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Follow the build of one of the most extreme Ford Focus RS's

Another weekend antics, and im not talking about the weather! So last bit of major fab work done to the car, and it was ...
26/10/2026

Another weekend antics, and im not talking about the weather!

So last bit of major fab work done to the car, and it was supposed to be a fairly simple one.

Sumpgaurd - I spent far to long deciding if a kevlar gaurd was worth the extra expense vs a alloy one. And a bit of man maths later i figured it was going to cost me more that £200 to get more power out of the engine that it was worth going for the kevlar one to save 15kg of weight!

So order placed and 4 weeks later i had a kevlar guard that was supposed to be made of a replica from a R2 fiesta....
I mention this as i had bought another replica part, R2 front sumpgaurd mount that bolts between the front legs, and here was the first signs of issues.

Sumpgaurd turned up, and the mount and did they line up.... nope!

Not to worry the fancy little subframe mount brackets will fit.... nope!

So was up to me and poor craig yet again to get the grinders looked out and get modding the "bolt on part" to fit!

And before anyone mentions "yours isnt a R2 jack" i know this but where these parts bolt up to are not changed on the msport fiestas...

But with this being the last (hopefully) of the fab work done the home straight is in sight! And now its done the fiesta is fully kevlar protected on the underside!

Cheers

Every little helps? Or thats at least what tesco say, and im going to agree here! Its the little things that mount up to...
19/10/2026

Every little helps? Or thats at least what tesco say, and im going to agree here!

Its the little things that mount up to one bigger better thing.

So armed with a battery isolater, i popped the bonnet and started to look at where i could mount it. But there was one thing bothering me, the giant OEM battey and tray/ecu mount.

Maybe its just with having the focus and the bmw's where the batterys are else where in the car, but christ its a fair sized lump making the engine bay just look meh, plus working on things is a 50/50 if the battery needs to come out.

So looked at replacing it with a lightweight lithium, but sadly the bank ballance said otherwise! And with the seats and belts still needing bought i had a look to see if i had enough focus left overs to relocate the battery to the boot and then i found my old Valary Redtop battery sitting!

Gave it a probe with the meter and it sayed just over 12v, not bad! so put it on charge over night, let it rest and it was reading healthy so thought i can use that! A bit of up cycling!

So with that sorted i dug out the old tray for it and got my thinking cap on! Binning the standard battery box was a must as it was a fair weight of a thing! Bit of Cardboard aided design and i had a valary battery cage just needing a lil bit of welding from Craig and i could mount the ECU and the Isolator to it and keep it all neat and contained!

So thats what i did! And man i was on an electrical fulled roll so decided to trim back the stock loom, all aux wiring for the Speaker/hifi, crash and airbag sensors all ripped out!

Fun figures as to make the late nights seem a little less pointless...

Standard battery Is 13.7KG
Battery tray 1.9KG
Total 15.6KG

My battery/ECU/Isolater cage/tray 750grams
Valary Battery 7kg
Total 7.75kg

So nearly 8kg saved while adding an isolator as well.
Combined with the smidge over 2kg of wires i pulled out of it theres a free 10kg removed from the car...

Now it doesnt sound alot but il be adding a fire system to the car so its 4.25kg.... So adding more saftey into the car but still lighter than before! Has to be a WIN/WIN right?

Cheers!

Focus update 🥰So bit of a delay with things due to work commitments and building a rally car! But always in talks with C...
09/10/2026

Focus update 🥰

So bit of a delay with things due to work commitments and building a rally car! But always in talks with Charlie at PERON Automotive to get the focus moving forward!

So i think we have cracked another first with the focus, PQ gearbox, MQB mech, retrofitted into a Focus RS 🤌

Few revision changes to the TCU from the masters at TVS Engineering and we have one focus shifting through all gears on its custom stage 4 software!

Big thanks to the lads at Peron and TVS for looking after me yet again! The help and push from these guys to get this project going has been incrediable! Companys that support you and work with you to meet the same end goal make all the hardwork and headachs go away 🤝

Iv a few changes to make to the syvecs ecu now we are up and running on the MQB software as there is a few changes from the PQ firmware i was perviosuly mapped on, but we are back baby!!

Little midweek update/upgrade! Fords have always had nice shifting gearbox's, my first focus, My RS, my ST - all of them...
23/09/2026

Little midweek update/upgrade!

