Mk5 fiesta zetec s track car

[Chriscooke]

Ever since blowing the engine of my sx at the blyton Park weekender I’ve been too worried about taking it back on track.

Last year I picked up a bog standard puma 1.7 which impressed me massively as it’s nippy and handled very well for a cheap car. I like the car but felt it was disposable and as such had no problem abusing it on track at pembrey.





The only preparation the car required was a quick service and I splashed out on some interstate 80 compound track tyres.

The car survived the 4 hour return trip as well as 100 track miles and was great fun

There were a couple areas which needed to be addressed before another track day in the car, most notable of which were the drivers seat (had arm ache from holding on all day) and the suspension as I felt as if the wing mirrors were scraping the road!

I started looking for prepped cars as we all know it’s cheaper than modifying them from stock but soon gave up as nothing was appearing.

I bit the bullet and bought my first “proper” race seat and side mount rails, a bimarco cobra2 off eBay. Had heard good things about the seats and I’m really impressed with the quality and comfort for the price. Fit me perfectly which never happens being a fatty.



Seems I’m a bit impulsive currently as before the seat had even arrived I found myself bidding on a new car. This time it wasn’t a puma but instead a fiesta zetec-s. The cars share a chassis etc so handle almost exactly the same but normally have a smaller engine, this one however had been converted to the puma 1.7 engine which has been fettled with and has a more favourable ecu which can have maps flashed on to it.

This is the car I ended up winning on eBay without viewing it first, not a situation I’ve found myself in before.





Got the car home safe and started thinking about how to improve on it.....




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[Chriscooke]

First mod was to get my seat in the car so I could actually drive it, had to get con2k from on here to drive it back for me as I didn’t fit in the seats fitted



I’ve since swapped the old drivers seat over to the passenger side as it’s not a bad seat and was far better than the previous set up.

The car is completely stripped which is too much for me and I’ll be making it a little more refined.

Seeing as there are currently no sun visors and because racecar I fitted a chav strip



Excuse the rear wheels, the tyres on the other wheels are well used so wanted to avoid any run ins with the police.

Not had much time with the car but look forward to a new project and many more track days


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[pdh 14a]

Tempted to go down a similar route myself soon mate! Looks good

[ANDY black s13]

in for more updates,cheap fun cars are cool

[Chriscooke]

Even though this is a track car I hated the fully stripped interior, they had even removed the glovebox lid which literally weighs nothing..

Picked up a puma carpet and a few fiesta trims yesterday and set about fitting them today.

The carpet needed a fair amount of trimming to fit in around the bars for the seats but turned out pretty decent in the end.

Before




During





Done





Also half fitted a headliner



So much better


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[Slamz]

Ah looks great (bar the arches) I had an imp blue Zetec S years ago! On lowering shocks and springs, fully polybushed, good tyres, ST150 brakes, it handled so well for what it was and troubled some much 'faster' cars in the corners! I've been hankering for another one for a while now but think I'm going to get a Clio 182 for some cheap track fun!

[Chriscooke]

I don’t mind the arches too much as the axe wheels fill them pretty well. I wouldn’t of fitted them myself though.

182’s look like a riot, not driven one but passed a couple in my Puma at pembrey

[Chriscooke]

Forgot that I’d also given the rear struts and floor another coat of paint, was going to paint the cage but quite like it in bare metal with the weld colours...




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[SXRORY]

looks a good laugh that make sure you post up where you are going with it as always up for a day if i can

[Chriscooke]

Cheers mate. Want to do pembrey again at some point and try llandow too. What other tracks are good around here? Not sure I’m that fussed about Combe and thruxton tbh but that’s likely down to them being fast and me being a pussy

[Chriscooke]

Fitted a temporary passenger door card to help clean the interior up and made a few adjustments to the carpet for the centre console.



Got the car on axle stands today to swap the tyres over and spotted this



Bucket load of wet dirt up against a foam arch liner. Wonder why these cars rust !!


