array of onboard videos on youtube too.

http://www.youtube.com/user/jasonc33

Should be even better footage for next year as ive now got this:

[jason33]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

A few pictures from Sandys original engine build, almost three years ago now.



























100% reliablilty over the two seasons its been used, revving to 8k constantly on a standard bottom end was pushing it!

Sandy is building a proper engine for it now though. Although there is nothing out there for the 1400 Zetec SE, so its all one-off stuff.

[Paul C]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

Nice write up jason great car, a tribute to your hard work. I love the look of your wiring loom. A quality job.

The in car cam looks swish as well, just had a look on the website, which package did you get?

Paul

Check out my array of onboard videos on youtube too.

http://www.youtube.com/user/jasonc33

Should be even better footage for next year as ive now got this:

[jason33]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

Nice write up jason great car, a tribute to your hard work. I love the look of your wiring loom. A quality job.

The in car cam looks swish as well, just had a look on the website, which package did you get?

Paul

Cheers.

For the parts I wanted it was actualy cheaper to buy two of their packages.

I wanted 3bullet cameras, the DVR, the processor, mic and mounts. So I bought the two camera switcher kit and the quattro processor add on kit with an extra camera.

It will be a main forward facing picture, with two small pictures within the main, one facing backwards and one at me or my feet probably.

Havent managed to get any footage yet, had it on for my last race this year, but I didnt install it into the car properly, but that was my fault for leaving so late when it was dark!

[team_zi]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

What thickness carbon panel did you use on the control box? 1.5 ?

[jason33]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

So the new parts have been rolling in for the rebuild, first off were a set of new wings to replace the rusty and battered bodywork.



So the old wings were removed:











and new wings fitted:





new Ford Racing Puma rear stubs and hubs supplied by Paul and Jo at zippy racing.

This allows me to ditch the standard drums and convert the Fiesta to disks at the rear.



Undecided yet if I will be using the standard single pot setup the 2.0 Focus and FRP use, or if I will be using these two pot APs with a 8mm wide solid disc. I will have to make brackets and bells to suit if that is the case.




I have ordered a set of 4 pot AP calipers, the same that are used on the new Fiesta R2 rally car. These are being made and should be with me next week.



Once I get them I can calculate what size disc I can use with them under the 15" OZ Superleggeras I use, and design and make mounting brackets and alloy bells to suit.


I also recived a set of aero catches so that I can cut the holes required before the bodywork goes for paint.























Unfortunantely the catches at the bottom of the boot are too close to the edge to use aero catches so will have to get some new "normal pins".

[jason33]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

What thickness carbon panel did you use on the control box? 1.5 ?

It was either 1mm or 1.5mm, I cant really remember sorry!

[M508]

Re: Ford Fiesta 1400cc race car

wow. thats a cracking little car that. alot of nice bits of engineering too, hats off to you


Ben.