Fords have always had nice shifting gearbox's, my first focus, My RS, my ST - all of them had nice shifting gearboxs, But this one was very meh.

So doing a little digging i found Mountune did a quick shifter kit for the zetec s. This was a 2 part kit, a new shifter unit gear stick side and a fancy billet shifter weight. You could buy them brand new for about £400 all in, could being the key word, looks like they stopped making them a few years ago now!

Now if this was a ST there's loads of after market support for them, but its a different box so even borrowing bits wasn't going to work!

Luckly iv been keeping my eye out on ebay for ether the kit or the gearbox weight replacement. And i got lucky!

Zero other bids and i had a mountune billet gearbox quick shifter!

Pretty simple to fit and 20% less throw is welcome!

And typically as i googled it, looks like mountune have done another batch! So if you have a zetec s or mk6 ST id defo get one bought!

Well, the road test identified 2 issues, which given i had the whole car in bits, im actually ok with.First one easy fix...
18/09/2026

Well, the road test identified 2 issues, which given i had the whole car in bits, im actually ok with.

First one easy fix. I hadnt put the little breather pipe back on the gearbox, so the box oil pi**ed out of it - Once i found the pipe popped it back on and all was good!

Second one im a tad annoyed about, I had the thermostat housing off to fit a new lower stat, cleaned up the surfaces and fitted new seals, but it still decided it wanted to leak....
Why did it leak? Im blaming the plastic housing, its probably the original, and probably warped, me undoing it and putting it back on im guessing i never got it flat to the block again.

So at that point i spat the dummy and ordered not only a new set of seals, but a housing , new bolts and every hose (bar the one iv cut and looped)

Now you'd think this would be a quick easy job to swap over, but noooooo, ford had to put one of the housing bolts behind the alternator... so off with the stupid stretch belt, alternator and once that was out the way everything cleaned up again, and refitted!
While the coolant was dropped i popped the new hoses on as well!

Only ran it up to temp on the driveway but looks like its all good! One to keep an eye on tho!

Cheers!

So BIG push, time marching on i really wanted to get the car back down on all 4's! Few delays waiting on bits and bobs t...
14/09/2026

So BIG push, time marching on i really wanted to get the car back down on all 4's!

Few delays waiting on bits and bobs that i had forgotten about when stripping it down but that wasn't going to stop me!
New clutch kit fitted, that allowed me to get the box on and before i knew it, it was back in the car!

Then it was the boring job of running all the wiring around the engine and plugging everything in.

Front end went back on with ease as i had cleaned up all the fixings, so then it was a case of bleeding the brakes and coolant system and it fired right up!

Got it out for a little road test down to the other jacks shed to put it up on the ramp, do the tracking and admire my hard work! Chuffed with how far its came in a fairly short time!

Theres loads of little details to sort, and a good few bits to fit, next big item will be the sump guard but iv got to wait for that to get made!

Ordered some custom brake lines from HEL as the suspension has a bit more droop that stock ST's the lines are getting a bit tight for my liking on full droop and lock!

But for now im going to give myself a bit of a rest! Practically been living in the garage at this point!!

Happy Monday!

So back at it and back to the captive nut saga! So i bought some flanged nuts off ebay thinking i could use them, but wh...
05/09/2026

So back at it and back to the captive nut saga!

So i bought some flanged nuts off ebay thinking i could use them, but when they turned up they were so thin walled i knew it was never going to work. Turns out you can actually buy weld nuts! Who knew! Because i didn't! 🤣

But i didnt have to! I got some M10 boss's machined up, nice, big, chunky and ready for weld!

So with Craig on emergency call out dutys, he was right over because i only had 2 of these made so it was a 1 shot and it better work kinda job and i just didn't trust myself enough!

Boss's welded in, cover plates made and then it was back to me to get cracking again!

Inner arches had already been treated so it was time to mask the area and get the gravitex in about!

With that done and looking good its time for the reassembly!
Anti roll bar fitted, subframe bolted on, bottom arms, hubs and shocks all fitted.
Now the egal eye'd will have noticed theres no springs fitted to the coilovers.... Well this is to do with the diff and something i read while looking for instructions on how to bed it in.... A few people on facebook had reported the diff being to large (long i guess) and it caused the shafts to push out and then you loose your plung on the CV's and the next thing you know your CV's are in bits.... so will run the shafts through the arc on lock both ways and check for plung or binding! Hopefully no issues there!!

