Focus Rs no 2376

Author
Discussion

neiljohnson

Original Poster:

11,298 posts

208 months

Thursday 8th July 2010
quotequote all
oj121 said:
Would seriously love one of these, along with an escort cosworth. Just wish i wasnt so poor.
Not so expensive now & a lot easier to find a good Focus than a good escort (this is why i bought it over the cossie) get saving thumbup



a video from a local Hsv.org meet cloud9 love the v8's

http://redirectingat.com/?id=1044X509854&xs=1&...

was a good day out biggrin

oj121

1,548 posts

173 months

Thursday 8th July 2010
quotequote all
Hpw do you find the focci day to day? I have found a few decent examples under the 10k barrier now so its getting more of a real option.
Do you find the car has aged much?

anonymous-user

55 months

Thursday 8th July 2010
quotequote all
great cars! and i think so much more honest and credible than the mk2 version.... although i am a little biased as a member of the original small development team on RS with many 000's of happy miles of RS thrashing under my belt:

trip cars catching a little lime light outside Dunton HQ


sunning themselves on the shores of the Adriatic


mountains:


more mountains:


Stelvio:


stuck at the top (pass wasnt fully opened yet, somethings even an RS can't climb ;-):



probably my fav RS pic:



sorry for the thread hijack, but thought you might like to see those pics (never been seen before) and enjoy your car !!!



oj121

1,548 posts

173 months

Thursday 8th July 2010
quotequote all
Jeremy Clarkson rates his little Focus is the most reliable little car he has had. Has said it in a few places.

I just thought that they might be 'feeling their age' a little by now. Rattles, dull cabin, non digital radio?

neiljohnson

Original Poster:

11,298 posts

208 months

Thursday 8th July 2010
quotequote all
oj121 said:
Hpw do you find the focci day to day? I have found a few decent examples under the 10k barrier now so its getting more of a real option.
Do you find the car has aged much?
Have done 50k in mine and still love it to bits i have looked at replacing it a few times but cant find anything that comes close especially for the money! It has aged very well i have done a few repairs but nothing unexpected for 80 thou smile

neiljohnson

Original Poster:

11,298 posts

208 months

Thursday 8th July 2010
quotequote all
Max_Torque said:
great cars! and i think so much more honest and credible than the mk2 version.... although i am a little biased as a member of the original small development team on RS with many 000's of happy miles of RS thrashing under my belt:

trip cars catching a little lime light outside Dunton HQ


sunning themselves on the shores of the Adriatic


mountains:


more mountains:


Stelvio:


stuck at the top (pass wasnt fully opened yet, somethings even an RS can't climb ;-):



probably my fav RS pic:



sorry for the thread hijack, but thought you might like to see those pics (never been seen before) and enjoy your car !!!
Dont say sorry tell me more! smile

oj121

1,548 posts

173 months

Friday 9th July 2010
quotequote all
When i get my bumper pay rise in January I can seriously start looking and picing one of these up(or if i win 5K on the lottery tomorrow)

Its nice to see they are ageing very well as they will become a surefire classic in the next 5 years.

i remember

3,296 posts

187 months

Friday 9th July 2010
quotequote all
neiljohnson said:
Max_Torque said:
great cars! and i think so much more honest and credible than the mk2 version.... although i am a little biased as a member of the original small development team on RS with many 000's of happy miles of RS thrashing under my belt:

trip cars catching a little lime light outside Dunton HQ


sunning themselves on the shores of the Adriatic


mountains:


more mountains:


Stelvio:


stuck at the top (pass wasnt fully opened yet, somethings even an RS can't climb ;-):



probably my fav RS pic:



sorry for the thread hijack, but thought you might like to see those pics (never been seen before) and enjoy your car !!!
Dont say sorry tell me more! smile
Me too redface

Why have i never seen these white and black RS's before?

anonymous-user

55 months

Friday 9th July 2010
quotequote all
Those 3 cars were part of the RS development and prototype fleet. The white oldest Attribute Prototype no 3 (AP03), the black Confirmation Prototype No4 (CP04) and the correct coloured blue phase 1 Pre Production no 6 (1PP06). The AP & CP cars were std 3 door foci, with carbon fibre wing and bumper extensions, which actually made them lighter than the production spec steel arched PP cars.

