Rowe

Morning gents. Nothing really impressive, just a bit of a diary about the life of my ST170 track car. I wont bore you with all the modifications fitted to it, but if there's any questions feel free to ask.

Bought the car pretty much as it stands now. Credit to the previous owner.... he really put together a nice handling car.










as soon as i got it home, first thing on the list was to have a general nosey round the car to see if/what parts need replacing. After getting underneath, it was pretty apparent i was going to need to replace the front subframe (which luckily was included in the sale)



along side this rot, both sills needed plating at the rear, the power cable needed a gromet on it where it went through the bulkhead, brake lines need replacing on the back within the next 12 months, drivehsaft seals need doing, and i was in diar need of a set of harnesses.
Straight on ebay, and managed to bag myself a set of TRS 6 points.







rightly or wrongly, i've used the holes originally for the base of the seats, and drilled through the floor for the remaining points and plated them underneath.

Booked myself some track time at FordFair. Unfortunately only 1 20 minute session. Loved every second of it! The car held it's own on the track and i felt very confident driving it.







more to follow

PaulinhoT

Brilliant stuff, and a very nice looking ST170

STeve

iTrader: (11)

all good that, doing a track focus myself at moment with a mate ready to unleash for next year on the tracks, as I have so many st170s around me its rude not to with free parts

Twins

iTrader: (18)

Perfect base car to use ,my friend has one, great track cars

The Black Count

Very nice. Any plans or idea's for improvements?

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

I have just sold my st last month. There a good car which get slated,i dont know why.

Ive never seen a rotton sub frame like that before.

Im intersted in the spec matey so you can tell me if you want

Rowe

Makes perfect sense! I couldn't recommend it enough. It's becoming an expensive hobby though

Rowe

The eventual plan is to install a roll cage.....
The clutch will need replacing at some point, so I'll probably chuck an lsd in at the same time. That's it really. I'm enjoying driving it at this power level.... However, it is annoying being overtaken on the straights by unconfident drivers who don't like bends.

This will be my third mk1 focus. Neither of them rotted like this one. My old mans never seen one like it either (runs his own garage)

the engine is pretty much standard. It has a cais which is located behind the fog light, decatted and deresonated system, oil breather with catch can, mocal 19 row cooler, a/c removal.
BC coilovers, mintex pads and burton discs on the front, oe on the back
16" team dynamic wheels wrapped with soft compound Nankang ns2r's

Interior is fully stripped as you can see.

I'm planning on retarding the exhaust cam a tooth when I get round to it. Would love to get it mapped too.

The Underdog

Hi Nathan. Good to see this back on here getting updated. Look forward to seeing more.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Cool spec matey. My wifes 53 reg focus was a rusty coooont. It was rotton round the rear inner arches. I also welded the back of the sills up too.

My old 54 reg ST17O had no welding at all. I think the wifes old focus must of lived near the seaside.

Rowe

Hopefully have a similar spec to yourself soon! Safety devices cage is top of the list at the moment.


I think the rear inner arches have been looked at before, but I haven't really checked them. It's a job for over winter if they need doing.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

I hope its ok. My wifes was also rotton where the rear seat belts bolted to the floor.

Rowe

i'll have to have a look........ i saw one on facebook the other day which had completely rotted through where the trailing arms attach.

Rowe

continuing from the first post.

enjoyed myself quite a bit at FordFair so decided to book a full days worth at RS national day Donington.
as previously mentioned i had to replace the front subframe. The original plan was to fit polybushes, but i was slightly skint at this point after just shelling out on another set of wheels with road tyres fitted. So i ended up just sticking new wishbones on.

of course, had to check the alignment which was massively out.





unfortunately there were no professional photos being taken at Donny. But a friend did manage to get some footage following me in his ST150. Couple of vids below. (obviously i'm very new to all this, so any driving tips would be appreciated)




had a bit of fun on track with a pair of clio's...... one of which ended up rolling towards the end of the day. Driver was ok though




i ended up having a bit of a moment at the first corner on my second session. I must remember to warm my tyres up properly next time!!!

Wilde_UK

How much of a job was the subframe replacement? My front one has a tiny bit of corrosion (though it flew through the last MOT fine), wondering whether to get it replaced and if so how much of a ball-ache it is!

Rowe

pretty simple if you have a ramp to do it. It'd be possible on the floor but i'm too lazy to do that.
Simplest way to do it in my opinion is undo the lower engine mount, pop the ball joints out, updo the drop links, then you can start to undo the 6 pins holding the frame in place. At this point it gives you enough access to undo the steering rack from the frame.
best off having a mate with you for a lift. Cable tie or strap the rack so it can't fall down.


if it's just surface rust, just brush it back and waxyoil it

pyle

It looked better with the team dynamics wheels! What oil do you use and how is the engine holding up?

Rowe

Completely agree with you. I've been trying to find another set of 16's but they're either ridiculously pricey or the other end of the country.
The comps are just my road tyres for travelling to and from events. Once I'm on track the semi slicks and TD's come out.

Engine is holding up very well (touch wood). It's done 134k miles (the last 4K on track). It doesn't have an easy life at all.
It uses virtually no oil on track and doesn't smoke at all. It's got Millers nanodrive 5w40 in it at the moment. That will be getting changed after Cadwell in November.