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[ANDY black s13]

could lessen the angle of the over shoulder harness straps and fit them to the short cage bracing bars
the arch liner material is like a sponge and stays wet for ages,they use same stuff on the mk6 (02 >) and later
the later shell is plastered in under seal and don't suffer rust as bad
in fiesta speak yours is the mk 4.5 or facelift mk4
swap the rear beam bushes for poly or solids and weld some bracing across rear beam is a good mod for handling
a welded bar linking front chassis legs would help as well, bolt on braces work but welded is more solid/effective

[Chriscooke]

Cheers for the tips. I don’t think the part of the cage you mentioned goes far enough in to the middle of the car to be used as a harness bar but willlook again.

The rear beam has already been polly bushed and I was looking at a front lower brace of some sort in the future for sure, heard they are noticeable when driving

[Pete C]

Ah so we basically followed the same path here, I had a Puma 1.7 Thunder which I loved to bits, but which sadly died due to BIIIIG rusty holes after about 2 years of ownership (it was pretty rusty when I got it to be fair).

I then bought a bog standard Fiesta Zetec S and swapped all the good Puma bits into it so engine, wheels (the Thunder wheels look identical to the Fiesta ones but with 10mm lower offset - bonus!), gearknob, steering wheel (no more nasty red bits) etc... I even have Puma floor mats! I call it... The Fiuma

So it's basically an OEM+ Fiesta road car with just a couple of little things like track tyres and DS2500s for when I do the odd outing, still handles bloody well though, and very stealth, which is just how I like it

Considering adding a supercharger as it feels like it could handle 170bhp or so... not sure if that would ruin the character of the car though?

Yours looks awesome! I love mine in black but that blue is beautiful.

[Chriscooke]

I seem to have a thing for blue cars, I like the colour but it’s the spec that sold it to me

I was planning on doing the swap with bits from the Puma but thought it was too nice to kill, annoyingly that’s started smoking now too so prob for the best that I didn’t use the bits from it.

I’ve been speaking to someone who’s in the process of creating a supercharger kit, biggest issue and cost would be the management I guess.

Been speaking to a mate with a racing Puma and we will likely be visiting pembrey again in the new year, you should tag along

[Pete C]

Been speaking to a mate with a racing Puma and we will likely be visiting pembrey again in the new year, you should tag along

That'd be awesome, never done Pembrey! Give me a shout

[green_rs13]

if your cage is still bare metal could you not paint it with clear lacquer to stop it from rusting?

if your harnesses don't work around the cage could you re-do the strut brace and put them round that? the current angle is a bit rubbish and not so good in a crash.

[Chriscooke]

Yeah I think something needs to be done. Maybe a heavier strut brace needs to be welded in as you say. Will look at the cage again and see if it’ll work first though

I think the cage has been lacquered already, it’s not new and doesn’t have any signs of rust on it at all.

Edit: cheers for the advice btw

[Chriscooke]

Been slowly trying to get this track ready over the winter.

The rocker cover was leaking quite a lot of oil which was pooling in the spark plug wells. I also wanted to check what cams were fitted as I was told they were aftermarket when I bought the car.



The cams look standard to me but it’s difficult to tell as many people send them off to be re-profiled. I’ve measured the lobes and still looking for an answer.


While the cover was off I decided to clean it up and paint it body coloured as the current paint was failing and I don’t intend to run the plastic colour for ease of maintenance.





And all fitted with a genuine ford gasket. Looks as good as it needs to for a track car



Next track day is booked at pembrey on may 31st through slip and grip on Facebook, can’t wait



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[Chriscooke]

Car now has a fresh mot after a bit of welding



After





While it was away it also had a new cambelt and water pump as a precautionary measure.

With the car back I met up with a friend with a ford racing Puma. These pumas are pretty uprated from standard and run 155bhp with wider track and uprated brakes and suspension.

We took the cars over the hills and my fiesta was every bit as quick as the puma so it would seem that the previous owner was being honest with the spec of the engine



These cars are great fun on twisty B roads





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