Originally the project was going to be a faily simple turbo engine & body kit job, but pressure from Ford engineering (the original scope saw virtually the complete job farmed out to Tickford) saw the project take on the full mantle of signoff and quality targets & processes, something that contributed to significant delays, but ultimately a better car for sure.

The AP cars were a hoot to drive, especially in there earliest format which did not include throttle based boost control (you could get wheelspin in 4th in the wet!!) AP3 has a tow bar fitted, to enable it to pull a trailer dyno around Nardo for some high temperature engine calibration validation
The cars spent a month or so doing cold temperature & altitude validation in the italian alps (stelvio, passo gau etc) and although very ocasionally overtaken uphill by the odd motorbike, were completely untouchable downhill, with the mega brakes, serious grip and very chuckable handling!

I stil have the log book for 1PP06, and it shows that i drove it for over 8,000 miles during various validation and engineering activities, and like the rest of it's kind, it was failry unceremoniously crushed at the end of the developement activities............. :-(




Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 9th July 22:22

oj121

1,548 posts

173 months

Friday 9th July 2010
quotequote all
Is there anything worth looking for when looking at the focci rs? Any major weakpoints or parts that will start to show age after 7 years?

AshBaldry

364 posts

172 months

Saturday 10th July 2010
quotequote all
Steering wheel gets quite bad,replacements available from Ford smile

John D.

17,971 posts

210 months

Saturday 10th July 2010
quotequote all
Max_Torque said:
Those 3 cars were part of the RS development and prototype fleet. The white oldest Attribute Prototype no 3 (AP03), the black Confirmation Prototype No4 (CP04) and the correct coloured blue phase 1 Pre Production no 6 (1PP06). The AP & CP cars were std 3 door foci, with carbon fibre wing and bumper extensions, which actually made them lighter than the production spec steel arched PP cars.

Originally the project was going to be a faily simple turbo engine & body kit job, but pressure from Ford engineering (the original scope saw virtually the complete job farmed out to Tickford) saw the project take on the full mantle of signoff and quality targets & processes, something that contributed to significant delays, but ultimately a better car for sure.

The AP cars were a hoot to drive, especially in there earliest format which did not include throttle based boost control (you could get wheelspin in 4th in the wet!!) AP3 has a tow bar fitted, to enable it to pull a trailer dyno around Nardo for some high temperature engine calibration validation
The cars spent a month or so doing cold temperature & altitude validation in the italian alps (stelvio, passo gau etc) and although very ocasionally overtaken uphill by the odd motorbike, were completely untouchable downhill, with the mega brakes, serious grip and very chuckable handling!

I stil have the log book for 1PP06, and it shows that i drove it for over 8,000 miles during various validation and engineering activities, and like the rest of it's kind, it was failry unceremoniously crushed at the end of the developement activities............. :-(




Edited by Max_Torque on Friday 9th July 22:22
Interesting stuff.

How do I get into this line of work ears

oj121

1,548 posts

173 months

Saturday 10th July 2010
quotequote all
I think you have to be Sh*tting gold sort of lucky.........

neiljohnson

Original Poster:

11,298 posts

208 months

Saturday 10th July 2010
quotequote all
Max_Torque said:
Those 3 cars were part of the RS development and prototype fleet. The white oldest Attribute Prototype no 3 (AP03), the black Confirmation Prototype No4 (CP04) and the correct coloured blue phase 1 Pre Production no 6 (1PP06). The AP & CP cars were std 3 door foci, with carbon fibre wing and bumper extensions, which actually made them lighter than the production spec steel arched PP cars.

Originally the project was going to be a faily simple turbo engine & body kit job, but pressure from Ford engineering (the original scope saw virtually the complete job farmed out to Tickford) saw the project take on the full mantle of signoff and quality targets & processes, something that contributed to significant delays, but ultimately a better car for sure.

