Fiesta XR4 (aka Spac’s latest half baked race car idea).

Well... turning the silver one into a race car has regained some momentum again today.

63.89 on Federal RSRRs is significantly better than I expected. Will bash out low 64s all day, and there’s clearly a lot of room for improvement.

Rapidly coming to the conclusion that it is a shit road car (for me - would be awesome if I lived in a city).

While it isn’t terrible, the balance of speed:comfort:fuel economy isn’t filling my heart with joy.

The Merc is much quieter and more relaxing to drive, a bit faster and uses about 1litre more per 100km.

The V40 has more rattles but is more comfortable, a lot faster, and uses very slightly more fuel.

But the Fiesta was so much fun today. Standard motor/exhaust, LSD, cheap coilovers, and it’s less than a second slower than the race car on the same tyres. If I can’t find that second simply by stripping the interior and fitting an exhaust, then I will be very disappointed in myself.

I have no question that it is the better platform for the Deputy 4hour (nee Cheap Car).

I need more beers to work out where to go from here.

Mini update...

The XR4 is a Class D car for Production Touring Cars, not Class E like I had assumed. Need to work out how it would stack up against the BRZ/86 and Integras that dominate that class.

I also drove a 1.6 Fiesta as a possible road car. It is actually slightly taller geared(!!?)) and more comfortable with the 15” wheels.

Swapped the 205/50 tyres for 205/45s and raised the front end by 12mm on the black car.

Couldn’t make it scrub at all which was nice, but I can feel the gearing being too short again, and the lower sidewall has brought some bumpiness back into the show.

The cheap (Hifly??) 205/50s are WAY bigger than the Bridgestone RE003s. They’re wider, and the sidewalls are heaps taller - far more than the specs suggest.

Black car sold.

I didn’t go backwards financially(!), so I am glad that I performed the experiment, even though I did not get the results that I was hoping/expecting.

Funnily enough, it went to a bloke who I have bought and sold RWD Mitsubishis with in the past, before he dropped off the face of the earth a few years ago.

I did a thing.

Actually did 8 things.

Brand new, to my specs (15x7 and +38ET) and a good price as part of a group buy.

Weight is reasonable, quality seems ok but I won’t pass judgment on that until they’ve bounced off a few kerbs.

Only negative is that they came with those stupid “tuner” nuts and won’t take proper nuts.

She’s a proper race car now, boyz! ?

Bonnet pins and the boot hold down springs were two pretty painless mini-projects after a displeasing day at work.

The bonnet pins line up perfectly - no fiddling and the bonnet closes over them without catching, which is nice.

However, the angle of the bonnet means that they need some trimming to get the rings over them - you can jiggle them into place now, but it is a fiddly, annoying process.

A few minutes with the grinder should sort this out tomorrow.

Not the most enjoyable job ever…

It began to rain about halfway through the job , and it was miserably cold.

But this made the adhesive easier to remove, so I stood in the almost sleet and finished the job.

Obviously a long way to go, but the cosmetics are coming along to my satisfaction…

Seat mount is today’s goal.

Putting it on rails because El Wifeo will also be driving it. She’s been using a big chunk of foam as a booster seat but it is a time consuming pain in the butt. Plus having the seat on rails can be used as a way to adjust the harness.

Rails are a shed find. Possibly old Datsun rails.

The blue adjuster lever is a piece of old trampoline net.

Next step is to cut the sump guard down to become a base plate.

And done…

I got lazy with the hole for the harness crotch strap - it isn’t really a rectangle, but whatevs.

The range of adjustment is goes from “too close for El Wifeo” to “too far back for me”, which should just about cover it.

New wheels. 195/50s on the rear, 205/50s on the front.

Both are just test fits.

Rear springs and shocks are in… maybe.

I have a set of lowered Eibachs, but the rears appear to be softer than the originals. So I tried some MX5 Eibachs that were floating around since I had the NA MX5, combined with some ex-Gemini Bilsteins.

Looks about right, but I am guessing until I drive it.

Also began removing the racing stripes from the roof. Had the awful realisation that the roof stripes are twice as long as the bonnet ones, and harder to reach.