We’ve undertaken an epic project that will see us develop one of the most formidable Fiesta STs in the country
It’s fair to say that with 380-odd horses under its bonnet and its killer suspension and brake setups, our ‘Ultimate Fiesta Build’ is really starting to live up to its name.
But there’s still a long way to go before the car is finally given away in its charity competition (head over to Dream Car Giveaways’ website right now for your chance to win it – entries are open until early summer).
For now then, it’s business as usual and this month saw us tackling our ST-3’s plush Recaro interior, with the aim of losing as much weight as possible and supplying a much more supportive cabin for both driver and passenger during on-track action.
The first task was to remove the majority of that attractive black-and-red factory trim. Once it was all out of the car, we just had to get it on the scales to see how much it all weighed. The answer? A whopping 75.5kgs!
In replacement of all of this mass, we opted for a duo of Motordrive’s Pro-Series fixed-back bucket seats. FIA approved, HANS-compatible and side-mounted, these are the real deal for track day and race cars, with these exact seats featuring in some of the most formidable race, rally and drift cars around the world.
We opted for the composite-backed variants to suit our budget, although they’re also available in carbon fibre for even better weight savings. Still, with the shell weight of our seats coming in at just 6kg apiece, we were set to shave a mighty 60kgs from the Fiesta’s overall weight in one fell swoop with this one upgrade!
The icing on the cake is the bespoke embroidery that the guys at Motordrive added to each seat for us – the ‘Ultimate Fiesta Build’ slogan proudly displayed in the car’s black/red/white colour scheme. Remember to consider custom upgrades when placing your order with this hugely respected British company.
Ultimate Fiesta So Far
With the amount of big-turbo goodness under the bonnet, it would be all too easy to plonk a load of clunky gauges and dials onto the car’s dashboard to keep tabs on the goings-on in the engine bay. But keen to streamline things and keep the interior looking relatively understated, the perfect solution instead came from our friends over at P3 Gauges.
Snapping up one of their trick air vent-mounted digital dials ensured we had all bases covered with one handy product. Cleverly giving off OEM looks until you fire it up, this amazing piece of tech then comes to life to quickly and accurately display info such as boost levels, vital temperatures, ignition timing, speed, RPM (with shift light) and even fault codes. You can even record accurate 0-60mph times with it!
Installation couldn’t have been easier – you simply plug the gauge into your OBD port using the supplied adapter and the car’s computer does the rest for you. This is a vital piece of kit for anyone who likes to keep on top of what’s going on with their pride and joy and we can’t wait to make use of all of its functions.
Next time, we’re heading back out onto the track to see how our latest raft of mods translate with some high-speed driving. We’re bringing along some other cars to compare it against too, so it should make for some seriously interesting reading…
