2017 FOCUS ST-H Building the car I wish Ford had built from the factory.

In reply to ProDarwin :

yes.. because a helmet is an actual safety item.. 

Wait, so you are using a harness in addition to the stock 3pt belt? (which is an actual safety item)

In reply to ProDarwin :

and it's also required by SCCA, PCA... etc etc.. 

but companies like GM DON'T use them on their facilities.. 

GM requires their drivers to wear HANS devices if they put helmets on.. 

that's why all of the GM driving team wear hans at national autocross events. 


i look at risk in autocross that it should be mitigated before i get into a car.. 

If i'm worried about hitting things, that risk should be dealt with before i turn a wheel.. 


I didn't buy a fiesta because while the chances of rollover were extremely unlikely.. I wouldn't feel comfortable driving the car to the limit.. 


To put it simply and route back to where this started.... I agree (as i said before) that routing the harnesses through the middle of the headrest is prefereable...

 

If you look at the routing of this belt, the cross behind the seat and ideally inside the headrest bars, I don't (personally) feel that this is any less safe than a stock 3 point belt at autocross speeds. The only place it's sketchy is high speeds, especially high speed rollovers where the roof is likely to come in. 

This debate is much like the Miata rollbar on the street debate. We all have to find a place where we're most comfortable. 

In reply to spacecadet :

If you want to unload one of those CG locks, I might be interested...

So a lot happened in the past month..

Got a quote for professional installation of the diff because I wanted to know what that looked like.. The answer was $2300-2500 depending on the diff I chose to install. 

Then as one lap approached I thought more about getting a cheap track car and started looking for a Gen 1 fit and ultimately ended up finding my 2009 FG2 Honda Civic Si instead for $1800 

So for essentially labor cost to install the diff in the focus.... I got a whole second car... 

Autocross the new car, love it, went on one lap and my focus has now shifted to wanting to get more track time and fully away from anything to do with heavy investment in a specific limited scca autox class build. 

I'm going to sell off my spare wheels and tires for the focus as well as the RS front calipers I have and the trailer hitch I I got used. 

The focus is going to be exclusively a DD and Hazmat will get all of my attention and will be built as I want for the $2k challenge and One Lap and I'll just drive it in whatever local autox class it fits in. 

The focus may be replaced with something else in the future like a truck or a van.. But no rash moves at the moment. 

In reply to spacecadet :

Your explanation on not trackimg your daily is 100% spot on.  I never get why more auto enthusiasts don’t go this route.  Any car you autoX, track or drive hard should be something you can walk away from and don’t need to get to work.

Calipers are sold to a local guy. 

wheels are posted for sale in the car parts forum here

have not decided to sell the hitch in case i keep the car. adds utility to be able to put a bike rack on the car, etc.. 

Wheels sold within 8 hours. 

Shipped off to the west coast this evening. 

Focus went to carmax tonight. Somehow I dented it more, scratched it more and put more miles on it and It didn't depreciate since I last had it appraised in March. Sooooo Off it went. 

I will miss it, it was a terribly built car, But extremely well engineered. I thoroughly enjoyed owning it. Sold it to them with one gallon or so of fuel left in it. Will have to go over my google spreadsheet tonight to calculate the total average MPG across my 21 months (to the day!) Of ownership. 

 The car did it's job. That's enough. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

 The car did it's job. That's enough. 

it was a phenomenal car. I'd definitely recommend one to someone who wanted a fun DD. seriously good bang for the buck.

As soon as they start to get under 10 grand for a decent one...I'm going to have to look at rebalancing my life goals to be able to afford one.

In reply to slowbird :

Honestly I'd probably be scared of the e-diff nonsense at that point. But yes I would also definitely be tempted at that point.

Daylan C said:

In reply to slowbird :

Honestly I'd probably be scared of the e-diff nonsense at that point. But yes I would also definitely be tempted at that point.

the E diff is fine as long as you work around it on track with proper pads and not overdriving the front. in autox it's a disadvantage but not a actual problem. and they're TONS of fun around town and you can run them on 87. I usually did for long trips to save a few bucks when i'm just spinning RPMS and no boost. but it runs fine on the 87 too, 

Ran the Totals 

Bought the car with 87 miles on 12/16/2017

Sold today with 54951 miles on 9/16/2019

Total spent on fuel: $5226.53

Total Gallons of fuel used: 2064.89 

Lifetime AVG MPG: 26.57 

Lifetime AVG cost per mile in fuel: 9.51 cents. 

Days owned: 639 

AVG miles per Day:85

Daylan C said:

In reply to slowbird :

Honestly I'd probably be scared of the e-diff nonsense at that point. But yes I would also definitely be tempted at that point.

The e-diff is just using the ABS to reduce wheel spin.  The diff is nothing fancy, just a standard open diff.  So as long as you use good quality pads, fluid and don’t over drive the car too much, it works pretty well.

The RS Brembo brakes bolt on if you need more ability to manage the thermal loads and/or more leverage.

Welp. Looks like my only excuse is money then.