My Focus SVT (ST170)

That's a nice car you have. Looks well taken care of too. Only thing I don't like is the color. The first gen Focus really looked the best in Racing Blue, but that's just personal preference. Aesthetics aside, that is really a brilliant car, congrats!

Liquid Grey Metallic and Black were good colors too.
 
Question:

I'm in need of a set of All Season Tires right now can't afford owning two sets of wheels right now so I've looked at some tires, and it seems these are a decent buy.
 
Good taste I'll agree, but the Focus is a car that begs for a tweak or three.

Like these wheels [ok, maybe in white not yellow]
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...a nice exhaust and some weekends with the polish. Mmmmmm tasty. Or, this:
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Just drove the car for the first time since it has been: registered in New York State, passed emissions with flying colors, and a new set of tires. I went out with my dad to learn manual, and wow I'm in love! The steering is really solid and the car changes direction in a dime.

I :wub: my focus.
 
Good to see another SVTF owner on the forums.

I have an 04, it just passed 60K. It's a blast, and I used to autocross her regularly.

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Some things to watch for is the header and catalytic converter are the lowest points on the car, it is easy to damage the O2 sensors, also the intake manifold is a dual stage one and it switches from one set of runners to another at 5K RPM, the plastic switch has a habit of breaking but they are fairly cheap to replace and a couple companies make metal ones (I have a metal one on hand but I'm still on my original switch, but I know a couple owners who went through several). Other than that it's been a damned fine car and I plan on driving it until the wheels fall off or the engine explodes.
 
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See - Ford can do great stuff when they put their mind to it. ...

Designed in Germany and Britain, tweeked in the US and built in Mexico!

The stupidest thing Bill Ford did was not upgrade with the rest of the world for the North American Focus and they just kept getting uglier and uglier after 2004.
 
Ours are rather nice - seen the RS, cheap but perfectly formed. .... (Not so keen on green myself - well that green anyway. Would have looked better BRG.)

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Ours are rather nice - seen the RS, cheap but perfectly formed. .... (Not so keen on green myself - well that green anyway. Would have looked better BRG.)

Yeah I'd love to have an RS, I can easily afford one and I'd happily trade my SVT and my Miata in on one.

I despise Bill Ford for "Escortizing" the North American Focus when even fucking Mexico got a nicer one than the US and Canada.
 
Ians and Jasons are both really good looking for the NA type in my opinion (best colours and version that I have seen for NA).

Fancy a 3rd gen UK Focus myself (perhaps not an RS :sad: wife would go bananas) when I change, we may not need two 7 seaters.
 
I had a project this weekend. A few weeks ago on my way back to Virginia from Florida I managed to slam my header back hard enough to snap off both O2 sensors, put a gouge in the bottom of it and bend the header back far enough that I can't get new O2 sensors back on.

Instead of buying another stock header and heat shield (the heat shield has 4 bolts on top and 2 at the bottom, the bottom 2 broke away from where it was bolted to the header) instead I bought this:

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It is a stock SVT Focus header without heat shield attachments and coated.

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Today I installed it.

The old header.
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Old. Vs. New.
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What was left of my O2 sensors.
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Installation complete.

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Very nice! :D

So it's stock header with just better looks haha! How much did you get one for though they retail for $375 directly from Ford?

My last purchase was: YOKOHAMA AVID W4S last week great all season tire for now till I go for a summer set to take it to a track.
 
Very nice! :D

So it's stock header with just better looks haha! How much did you get one for though they retail for $375 directly from Ford?

My last purchase was: YOKOHAMA AVID W4S last week great all season tire for now till I go for a summer set to take it to a track.

No it is thermal coated so you don't need that ugly ass heat shield.

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It would of cost about the same to order a new non-coated header and a new heat shield so I went with the better looking option.

I got the header for $302.50. If you are on Focaljet there is a guy named Steve who works for Tousley Ford and he sells Ford and Ford Racing parts at a good discount.

I wear summer tires all year around, I've used summer tires in the ice and snow before and it isn't a big deal as long as you are willing to drive like a grandmother on the 2 or 3 days a year it ices up in my neck of the woods.
I went from the stock (and crap) stockers to Bridgestone Potenza RE-750's (very nice, but expensive) to now General Exclaim UHP's, MUCH cheaper than the stockers and the RE's they are great tires and I have another set I'm going to get put on tomorrow.

For autocrossing I've got a set of 15 inch Team Dynamic's PR-1 wheels (one of the few 15's that fit over the front brakes) with Falken Azenis RT-615's on them. The wheels are much lighter than stock and I was willing to sacrifice some tire width for the weight reduction and more importantly a shorter gear ratio. On most courses the SVTF 1st and 2nd gears are too high to get into or stay in the power band so the smaller wheels and tires helps to mitigate that. So far it has worked out, those along with my LSD have really helped my times.
 
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The svt focus is a great first car. I wish my fisrt vehicle was that nice. You're off to a good start!
 
The svt focus is a great first car. I wish my fisrt vehicle was that nice. You're off to a good start!

Thanks its a awesome car for the money! :)

Plenty of power for such a small hatch it's easy to spin the wheels in first especially when you don't realize that the TC is off :D
 
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i would suggest some header wrap on nearby wires, i learned the hard way that even coated headers can melt everything around them :(
 
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