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Fiesta St Rally car

32K views 60 replies 14 participants last post by  Arwel 
#1 ·
Thought I may aswell join the band wagon and start a thread on our project. We're building a Fiesta ST which will be road rally compliant as well as stage rally complaint for 2017. Aim is to get the car out there and have some fun and develop it as we go along so we're starting with a standard car.
I previously had a MI16 Peugeot 205 which after 7 years turned into a bit of a pain in the ass and then we used a Proton Satria for a few road rallies and then National on Rally GB in 2015 which was fantastic.

Anyway, here's some current progress. Interior was stripped and the car was sent away to have a cage made. It was then painted, some seat rails have been added and the cage re fitted loosley in place and that's about where we are currently.







 
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#4 ·
Nothing much more to update on this recently with Christmas and everything coming. However I shall be having some rally build related gifts so hoping to have a good bit of progress in January and push to get it MSA logbooked so we can start competing it.

In the mean time, here is a quick pic or two our old Pug 205 and the Proton we used on road rallies here in Wales and on Wales Raly GB last year.




 
#7 ·
That's what the general feeling is from what I have read. A few choice alterations will be made though to free up some more power. All that will come through the year. Main aim is to get it upto the standard where it complies with the regulations for rallying and then we will start adding "go faster bits"
 
#11 · (Edited)
Managed to get a few hours on the car this morning. Got her in the air, wheels
Off and gave everything a check over. Few little niggles to sort on top of what is getting
changed anyway but nothing major. Hydraulic handbrake has been put in
Place but will be properly fitted later. Also dropped the fuel tank ready to re route the fuel lines inside the car. Progress should speed up in the new year now as we are sourcing the replacement parts required.



 
#12 ·
There has been a fair bit of progress lately. No photos as of yet as its all been boring stuff really. Fuel and brake lines are now running inside, fuel tank guard has been made and fitted, sump guard is in the process of being made, dash panel for switches and master switch is taking shape along with all the wiring that goes with it. Windows have had the safety film applied and there has been some weight saving going on too. I bought one set of 15" wheels which will be re painted when i get round to them and we have bucket seats, belts and other rally related things on order from Nicky Grist which should be here soon. The only dilemma I have is suspension. As the car is going to be used for both tarmac and gravel I am in need of something that can cope with both. My two realistic options are some fixed Bilstein B8 shocks which are similar to what I had on my previous Peugeot 205 gti which proved to be a good all rounder on all surfaces or I go for the new Avo R1 coilover kit which has multiple damping settings as well as being height adjustable. A decision is to be made on this at the moment.
Our first rally in the car is hopefully going to be the Tour of Epynt on 12th of March so we have a lot of work to do as I want the car finished to is phase 1 spec by the end of February so it can have some mileage put on it.
 
#23 ·
Plenty of work been going on the last few days. We were hoping to do Tour of Epynt but we wont be ready for that one. Progress so far is the new Bilstein suspension has gone on, the dash panel and all wiring is nearly complete, cage is all bolted in place permanently and the interior has started going back in. Sump guard mount has been fabricated and fitted to. Next job is to get the seats in place so we can see where to mount the nav foot rest and the plumbed in extinguisher.


 
#24 ·
Just a quick updated guys. We are very close to finishing the car. Im having problems with photobucket with uploading images at the moment so will hopefully have it sorted soon now with an updated. But all being well it will be ready for an MOT next week with our first rally planned for the 9th of April at old an airfield in West Wales.
 
#27 ·
Last night the car was given its competition log book. This involves it being checked over by an MSA scrutineer to ensure it complies with all the relevant regulations. With the car now log booked we are one step closer. Finishing touches are being done and it will be out of the garage at some point over the weekend ready for an MOT in the week and a few little test runs ahead of the first rally on the 9th of April. Couple of quick picks of the interior coming together and the first set of wheels that we've had done by the Wheel Specialist in Swansea


 
#28 ·
Competed on our first rally in the new car yesterday. After nearly 18 months away from competition we were aiming to just get around and get a finish. We managed to finish 15th overall and 3rd in our class which was fantastic. Had one or two "moments" as I started getting more confident with the car and finding its limits and finding my feet again after some time away from competing but other than that it was all good.
Our only issue was that the engine seemed to like oil and we found ourselves topping it up after each stage so I think the engine will now come out for a freshen up and have a few tweaks made for some more power. Couple of images below of it all done and I'll hopefully get some in car footage up later on. :thumb:


 
#31 ·
It was very tight in places. Looking forward to later on in the year when we can have a go at one of the Epynt events which are lovely and fast and flowing. haha cheers Lewis, I've mastered the art of catching a skip like that from years of peugot 205 ownership so when the Fiesta did it, it was nice and easy to correct :lol:
 
#35 ·
I'm surprised you have kept so much of the interior- door cards etc??

Can you turbo-charge this thing, exactly what is permitted under the rules? Can you swap in a gearbox from a diesel Fiesta to give you the gearing in a tougher, uprated box??

Ideal car for it, Ford parts are ten a penny, I would love to have the time and space to do a car conversion, I'd enjoy the spanner work more than the actual driving!
 
#36 ·
haha they are pretty perfect for brake ducts aren't they.

We have to keep major interior trim components to comply with Road Rallies and the Road Rally class on stage events. So things like roof lining, original door cards, carpet and rear seat bench must remain in the car.
We wouldn't be allowed to run a turbo in our class with this engine, petrol turbo engines are capped at 1400cc for road rallies. For stage events you would have to fit a 34mm restrictor too and as the car is 2 wheel drive and not 4 wheel drive you would have the engine capacity timed by 1.7 i think it is so would end up having to run in the 3500cc and over class so im not sure how competitive it would be.
Gearbox can be changed, we cant run a sequential though but we are looking at ways of improving the gearbox with a lower final drive and LSD however I was impressed with the ratios in the standard gearbox.
Im hoping I dont cause too much damage anyway but if I did then panels are readily available and pretty well priced. This has been a dream to work on compared to my old 205 as that was just a nightmare to work on.
 
#37 ·
It's all been a little quiet for the Fiesta lately. Its been parked up since the rally in April due to other commitments but we have stuck an entry in for a little Targa road rally. The rally is ran to road rally regulations but is held in the Sweet Lamb complex and is made up by a series of special tests. Hopefully we'll find out this week if we have a run on it and the prep work can begin then.
 
#38 ·
I haven't put much time into the little Fiesta lately but we cracked on with it on Saturday and got the engine out as it needs a rebuild. It always had a little rattle from the top and we found a loose timing chain follower which solves that. However it used a lot of oil on the rally we did in April and a compression test showed that cylinder 4 was 50psi down on the others so we decided to give it a refresh now and add a few more goodies for some more power. Im hoping for a quickish turnaround to get the car back up and running and put some miles on it before its used in competition again.
P.s, Sorry about all the other photos, Photobucket has had a meltdown so Im starting again on Imgur.



 
#39 ·
Some more updates over the weekend. Engine now completely stripped down and the clean up has began. The big end bearings were toast and we were very lucky not to have a really broken engine on our hands. So new parts will be ordered this week and hopefully next weekend we can start putting it back together.



 
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