My first hot hatch!

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Discussion

Petrolhead95

Original Poster:

7,043 posts

153 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
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Previously owned a 1.2 Vauxhall Corsa but I wanted something faster. So after searching for a while, I finally purchased a Colorado Red Mk6 Fiesta ST with a decat exhaust, Pioneer entertainment system and a few other goodies. The car is on 103,000 miles, but I got a decent price so only time will tell if I made the right decision or not.

Done around 100 miles in it yesterday and loved every minute. Feels like an absolute rocket ship compared with my little Corsa!


8cylinder

232 posts

141 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
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Good on you,nice looking car these.
What are the plans for it?

SebringMan

1,773 posts

185 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
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These seem to have fallen into the hands of chavs for a while but I would like to think that they are moving on. They are a lovely little thing. Enjoy.

The engine is criticised in the STs but then I guess when a Clio had 170BHP+ it would never make life easy. At least the Duratec is very sturdy! If you do plan to mod it I would look into getting a complete exhaust system including the manifold ; they are very restrictive from the factory. They also respond well to an inlet manifold swap but things do start to become expensive after this!

expensivegarms

680 posts

196 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
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Nice car OP, funnily enough I went from a 1.2 corsa to an ST as well. Went like an absolute cracker when I first got it!

Stuperbulous

330 posts

149 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
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I'm 30, I bought one of these in Silver about 6 months ago to use as a toy, it really is a good little steer and fun to play with.


Patch888

701 posts

127 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
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Great choice of car mate, I love mine.

Petrolhead95

Original Poster:

7,043 posts

153 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
quotequote all
Thanks for the comments guys. Good to see some other PH'ers running the same as mine. I plan on getting into trackdays so I can actually find out how fast this car really is!

Patch888

701 posts

127 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
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this is mine mate, 4 years down the line, it's been a good 4 years.



Petrolhead95

Original Poster:

7,043 posts

153 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
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That's awesome Patch! Would like to end up with an MR200 kit, but my insurance definitely won't allow for a long time.

Petrolhead95

Original Poster:

7,043 posts

153 months

Tuesday 12th May 2015
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Update time.

I've done my first 1,000 miles in the car and I'm absolutely loving it. The steering and gearbox are flawless, you feel so connected. Straight line speed is okay, but I've now decatted the car and fitted a K&N air filter with a remap coming soon to help give that little more acceleration. Managed to get it to 125 MPH at Bruntingthorpe last weekend, and it was still pulling slightly.



Unfortunately I've had to spend a fair bit on it so far. Track rod ends, front brake hoses and realignment and tracking. Now my radiator hose has blown which isn't a huge issue, just frustrating. Going to try and pick up a second hand low mileage engine to swap over so I can have some more reliability, and also so I can start forging the older engine so I can eventually fit a turbo. The car needs some tidying up, but I don't mind a little project.

Future mods I have planned are to lower it 35mm all round, fit a Triple Composite carbon front splitter and difusser and paint the wheels black.

Patch888

701 posts

127 months

Tuesday 12th May 2015
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Eibach pro kit is very good if your wanting a 25-30mm drop. They work very well on standard dampers.

Sf_Manta

2,188 posts

190 months

Tuesday 12th May 2015
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Would also recommend changing out the major bushings for Powerflex if you're wanting to tighten up the handling. car on 60-100k tend to need new bushes, and changing these will restore / improve the handling no end especially combined with new shocks and springs.

JackP1

1,269 posts

161 months

Tuesday 12th May 2015
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Good buy. Mine runs 180bhp but don't want to plow more money into it for performance. Been meaning to buy the Bilstein B12 kit for years but will need to in the near future just to refresh the suspension components a bit.

RE: the Rad hose. was it he one that returns back to the block on the right hand side of the engine? Myself and a couple of guys have had this issue and it might be an eventual common one. This issue of it expanding up like a balloon and splitting. Managed to change mine before it went but it didn't look pretty.

Screen Shot 2015-05-12 at 20.42.10 by Jack_Pearson, on Flickr

LanceRS

2,171 posts

136 months

Tuesday 12th May 2015
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Very nice, please please don't paint the wheels black. Looks much better as it is.

neilbauer

2,467 posts

182 months

Tuesday 12th May 2015
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Or get some RS focus wheels like on my ZS and keep the originals wink

Edited by neilbauer on Wednesday 13th May 17:52

Petrolhead95

Original Poster:

7,043 posts

153 months

Wednesday 13th May 2015
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JackP1 said:
Good buy. Mine runs 180bhp but don't want to plow more money into it for performance. Been meaning to buy the Bilstein B12 kit for years but will need to in the near future just to refresh the suspension components a bit.

RE: the Rad hose. was it he one that returns back to the block on the right hand side of the engine? Myself and a couple of guys have had this issue and it might be an eventual common one. This issue of it expanding up like a balloon and splitting. Managed to change mine before it went but it didn't look pretty.

Screen Shot 2015-05-12 at 20.42.10 by Jack_Pearson, on Flickr
That's the bugger. It's going to take a while to clean all the coolant away!

Petrolhead95

Original Poster:

7,043 posts

153 months

Wednesday 13th May 2015
quotequote all
LanceRS said:
Very nice, please please don't paint the wheels black. Looks much better as it is.
I can't decide. I'll lower it first and then make up my mind.

macajc88

112 posts

160 months

Friday 15th May 2015
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Great choice! I had a 2008 model in Silver for 3 years and loved every minute of it. Kept mine completely standard.


Chunkymonkey71

13,015 posts

197 months

Friday 15th May 2015
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I like these a lot! They are just the right size too. Modern hot hatches are getting bigger and fatter but these still look just right.

Petrolhead95

Original Poster:

7,043 posts

153 months

Saturday 16th May 2015
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Got the new radiator hose fitted today, feels good to be back on the road. Gave it a proper clean earlier, gonna leave the car alone for a while so my bank account can recuperate before I start on some more mods. Aiming for 200BHP by next Summer.