The AP cars were a hoot to drive, especially in there earliest format which did not include throttle based boost control (you could get wheelspin in 4th in the wet!!) AP3 has a tow bar fitted, to enable it to pull a trailer dyno around Nardo for some high temperature engine calibration validation
The cars spent a month or so doing cold temperature & altitude validation in the italian alps (stelvio, passo gau etc) and although very ocasionally overtaken uphill by the odd motorbike, were completely untouchable downhill, with the mega brakes, serious grip and very chuckable handling!

I stil have the log book for 1PP06, and it shows that i drove it for over 8,000 miles during various validation and engineering activities, and like the rest of it's kind, it was failry unceremoniously crushed at the end of the developement activities............. :-(




Edited by Max_Torque on Friday 9th July 22:22
Shame they were crushed cry great to hear about the development of my car thanks thumbup did those cars have the Ford motorsport exhaust manifold??

FRS0557

14 posts

176 months

Saturday 10th July 2010
quotequote all
As above! That's what I was going to ask! Had my FRS since early 2004 and the novelty still hasn't worn off! Thanks for all the info Max beer

anonymous-user

55 months

Saturday 10th July 2010
quotequote all
neiljohnson said:
did those cars have the Ford motorsport exhaust manifold??
There was never such a thing as the "ford motorsport" exh manifold. all development cars had a tubular fabricated manifold, right up to about 8months from job1. But, a car doing durability mileage accumulation at Lommel had a thermal event (industry speak for catching on fire!!) when the prototype fabricated manifold cracked and set fire to the plastic cam cover on the engine (in fact, the car also had the stainless cam cover heat shield missing which compounded the issue). Unfortunately, as a bit of a knee jerk reaction, the descision was made to swap to a cast log type mainfold. This reduced power and torque by approx 18bhp & 30Nm. Those trip cars all started with the tubular manifold, but were modified to the cast item before the final vailidation trips occured.

The production cast manifold certainly slightly blunted the cars performance and turbo spool compared to the original manifold :-(

neiljohnson

Original Poster:

11,298 posts

208 months

Saturday 10th July 2010
quotequote all
Max_Torque said:
neiljohnson said:
did those cars have the Ford motorsport exhaust manifold??
There was never such a thing as the "ford motorsport" exh manifold. all development cars had a tubular fabricated manifold, right up to about 8months from job1. But, a car doing durability mileage accumulation at Lommel had a thermal event (industry speak for catching on fire!!) when the prototype fabricated manifold cracked and set fire to the plastic cam cover on the engine (in fact, the car also had the stainless cam cover heat shield missing which compounded the issue). Unfortunately, as a bit of a knee jerk reaction, the descision was made to swap to a cast log type mainfold. This reduced power and torque by approx 18bhp & 30Nm. Those trip cars all started with the tubular manifold, but were modified to the cast item before the final vailidation trips occured.

The production cast manifold certainly slightly blunted the cars performance and turbo spool compared to the original manifold :-(
scratchchin seems like someone made a stamp up for the ones that appeared a while back on german ebay rolleyes

Shame they didnt have them from the factory but have got one on mine now biggrin must admit it does throw of some heat even with the ceramic coating on it yikes


Like the term 'thermal event' though laugh

anonymous-user

55 months

Saturday 10th July 2010
quotequote all
Now it's possible that those manifolds came from the pair of RS's that ran for a couple of years in the German VLN race series. they were unofficially supported by Ford germany, so it's possible they ranoff a series of "motorsport" manifolds for those cars???

neiljohnson

Original Poster:

11,298 posts

208 months

Saturday 10th July 2010
quotequote all
Max_Torque said:
Now it's possible that those manifolds came from the pair of RS's that ran for a couple of years in the German VLN race series. they were unofficially supported by Ford germany, so it's possible they ranoff a series of "motorsport" manifolds for those cars???
That may explain it there was quite a few that appeared on there & i must admit having seen them they do look very well made smile

Do you still work at Ford??

Black Sport 160

1,575 posts

220 months

Saturday 10th July 2010
quotequote all
I've had this blue warrier right up my chuff on quite a few hoons in the past biggrin

And its quick wink


Neil, you mentioned the 'Tubular manifold'. This isn't the one fabricated by Jim Valentine by any chance, is it?