I plan on stripping the engine down over winter and refreshing some parts. Maybe I'll stick a set of cams in whilst I'm there

pyle

Did you retard the exhaust cam?

Rowe

nope, that's this weekends job as well as doing the driveshaft seals

pyle

What results do you expect to achieve?

Rowe

None tbh. It just shifts the power band higher up the Rev range

pyle

If that true you won't benefit from it.. You drive on track corner exit power is your goal.

Rowe

Ofc I'll benefit from it...... If your revs are that low coming out of a bend, then you're in the wrong gear.
Time is made up in braking and corner speeds..... Not exit acceleration (which I don't have much of anyway)

_Jimmy_

All well and good until you're stuck behind a more powerful car that holds you up in every corner then pulls away on the straight

Rowe

That happens as it is anyway haha. its a reversible process anyway.... I got caught up quite a few times at RS national day

STeve

iTrader: (11)

I bet it was by a sea of blue mk3 rs's with shite drivers

Rowe

To be fair, it was actually a lot of older cars.....sapphires and escorts, but I completely understand why.
I wouldn't want to be nailing 20 grands worth of escort round a track full of novices like myself lol

Rowe

managed to find myself a second hand Dreamscience unit on eBay, bought it at the BIN price as soon as i came across it. Was hoping to get it all sorted in time for my track day at Croft which was on the Sunday.
received it, plugged it in, 'wrong vehicle'......... contacted the seller who gave me a load of reset instructions to no avail. So i'll be sending that back!

onto the track day...

Had a cracking day on sunday razzing around the Collective Car Show @ Croft. The show itself wasn't organised as well as i think it could of, but overall i had a cracking day.
i ended up getting my comps sprayed bright blue to match my new side graphics (which i'm sure Steve will love)





got to the track nice and early and was greeted with a fully wet track. So the first session i left my road tyres on. Ended up having a big spin at the Jim Clarke esses........ completely lost the back at the top end of 3rd gear and ended up lifting off whilst trying to correct it. Big mistake. Fortunately nothing damaged and i avoided hitting the barrier.



Swapped to the semi slicks for the second session and the rest of the day which still seem not to of worn at all.
Only thing i will say, is that i was a bit miffed about the track etiquette...... or rather lack of it. Literally none of the faster straight line cars would let me get past. This resulted in most of my laps being over 2 minutes.
My last session of the day, and me and my friends made sure we were first in the queue. I still got held up a little in this, but once i had some clear track i managed to do a 1:50 (which was quicker than two of my friends running 350bhp fiesta's with slicks)

video footage of the session, followed by a few photos.








again, comments about my driving technique are welcomed. Always interested in learning from more experienced people.

PaulinhoT

Nice video, looked like a fun day

Rowe

it was! looking forward to the next one at Cadwell at the end of November.
I've bought myself some wet tyres off eBay which i've got to pick up on Friday. Just hope they're as per the description....... i've not been very lucky with eBay recently lol

PaulinhoT

Same as, but good luck

Piston Broke

To be fair your driving was pretty good mate held the corners well. There's was so many bad drivers we didn't give it full beans could see a roll or somthing waiting to happen with some of the pube heads. We were in the blue mk4 RS

Rowe

cheers!!!
i think i do recall seeing you........ some people were lifting off through the craner curves....... nightmare!!!

Rowe

been a little while since i updated this..... not a great deal has changed. I got bored one weekend and though i'd attack the wiring loom which i wish i never started.
Also decided to fit a handheld fire extinguisher.





All tidied up a little with lotssssssssss of cloth tape





As i've already mentioned, i had Cadwell booked for the end of Nov. What a fantastic track! The morning started off very moist and the track was majorly slippy in alot of places! It soon began to dry out though and by dinner time it was fully dry (although a little cold)
The car performed faultlessly all day (excluding it cutting out at one point on the track and firing back up straight away).
Enjoyed it so much that a group of friends and myself have booked onto another open pit day in April next year.

A few pics of from the day:







Cage is booked in for the 3rd week of Jan. Still need to make my mind up whether i spray it, or paint it with a brush

little bit of footage from the gopro too

PaulinhoT

That look's highly enjoyable well done.

STeve

iTrader: (11)

love it so far well done, just not a fan of the company advertised on side of the car

Rowe

I'll start blurring the rear quarter out on pictures

To be honest i'm actually thinking about some tiger stripes in the new year. It isn't a proper racecar without loads of pointless stickers.

STeve

iTrader: (11)

now your talkin !

Rowe

as a few of you wil of seen on Facebook, i tackled the remaining sound deadening over the weekend. With the low temps we've had, i though it'd be an ideal time to start removing it.
I've heard mixed methods about the best way of tackling it, but decided in the end to give the hammer and chisel a go. After around 2 hours i gave up and bought an air chisel from screwfix for 24 quid. This made light work of the job

sunday i decided to tidy up some areas with a wire wheel but managed to set the grinder on fire...... So for the time being it's staying as it is.






Cage goes in next week, i'm a little excited about it, but not looking forward to painting the insides. Still undecided on what colour to go, i was thinking that un-lacquerd silver would look quite smart

Steve, you'll also glad to hear that the cars booked in at blueprint mid Feb to get a tiger stripe inspired design.