Cheers!

If you're going through hell, keep going - Winston Churchill I might be over reacting a little here, but yeh, limits are...
02/09/2026

If you're going through hell, keep going - Winston Churchill

I might be over reacting a little here, but yeh, limits are there to be pushed? Either that I'm just to stupid to realise iv failed and im still going 🤣

Gearbox's... The bain of my motorsport chapter! I dont know what it is but im just not very happy having to play about with them!

But, times ticking, willingness to learn, and armed with a youtube video i was ready to give it a go!

Job was simple in theory, hard in pratice, Fit the gripper L*D to the box. Bit of prep work i had new seals, new diff bearings and going by the guy on youtube it should be probably the easiest job to carry out gearbox wise... So off i went!

And to be fair i got on all right, had to look at the youtube video mainly when things didnt " fall apart " and i was scared i was pulling on something i shouldnt or had forgotten to undo.

But other than having to find a very think round bit of metal to press one of the new diff bearings on it went pretty smooth!

Hands were covered in oil for most of it so actually only took one photo prior to putting the new diff in!

Gave everything a check and other than reveser gear looking a little sad with a trip to turkey for some new teeth not being a bad shout, the box was actually in pretty good nick with all the synchros looking pointy still!

Early days, but it went back together just as easy and i can select all the gears so thats got to be a good start!

So even though the chassis work had to stop there was plenty to get on with.With the car on the higher end of the mileag...
28/08/2026

So even though the chassis work had to stop there was plenty to get on with.

With the car on the higher end of the mileage scale, i thought it would be a good time to give the engine a bit of TLC.

So major service was due, timing belt, water pump and tensioner all to be fitted. Whipped the covers off and yup, belt was starting to crack, not the worst iv seen but this is why I'm doing it, so was actually nice to see i wasn't wasting my time!

Talking of time, i noticed the engine was ever so slightly out of timing, belt stretch/lack of tension was my first guess, didnt get to caught up in it, but again another reason to do this.

All new parts fitted and timed up correctly, spun over twice and re check timing and its pap on so jobs good!

Then while i was on a roll i got the Ford AC delete kit fitted up and new alternator bolted on, Nothing wrong with the old one but I'm at the point with the car now iv so much time and money invested I'm replacing as much as i can practically afford to!

Gave the mounts a clean and blast, timing cover a once over with APC and bolted it all back up. Clutch to fit then its ready to go back in once the other works completed!

This weekend off as im on best man duties my good friends wedding and everyone knows operating the grinder while drunk is a bad idea 🤣

Cheers!

Flat out before the stage even started! The weekends job was the front ends turn for its upgrade / refurb Plan was simpl...
24/08/2026

Flat out before the stage even started!

The weekends job was the front ends turn for its upgrade / refurb

Plan was simple, engine out, all suspension stripped off, clean up the subframe as its the only part staying, clean, treat and coat the inner arches and tiny bit of floor i didnt get done.

Started well, front end came off pretty trouble free, got the rad removed, aircon rad off and the crash bar prepped for a bit of paint.
Then it was onto the engine and box to remove, luckily these are very similar to the Fiesta ST's that iv dabbled with, but even simpler as theres no intercooler pipe work or oil feeds ect ect. Few coolant hoses and a mountain of plugs and the engine was ready to come out - Flying!
Subrame next and this is where all momentum ended.... Captive nuts.... I seen the front leg bolts through the leg and knew they didnt look smart. Fact that it was a E bit as well the fear had started to set in. So decent soak with plus gas, left them a hour and then it was time to get the bar on them see if i could get them out - Short answer is nope... Both front subframe captive nuts broke there welds... what should of been a easy unbolting of the subframe now turned into a hassle of cutting into the legs to get the old bolts out! Honestly ruined my progress but hey it is a 15 year old fordy at the end of the day!
Drilled a little hole with the hopes i might be able to reweld the nut but when i got in there the mess made me realise that wasnt going to work, so cut a bit more to then find ford for some reason put a cage over the top of the nut?? Why i have no idea but that had to get cut as well!

Progress stumped but not deterred!

Gave the arches a buff down and a spray with the rust converter, then used every chemical i had for cleaning cars and got the heat shields cleaned up so at least everything isnt covered in oil/mud now!

Onwards we go!
Cheers!

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